The woman in question was one of Rio's foremost performance artists. Michel, Gabby and Miguel had brought me to a tiny exclusive party where she was demonstrating her latest piece. It was a great example of the eclectic time I've been having in this city - from lazing on the beautiful beaches of Ipanema, to exploring the frenetic festival of São Cristovão .
Rio is truly beautiful. In the day, the skies are almost invariably clear, and the sun shines dazzlingly down over the perfect beaches and sparkling sea. At night, the city lights up, and if you're lucky enough to have a good enough view, the lights of the favellas make it look like the stars have fallen from the sky and are clinging to the mountainsides in their multitudes.
The beaches are as amazing as I'd always heard described. The sand is wide and perfect, and the sea is as clear as Kenya - all this less than 30 seconds walk from the hotels of the city! There's always something going on too, from beach football, to surfing, to the regulars topping up their tans (the Brazilian beach girls are, also, everything that I've heard described).
The whole of the city has a crazy juxtaposed beauty. The streets are pretty dirty, for example, but this lack of care has allowed the most amazing culture of graffiti to emerge. It's literally a world apart from the stuff you see around England. I'll post some pictures, but I haven't had a chance to photo any of the best stuff.
The festival of São Cristovão, where I spent the night before last, was amazing. It felt like an eclectic cross between Camden market, a folk music festival and a huge local food fair - all running from 7pm to 11am the next day. It's a big celebration of the local culture from the north-east of Brazil, so cue loads of crazy music, hugely skillful samba and food that was as good as I've come to expect from Rio (this afternoon I ate at a great little place that charged you by the kilo!)
So, other than exploring the depths of this city - on the excellent advice of Michel, Gabbi and Miguel - I've been talking to as many people as I can about how I should spend the next couple of months in the country. I've actually come up with what seems like a pretty epic plan; I'll post about it when I've sorted out the details.
Rio is fun.
Cash machines are feisty in Brazil.
Mr Dog is cool and all, but he's no Mr Lady.
Graffiti
This really isn't even the best stuff. I'd love to get a picture of some of the huge, wall long murals.
2 comments:
Wow Felix, this is making me green with envy! It sounds awesome and you have such balls to be doing it all! Carry on having a great time, I'm sure you will ;) xxxxx
nice post ,really gr8 pics .
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