Rio

Cuba. The adventure that keeps giving. Turns out that having visited Cuba any time after 2021 invalidates ones' ability to obtain an ESTA. What does that mean? Well it means I need to apply for an American Tourist Visa, the old fashioned way. In-person at the U.S Consulate, or U.S Embassy. I was completely unaware of this until my ESTA was denied. Which, could be problematic in the future. Regardless, the reason for applying for an ESTA was to get to South America. The furthest place in the world from Asia. Flying time takes approximately 22 hours depending where in South America you want to end up. Typical routes from Asia are through the Americas, the Middle East or round through the Pacific. Given that options one and two were effectively off the table I opted for the route via Santiago and Sydney.

I depart Hong Kong on the CX flight at 9:20 pm on Thursday 26th of March, arrive into Kingsford Smith Airport on Friday, a quick KFC two piece feed and I board the (delayed) flight to Santiago around midday on the 27th. 15 or so hours later I arrive into Santiago having missed my interconnecting flight to Rio due to previous delays. However the staff at LATAM are extremely helpful and put me on the next, albeit indirect flight (via Sao Paolo) to Rio. I eventually arrive into Rio at around 9 pm on the Friday, 27th of March. Some 30 odd hours since I left Hong Kong.

So you might ask, what are you doing in South America? How did Jen allow this? All valid questions. In conjunction with the below photos. This was a final trip before little mate. Some of my friends from LA, NY were doing a wine trip down in Mendoza, first stop Rio De Janiero. Nice long run, some sushi, a bit of sight seeing and an old fashion gay warehouse party. Not sure how I'm going to shake this jetlag.

In Rio, still...

This post has been modified if only to save myself the incessant worry that this may generate. This isn't to sensationalise my trip nor am I after sympathy. So without any motive other than to describe the 8th of May here are the details of my last day in Rio. This day, like most other days began in typical fashion, the alarm on my phone went off waking me from the patchy sleep that I had become so used to whilst in Brazil. I should have know from the onset that today was not to be my day. Arriving before 8 am at Ipanema Beach I was once again notified that school had been cancelled and that my last day of volunteer work would continue the already consistent trend. I bid farewell to the School Professor and left the beach immediately as not to waste my final day. Having come to expect minor setbacks I had already devised a contingency plan. It would play out as follows, spend the morning exploring Lagóa the main lake of Rio before spending half the day at Copacabana Beach, followed by a Brazilian BBQ for lunch and then finally watch sunset at Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar).

At around 11:30 am I emerged from the Copacabana waters a little disorientated, the sea was definitely too rough today and I had been bullied about by the waves like a rubber duck. The weather conditions by the sea weren't so good so I made my way back to the paved promenade of Copa. I sat on a stone bench with my belongings scattered about on the seat and the floor. It was then I noticed that there was one particular person idling around, I paid no attention to him. This would be my first and crucial mistake in Brazil, complacency had been absent from my entire trip and it would get me on my last day. Casually he approached me and asked me for the time (in Portuguese), I showed him my watch. Actually this is the watch I had bought second hand from an ex-employee just so I could tell the time and use it under water, I think I picked it up for 20 bucks. Ignoring this I went about drying myself off and readying myself to put my clothes back on. Within minutes the same time-querying character was in my face yelling "Money! Give me your money!". Now, in any ordinary situation I would not pay attention to him, it was in the middle of the day and I was caught off guard! Initially I ignored him and told him "Sorry I got nothing", but he was persistent "Money!" yelling and screaming but not loud enough to attract attention from others. At this point in time I figured I would just get my stuff together and leave this crazed bastard, what I didn't realise was that there were two of them, as I stood up the other guy blocked my escape and screamed "Money!".

What actually happened is that since I did not want any confrontation I decided just to give them what they wanted as not to provoke them. Fortunately for me I usually split my money up into two lots, so in my pocket I usually keep a couple of bucks. Which was advised to me by the Volunteer coordinator, "Keep a little bit of money in your pocket in case you get robbed, just give them the small change". Unfortunately for me, I had just gone for a swim so my small change was actually tucked away with my camera! Nuts, not wanting to draw attention to my camera I had to sacrifice 50 Reals (approximately $30 AUD). Apparently 50 Reals wasn't enough so they began and after I told them that was all I had they started gesturing for my watch. Knowing it had no value other than being waterproof I gave that up as well. Within seconds they were off and soon nowhere to be seen, looking around I noticed that there were people within 10-20 metres of the scene each oblivious to what had just happened. Now the monetary value of my loss isn't high, it was just the hassle of the situation.

Again as I write this, I replay the hypothetical situations out many times and each time the ending is different. People ask me "Did they have any weapons?", no. "Were there other people around?", yes. "Why didn't you make a scene or start screaming?", to be honest I'm not too sure. I guess I was a perfect target and got caught up in the situation. So that being said, I emerged unscathed bar being a little shocked. After that, I caught a bus back home gathered more money and continued on with my initial plan of Sugar Load at sunset.

Theoretically if all had gone to schedule I should have already been in the London by now and things may well have been different. As you can see, things haven't quite gone to plan, but I still hold no regrets. The reason for my extension of the trip is a mixture of procrastination and reluctance. I guess I wasn't completely ready for settling back down into the regular churn of life and that was the main reason for postponing my arrival. So, here I am still in sunny Rio with an adjusted plane ticket extending my South American adventure by a couple of weeks. I'm now due to fly out from Buenos Aires and arrive at Heathrow on the 17th of May. So all I have to do is get to the Buenos Aires International Airport for my flight on the 16th.

How I get there is up to me, so long as I'm in Argentina or more specifically Buenos Aires on the 16th of May for my flight out. With this extra buffer I have decided to make my way down through Iguazu Falls before making my way through to Argentina. Mode of transport is a 22 hour bus ride from Rio de Janeiro to Foz do Iguaçu (the Brazilian side of the falls). I've been told that despite being long (duh), the scenery and landscape along the road trip is worth every one of the 200 Reals (approximately $130 AUD). So at 11:15 today I will embark upon the longest bus ride of my life. I have mentally prepared myself for the trip and have packed my bag full of snacks and fluids. To go with the condiments I will be bringing aboard with enough entertainment to last a game of Test Match cricket. Hopefully the next you hear from me I should be at the intersection of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Até Logo!

Sights of Rio de Janeiro

Botanic Gardens:

Bonde (Tram) to Santa Theresa:

Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar):

Lapa Aqueduct:

Lapa Steps (Featured in Snoop Dogg and U2 music clips):

Lapa on a Friday night:

Copacabana Beach:

Ipanema Beach gym:

Restaurant where the song Girl from Ipanema was written:

Christ (O Cristo Redentor):

Misc:

Bjj:

Rio by sunset:

Work experience at a surf school in Rio

So here it is, my assessment on the Volunteer work that I was assigned to. For those not in the know the project (or my excuse) for choosing to spend two weeks in Brazil was Work Experience at a Surf School in Rio. The prerequisite of this project were:

"Basic Brazilian Portuguese and/or Intermediate Spanish is strongly recommended, otherwise volunteers may find communication difficult. Enthusiastic, hardworking and committed volunteers are needed."

It was true, I had (and still have) no Portuguese speaking skills the only thing I was banking on was enthusiasm and a passion to learn surfing. "But how can you teach kids to surf when you yourself don't know how to surf?" was the common cry. The project description then goes onto say:

"It is recommended that you are a reasonable swimmer with a strong interest in surfing!"

So armed with nothing but being able to swim and an interest in surfing I enlisted in this project and soon found myself in Rio de Janeiro working at Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro.

The Surf school is run by a local that goes by the name of Jean (better known as "Shrek"). The aim is to provide Surf school lessons to the local youth as to provide an alternative means to keep them occupied during their time off from school. As many kids are easily influence by gangs and other malicious activities giving them the opportunity to surf is a means of getting them off the street. Each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday they have classes from 8-10 am and 2-4 pm. The role of the volunteer is to support Shrek with board maintenance as well as helping him take the warm ups and support the kids in the ocean.

Sounds good in theory, so here's my take on the project. Like all volunteers I was also given a nickname. Mosquito, I'm not too sure if he has any basis for giving nicknames other than picking words from his limited English vernacular. In any case I can't think of any positive reasons to being called an annoying pest. My first lessons took place one overcast day, I was immediately asked to throw on a wetsuit top that had the words "Professor" scrolled across the chest. What took place was my very first surfing lesson, despite being one of the most tiring activities I did manage to catch a couple of waves in what would be a rewarding experience. It would have helped if I knew some portuguese although the two words that I did manage to pick up were: paddle ("remo") and stand up ("estande"). The thing that humoured me was that most of the kids on that day were better surfers than I. How would I be assisting?

The kids that I was lucky enough to interact with were all male in the age bracket from 8-14. Despite having limited English they appeared to be extremely enthusiastic in the presence of an English speaking volunteer, they constantly tried to speak the language and tried to make jokes each trying to make me laugh to impress me. Of the few that I did speak to, many of them complained of being hungry and having no money to buy food. Some of the kids went around asking the other surfers for food, one even managed to steal some packets of Mayonnaise from a local beach vendor and greedily sucked them down. It does play on your mind and instinctively you want to buy them food although I'm not too sure what they expect from you. I found it easy to just bring a packet of biscuits so that they could share amongst each other after each lesson.

It was a case of being unlucky. I would have to use one word to describe the experience, frustrating. Not because of what I was supposed to do but what I could actually do. Over the course of the 2 weeks I was 'penciled' in to help with 6 days. What wasn't clear to me was that during the 2 weeks that I was here, Rio De Janeiro had 3 public holidays, 2 of which overlapped on my days down at Ipanema. Consequently classes were not on on those days. Perhaps the most annoying thing but most obvious reason for interruption was the weather or surf conditions. Classes aren't held if it's raining or if the water is too rough to surf in, which makes entire sense. Unfortunately for me, this scenario played out more than once.

Of the 2 weeks I was scheduled to help out, I only managed to help one class, my first and only day. I think it's a combination of things which makes it frustrating, waking up early to get to Ipanema by 8 only to be told that classes aren't on then trying to occupy the rest of the day with sightseeing. The other thing is having the intent to help the local community only having it blow up in your face.

The only saving grace is that Rio De Janeiro is a beautiful city with many things to keep the senses occupied and stimulated. My volunteer work has been less than memorable, since extending my South American trip I plan to head to Ipanema once more; hopefully, just hopefully I'll be able to participate in one last class.

Seen one garden, you seen em all...

What has become a reoccurring theme here in Ipanema, bad weather conditions had once again prevented the Surf School from opening. This time it wasn't the surf that was proving the problem but the weather. The heavens opened and lashed the shores with wind and water. I was caught unprepared, no umbrella and no towel. Completely drenched I headed back to Gloria for refuge from the weather. There I sat in the empty house, maids and cleaners scurrying around. It was to be another unproductive day, as I sat in the room I went through the Lonely Planet for something to do, it was only 11:00 am and I wasn't prepared to waste another day in Rio. So I decided, in torrential rain to check out the Botanical Gardens, also known as Jardim Botanico.

Popped on to the Metro and caught the first train to Botafogo before jumping on the Metro Bus to Jardim Botanico. In total I spent close to 1 hour walking through the various sections of the garden, majority of the walkways were flooded and was not the most pleasant walk especially in Haviananas. Snapped a couple of photos and was soon out of there.

So here comes the best part of the day, if not one of the best parts of my trip. Brace yourself, it was more of a part motive for traveling to Brazil but I was about to participate in my first Brazilian JiuJitsu (BJJ) lesson. Down the road from where we stay along the main strip of shops is a small dance studio which for the most part holds ballet lessons. However every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday Professor Richardo takes the school for BJJ. It's a stark contrast, while sitting in the room waiting for the class to start Classical music boomed through the corridors until at around 8:30 pm a couple of not-so graceful students walked through the door.

The class itself is small, 3 other students of varying grades. Initially I was forced to speak to him and give him details through one of the ballet teachers who spoke perfect English. I managed to get to him that I trained back in Australia and wanted to take a couple of lessons while I was in town.

To be honest, it was possibly the most fun I've had all trip in Rio. The kids were young and exuberant and I tried my best to communicate with them, throwing limited phrases of Portuguese as they tried to speak English. Plenty of smiles and laughter. The teacher was quite cautious with my training, I think he wanted to gauge what level I was at. Warm up consisted of pummelling, arm drags and back control. Technique was passing guard or "passa guarda", couple of arm locks and basic mounting. Despite being basic techniques I still had fun watching him take the class. The class finished with a roll which he must have gone no more than 10% letting me finish him off with a simple arm bar. I cannot wait for the next lesson!