Day 39

On the first night we were here I badly misjudged everything about Rio and Lapa. Sure the tourist myth exists, but it is an insignificance swallowed by the passion and vibrancy of this incredible city. I learnt all this in a few short hours with Jamie and a mini-tour of a small Bohemian area near his house. Before that we just passed the time at the hostel and walked through more rain to meet him. The English musicians, Lawrie and Ollie, are staying at his as well so it should be fun to hang around with them.

At Jamie's apartment we lounged around for a few hours, essentially preravicating over what to eat. During these afternoon hours a few monkeys appeared in the trees outside the back of his house, scuffling and bounding through the branches of different trees and bushes. So I saw no monkeys in the Amazon but three in Rio.

Eventually we steeled ourselves to eat and picked some stuff up from a market down the road. I don't think I have properly given an account of how bad the weather has been, basically since Joao Pessoa. Save a few hours of sun in Salvador and a bright day in Olinday it has been just cloudy days punctuated with showers. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that Brazilians just don't go out, don't do anything, if its raining. Thats part of the reason the attendance at the Maracana was so poor, and why Rio feels quiet today.

However the afternoon/evening was dry and we walked up a hill to Santa Teresa. From a height it is much more appreciable just how stunning Rio is. How is such a vast city built in amongst Glencoe-esque mountains? Everywhere nature and man contest an overheated battle; the houseless mountains and omnipresent trees a physical emblem of nature's inneffable power compared with the piled high man-made structures which sometimes coat and often imitate them.

From our high vantage point we spied over the glittering, effervescent mass of humanity, ,cut into the rives and sea at various junctions. After admiring the distant Cristo Redentor, at one point backed by a glaring pink sky, we took a tram tour of the area for virtually nothing. Everywhere you look Rio teems with interest and life, now I realise how people dall in love with the place; it has peerless beauty in every possible was, in every direction you look.

After a quick dinner at Jamie's we hopped down to another small samba bar in Lapa where the music just thrilled the entire audience. Even more so than last night this was rootsy, raw samba. A small, bare, bar steadily filling with swaying figures and the effortless, seizing momentum of the live band. Jamie's two English friends fell in love with samba a few yeras ago and are now the best players in London apparently. It is easy to see how, once it starts, you can't bring yourself away. So now for two nights i na row we've delved further into the true heart and character of Rio de Janeiro, and moved further away from the booze-laden gringo black holes that were so unedifying on Friday night. This is why we were so lucky to meet Jamie, such a friendly guy who is so involved and engaged with life here.