Rio’s biggest secret

Welcome everyone! This is my first blog entry ever and it is coming out to you from a hotel room in Catece, Rio de Janeiro – three words that conjured up so much in my imagination. I am now experiencing the opportunity to create my own reality here and it feels so good to have created this situation for myself.

I am on the road for a year after having landed in planet Rio at 10pm on December 15^th 2011. The first thing I did was to check into a hostel called Walk on the Beach, Copacabana (another iconic name which had me singing the Barry Manilow song in my head – more of that later perhaps), dump my bags on a bunk-bed in a 12 bed dorm, meet up with a couple of lads from the UK and go to a party until 5am.  It has been pretty much the same since.

I need to conserve my energy as my plan is to travel from Brazil and head North through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Central America and fly home from Mexico City.  I think I can make it – I have to make it but I expect my best laid plans will be interrupted by that special occasion called life!

To be able to blog on a regular basis one needs to own a laptop - I do not. I had the notion that I could use my iphone to post tweets that would like to Facebook and make everyone at home know I am still safe and sound. It may also result in them exhibiting a feeling of envy but it would never be my intention to illicit such negative emotion. 

This plan suddenly altered when my bag, containing my iphone, camera, guide book, Portuguese phrasebook, wallet and other items was stealthily stolen from the beach as I swam in the beautiful sea at Ipanema Beach (Yet another iconic name and place which reminded me of playing its eponymous song in the concert band at college). Not bad going after only one week! Dealing with loss is something I tried to prepare for but my carelessness was something that surprised me. It was not a disaster but more of a game changer as I am now actually using pen and paper again – quite radical in this day and age of traveller communication technology. What ever happened to telegrams, postcards, snail-mail letters and poste restante ?!

Time will tell which item proves to hold the greatest value but I sure do miss my phrasebook right now.  However, in the process of replacing plastic, my phone and books, I have scoped out more of the city and had to sort stuff out which has been beneficial in understanding more how things work here.

Rio’s biggest secret is that it sure does rain here! A lot of people told me a lot of things but they did not say that the weather could be thundery and torrential. I have been soaked through on at least two occasions trying to make it back from the beach but it matters not because it is all good fun. Mauricio, a great guy from Isreal, who owns and runs the great Pitta takeaway informs me that it is down to La Nina and her capricious oscillations. Please calm it down woman!

New Year’s Eve beckons so my London mate Hass and I are working on that. Here’s to a top 2012 people.

Peace

G