Bjorn's Report

June 20, 2007

 ..RIO DE JANEIRO, RIO DE JANEIRO

Well I left you all the day i arrived from Curitiba....

Well after arriving wedsday night at 12, i had about 23 hours till my trip to RIO DE JANEIRO. so that day i grab some new clothes, surprisingly went to skool....why i dont know, and that ngiht headed to a local bar to say good-bye to an american girl who was headin home on sunday. after chillin in the bar for a couple hours our Van arrived. so at 11pm we headed out to RIO DE JANEIRO. A short driv eof 14 hours in a cramped van was fun....i can recite every word form the Lord of the rings triology now................... well we finally arrived in RJ (Rio de JAneiro) at about 1pm. We stayed in a nice hostel in the neighboorhood of Lapa, (located just outside downtown). the first day we met up with our tour guide/friends friend who lives in RJ so we could get some good adive on where the good places are to visit and party in RJ. In the afternoon we headed to a nice bar and watched the Brasil, England game, which ended 1-1, after that we heade dback to the hostel took showers and got ready for the night. On the first ngiht we headed out to a club which had samba and pagode music, it was really fun but by 2am, everyone was dead from our 14 hour van ride.

Saturday we hoped to go to the Christ and the Sugarloaf, but the weather had other plans. So all got ready by 10 and headed to the Theatro Municipal where we watched an orchastra perform. i must say it was quite amazing. After that we we headed to Ipanema beach. the the weather wasnt nice we still to a dip into the sea. after messing around for while we headed back to the hostel and got ready for the night. Once everyone was ready we headed to a Mall for some shopping (all the stores were closed when we got to the mall)and dinner. After eating we headed to another club which had all types of music. Thsi time though everyone last the night and we returned home at 4am.

Sunday arrived and but the sun was still late. so around 12 we headed to a little fair in Ipanema called ferias dos hippies da ipanema. there we bought nice little suvoniers and junk. After that we headed to Maracana stadium, on of the largest stadiums in the world, capable of holding 110,000 people. We watched a derby game (a game between two teams form the same city) of Vasco da Gama and Flumanise, two teams from RJ. the fans were crazy always singing and cheering. When ever a goal happened the stadium erupted firecrackers went off and the smoke from flares began to fill the stadium with smoke. The game ended in a tie and everyone left peacefully. That ngiht we headed to a nice pizza place and then headed to an Irish Pub which had more people speaking English then brasilians, it was quite funny.

Monday we awoke to the bright sun in our eyes and packed up our bags and got everything into the Van. We first headed up to the Christ at about 9am. there we took many fotos and enjoyed the veiw of my new most favorite city in the world!! words cannot desribe this cidade maravilhosa. After sooking up the views we headed to Sambodromo. For thoughs who dont know Sambodromo is the large street with stadium stands all around it. Carnaval in RJ takes place here, its th eplace where the people wear crazy costumes and dance around. For just 2 reais we wore the crazy costumes and had a good time (see fotos). After Sambodromo, we headed to COPACABANA, the most famou beach in RJ, there me and the other three guys on the trip had lunch on the beach with people playing pagode for us, it was quite amazing. After lunch we met up with the girls and went for a swim. the water was very rough wiht waves a good 8-10 feet overhead. our final stop of the day was the sugarloaf, where got the amazing chance to see all of RJ while the sun was setting. the views were breathtaking. nobody could seem to describe the beauty of the City.

after about an hour on the sugarloaf we all packed into the van had headed home...ending our amaizng stay in RIO DE JANEIRO................