Esther's Adventure

Oi Tudo bem? ...

So we're on the bus to Rio and it's OK except that it`s 22 hours. We take our usual tranquilizers and bed down for the night. British airways eye masks and blankets. In the middle of the night, not sure what time, I'm awoken from a deep sleep by a sharp prodding on my shoulder. The bus is pitch black but I can just about make out a woman or girl. she speaks to me in broken English which i can't understand because I'm totally out of it and have a nodding dog head. If she could see my eyes they´d be rolling to the back of my head. I try explain that i don't understand . It feels like I'm speaking with a sponge in my mouth. She disappears to the back of the bus only to reappear about 5 mins later with a letter written on the back of an envelope. She thinks I'm American and she wants to know if I can help her get work there. She has given me all her coordinates and explains she just wants to learn English there. It´s heart wrenching and I'm really not in a fit state to do anything apart from pass out again, I fold the letter and place it in my bag. I'll email her later and explain I can't really help. How desperate. It freaks me out a bit, but makes me realise how lucky we are to have what we've got. When I wake in Rio its feels like the thing was a weird dream, but I still have the letter, a very real dream. We fall off the bus and get our backpacks. Unfortunately mine is dripping wet, and if that wasn't bad enough it stinks of god knows what. I cant bear it, you know what I'm like about stains on things. I'm so upset I can bearly breathe and storm off to the baniero to try and dry some of it off. My new back pack!!! I'm so precious :o( , OCD?! Sort it out Esther.

Ill never know what the spillage was except that I think it was rotten fruit, so at least not milk or eggs or something worse. Although I'm still speechless about my bag, M and I are back in our fave RIO! and we're so well versed now in bus travel we're practically "on the buses". We're old pros! Straight onto a bus to Ipanema and straight to Louis Vuitton, sorry Ipanema beach house. We get there and can't have the original room with the en suite so we settle for room E with air con. Hang on though, it's a mixed dorm??. Ok this is a bit strange. How are we supposed to change? Etc. This is very apparent to M who has realised, well it's been suspected for a while now, that the "travel TOWEL" she bought from Muji. Is actually a travel tea towel. Plus it's like that glossy loo paper that makes you wetter than you actually are. It's crapola. She opts to hire a towel from the hostel for the duration. We also have a new trick up our sleeve which is the bed sheet toga. You get a nice clean sheet from each hostel to sleep under. M loves swanning around wearing hers toga style, plus it makes a good personal changing room.

We have rather a lot of honking laundry to do, so go off for a wander to find Wash Club, a great laundry come internet place. We drop our stuff off and when we come back later to collect it we bring our cameras and some CDs to upload photos on. Of course the computer is all in Portuguese so I have to enlist the help of the nice wash club man to help me do this. Now what are the chances that out of 400 odd photos that I need to save onto a disk, the ones that pop up on the screen whilst he's helping are naked shots of my glow in the dark boobs!! Fuck, I just sit there and go red. I look even more sun burnt. Life is too funny! When I leave he just laughs and says he'll help if I have more photos!

Still haven't uploaded any photos, sorry. I seem not to be able to do it. Every time I try either the internet is shit or it just a hassle. Back in Rio we again do the Christ Redeemer trip. So worth it. Hot day and amazing views of Rio. Its just breathtaking. Promise those photos soon!!!

I'm going through a rather argumentative period with my hair at the moment, we're just not getting on. I wash it and then leave it to dry naturally. It's really wavy and big. Plus the neat fringe cut I got before I went away, which looked great with nicely straightened sleek hair, sort of all choppy. Now in its natural cow lick state, has turned into a sort of side quiff. Most unattractive. M says she likes it (I hope she means it), but I'm just not sure. Even George said..."whats goin on with your hair?!" ... actually he said he also liked it. Don't believe him.

We end up with two boys in our room called Frank and Bram. Frank's Irish and Bram's Dutch. They met in Itacare and are hilarious. Basically M and I boss then about and wind them up. We love it and they love it! So we're all happy.

On the Saturday we organize to do a favela tour. We go with a company recommended in Footprint and head out to Rochina which is the biggest favela in Rio and home to estimated 200000 people. Incredibly it's not marked on any Rio map and the government won't acknowledge its existence officially. Actually the main road into the favela, is now officially recognised as a road, because a bank opened a branch there. The rest of the favela which is massive and covers many hills over looking other very wealthy parts of Rio, just doesn't exist. It's crazy. It's a very enlightening tour and we learn how each favela is governed by drug lords and although there is no normal police prescence we're safe because essentially they need to keep the state happy, so they can continue their drug dealing in safety. Killing tourists isn't good for business.

We are still obsessing about favelas when we decide to do a favela funk party on the Sunday eve. Whata mistaka to maka. Hideous. We get somewhere, apparently a favela but its just a massive dance hall full of about 2000 sweaty blokes and girls all gyrating to crap music. We have VIP tickets which basically entitles us to stand in a cattle pen area. Awful, and we last about 10 mins before we jump in a cab and head home. Oh yeah the DJ is called DJ PHABYO! Say no more.

To do list:
How can I live in Rio? I love it
Photos
Join AA (Acai anonymous)
Update blog better.
Try not to stand on the back of M's flip flops.

NB...
I spend the first hour at the hostel showering my backpack and trying to rid it of smell. I the leave it out to dry in the sun. Its fine now.
M´s ear infection still there, slowely getting better.
M wishes she cuold update her facebook status: "stuck in Favela traffic jam"...
The weather is a bit crap.
Nathan (another dorm recruit) trying to open a velcro pouch slowly and quietly in the dorm, - M´s shout of "just open the fucking thing will you!!!"
I'm peeling and have attractive tan "hole" on right arm.
Time is flying.
Missing everyone a lot.

xxxxx