A Favela Party in Rio de Janeiro

Due to spending longer than planning in Sao Paulo I didn't have so much time to get to know Rio de Janeiro, well not as well as I would have liked. I really just saw the tourist side of Rio. We stayed in Copacabana, spent a few days at the beach, went to see Cristo Redentor, went to a street party in Lapa and a favela party. The days at the beach and the street party were pretty uneventful however the favela party was interesting and probably the most intimidating place that I've ever been.

Cristo Redentor

View of Rio from Cristo

Rio de Janeiro Landscape

We'd heard mixed reports about going to the favela, some people (the hostel owner mainly) said it was very dangerous and that we'd get killed or shot, others said it was fine. Some of the guys in the hostel had been there the previous week and they said it was fine and their only advice was to bring ear plugs. Lots of the hostels run tours to the favelas and some of them (not ours) even run mini buses to the favela parties. Personally I'd no interest in doing a tour of a favela, I didn't like the idea of it. It sounded like a safari tour except instead of looking out the window at animals you were looking at people.


So one night we decided to go to a favela party. An american girl who works in the hostel also volunteers in the favela had agreed to take us in. The plan was to meet her outside the favela and then she'd take us into the favela and into the party. There was a bus we could take which would drop us at the edge of the favela but by the time we were all ready we'd missed it  so we needed a taxi. The problem was taxi drivers didn't want to go near the favela. We needed two taxis but we could only find one who'd take us. The rest of them were not interested in the fare to the favela, after about 5 taxis we eventually found someone who was willing to take us.


We met our friend and together we walked about 3 or 4 blocks into the favela to get to the party. We knew we were safe yet it was very intimidating. The favela reminded me of some of the small caotic back streets in Bangkok except more intimidating. Electrical cables hanging very low overhead, rats running around, the fumes from the large number of motorbikes whizzing by, lots of people living life on the street, drinking, eating, taking drugs, selling drugs and all mixed with the smell of food cooking on the curb.


The intimidating aspect of it reminded me of some of the scenes from the wire particularly as there appeared to be children acting as look outs everywhere. Our arrive and passage through the favela was known by everyone due to them whistling. We made it to the entrace to the party, here we were warned by our guide's boyfriend that it would be best not to initiate conversation with anyone in there. His English wasn't so good and we had no portuguese but the general idea was if we started talking to a girl who had a boyfriend (or vice versa) (s)he wouldn't be happy and he'd probably have a gun.


The party was in a club which was a massive warehouse, picture the opening scene from Blade minus the blood. Everyone was searched thoroughly for weapons on the way in. They security was pretty serious, no guns, no weapons and no drugs. As soon as we entered I understood why the guys in the hostel were adamant that we needed ear plugs. The sound was intense, even with ear plugs it was still ridiculously loud. I've never experienced anything like it before. The bar operated in a strange manner, there were a number of guys standing on barrels in the middle of the crowd. You bought a ticket from these and redeemed this for a drink at the bar. Strange but suprisingly it worked very well.


Generally in South America you buy a token at one bar and redeem it for a drink at another which most of the time means you have to queue twice. The only variation on this I saw was in Sao Paulo where you got a card when you entered and whenever you wanted at drink they swiped it and the drinks were added to your bill. At the time we thought this was a great system there were no queues at the bar, the problem was when you wanted to leave. Obviously could no leave until you had paid your bill but when everyone wants to leave around the same time you end up having a massive queue!


Back to the favela party, the music was a mixture of commercial hiphop (50-cent etc.) and brazilian hip hop. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves but still everyone seemed to be on edge. Its hard to describe, everyone seemed to be watching everyone and everyone moved in groups. It was an interesting to see the another side of Brazil, one that is very close to Copacabana yet so far away.

GPS? Shortest Route Possible?

My plan was to take an early morning bus to Rio to avoid arriving at night. Seamus had gone to Rio 3 days before me and we had a flight to mexico so I didn't have much time to spend in Rio. Jordan, an american guy from couchsurfing messaged me to see if I would like to travel with him to Rio. He had just bought a Volkswagen Kombi. His plan was to drive from Sao Paulo to Belem over the next few months. So instead of taking the bus the early morning bus Jordan collected me at my hostel in the afternoon for my first road trip in Brazil. We decided we'd spend one night in Paraty enroute to Rio. Luckily Jordan had invested in a Sat Nav as getting out of Sao Paulo was tough. It guided us well and soon we were heading in the right direction for Paraty.

After about 5 hours we left the motorway and started climbing. I don't know what altitude we were at but we were pretty high. Soon we started descending and the at the same time the road started to detoriate. Eventually there was no road, only a dirt track that was in very bad condition and getting worse. According to the Sat Nav we had about 20km until we would get to Paraty. We were having our doubts about how reliable the sat nav was, we knew Paraty was a little off the beaten track but there were lots of buses that went there and we couldnt imagine them taking this dirt track. It was about 12am at this stage but traveling on the dirt track was very very slow. By 1:30am we'd traveled about 2km. At this point we decided that maybe it was best to find somewhere to sleep and resume in the morning. We'd not seen another car in about 4 hours so just pulled over to the side of the road and slept for the night.

Volkswagen Kombi

Around 7am I woke up to the sound of a truck passing, the guy seemed amused at the 2 gringos asleep in the van. In the light of morning we could see how bad the dirt track was, we were having serious doubts that this was the road to Paraty. Suddenly we hear the sound of another car wanting to pass us out, this time a volkswagen car. We followed them downhill for about an hour. We both concluded that if we hadn't met this car we probably would have turned around and tried to get back to the main road.

The passed us out and lead the way!

They'd obviously driven this route many times before...

We met a few more cars, a motor bike and even passed a shop/bar/restaurant where the guy who had passed us earlier was having a beer. We didn't stop only slowed to say hello. Everyone seemed friendly and amused at the two of us in the van. At least we knew we were heading in the right direction.

The guy on the bike was free wheeling down the hill.

A sharp turn just after the bridge.

Interesting bridge...

The dirt track started to improve and eventually we were on a regular road going towards Paraty. We had breakfast by the beach then spent a few hours exploring the old town in Paraty.

Paraty Old Town

No cars are allowed in the old town.

We decided to ask for some advice on getting to Rio in a hostel. Just to be sure we didn't end up on another dirt track. I explained that we were driving (it is very unusual for a gringo to buy a car in Brazil). The conversation went something like this

Hostel Guy: Oh the drive from Sao Paulo to here is very scenic..
Me: Hmm not the way we came
Hostel Guy Laughing: GPS?
Me: Yes
Hostel Guy: Shortest route possible?
Me: Yes
Hostel Guy: Dirt track down the mountain?
Me: Yes
Hostel Guy: yeah it happens a lot of people....

The Pirate Dance in Brazil

We decided to hire mopeds in Florianópolis as we figured it was the best way to explore the island and some of its 42 beaches. In two days we managed to cover all of the island stopping at various beaches along the way. I recorded the following video at one of the beaches we stopped at. I can’t remember the name of the beach but they have a pirate theme going on all over the town.

Iguazu Waterfalls

On December 26th we left Buenos Aires. We’d been living there for over 3 months but we felt the time was right to do some traveling. So we took a bus from Buenos Aires to Iguazu. It was going to take 18 hours so this time we went for a “Super Cama” bus. It was expensive but everyone had said to try it at least once in Argentina and they were right. Each person has a bed and a television and you get served dinner with wine then champagne and whisky before bed and then breakfast in the morning.


The waterfalls in Iguazu are amazing. I took some photos and videos but they don’t really express how amazing the place is. We spent 8 hours in the park exploring the waterfalls, taking a boat to the island and a train to the other end of the park.

Iguazu falls

The following day we went to Brazil to see the waterfalls from their side. Again they were amazing but slightly different to the Argentine side. On the Brazil side you had a really good view and lots of photo opportunities whereas on the argentine side you had the opportunity to get close to the waterfalls and the surrounding widlife. At times the landscape reminded me of the movie Avatar.

Iguazu looking like Avatar

When we waned to leave Brazil we had a small problem with our passports because we didn’t have a stamp to say we’d entered Brazil. We had taken the public bus to Brazil and it didn’t stop at passport control but the bus we took back did! As a result of this we ended up missing the bus and the next one was going to be more than half an hour. So we decided to walk, it wasn’t that far. It took us about an hour to walk to the Argentine border control. There was a great view from the bridge that you wouldn’t really get to see from the bus.

Argentina/Brazil Border

Brazil/Argentina Border

The next day we went to Brazil again but this time we went to Cuidad del este in Paraguay. This is a place where many people from Brazil and Argentina go to buy things. It reminded me of Bangkok or other cities in Asia. We had dinner in a restaurant and then walked from Paraguay to Brazil this time crossing another bridge that is know as the ‘friendship bridge’.

Brazil/Paraguay Border

Gualeguay and Galarza in Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos is a provence in the north of Argentina, between the parna and paraguay rivers. We went to Entre Ríos one saturday morning, first we had to take a train to Martinez and from there we went by car. We drank mate in the train and also in the car. In Argentina they drink mate all day, everyday and everywhere!

First we went to Gualeguay and bought food for a picnic then drove to a farm close to the Gualeguay river. It took about one hour of walking through fields to get to the river then we stayed there for the afternoon in the sun. Walking, drinking, eating, swimming and drinking more mate and eating facturas.

Gualeguay River

Afterwards we went to Galarza, a small town near Gualeguay. On the way we stopped in a guacho bar but there weren’t any gauchos there at that time of day. We had a beer and bought beef for the asado. The bar was also a shop and a butcher, for some reason it reminded me of the shop in Father Ted.

Bar, shop, cafe, butcher etc.

Then we went to Tommys family farm. We had an asado that night and after went to the local disco. They played cumbia and reggaeaton all night! We decided to leave early, around 5am, early for Argentina but late if you were in Ireland. As we got close to Tommy's house we realised that it wasn't possible to go further in the car. It had been raining all night so we had to abandon the car because it wasn't going to make it up the hill. We took off our shoes and socks in the car and then walked/ran in the rain for about 2 km to Tommy's house.

It was after 7am by the time we got home so we didn't get up until about 2pm the next day. We had lunch outside in the farm. I noticed that they had a motorbike on the farm. Tommy said I could use it if I wanted so I rode around the farm for about an hour or more. I took a lot of photos as it was a sunny day and the landscape looked great in the sun. Thanks to Tommy, Ariel, Seline and Andrea for a great weekend.

Mate for breakfast.

A long lunch on the farm.

A sunny day in Entre Rios

So what do you do?

Seamus called me one day to say that Jason had invited us to an Irish party. He was a bit vague on the details but I said I’d go. Although I had a question.... “Do we need good clothes?” because at the moment the only clothes that I have are tshirts, shorts and jeans.
I was assured jeans and converse would be fine so that night we headed to the party. When we were walking past the hotel (because we couldn’t find it) a guy asked in spanish if we were looking for the Irish party. We obviously look Irish!


The party was on the 6th floor of an Irish hotel. When we walked out of the lift we could see into the party and everyone was in dressed smartly and drinking champagne. The men were in suits and the girls were in dresses. But it was too late, we’d come too far so we had no choice but to go in. Once we entered a guy says hello to us. Seamus say a few words in Spanish but the guy interrupted and said you can speak English if you want cause we’re all Irish here. So we spoke in English, lots of questions about who we are, where we are from and what we were doing in Buenos Aires. Then there was a little silence so Seamus asked him - What do you do? I think this is a very typical question asked by Irish people when they meet someone for the first time. In China they asked how much money do you earn but that’s another story.


Anyhow the guy seemed to think this was a strange question, well based on his facial expression and his reaction. Anyhow he said that there are a lot of people in Argentina with Irish heritage and that there are many people living in Buenos Aires from Ireland. Later we found out that the guy we were talking to was the Irish ambassador in Argentina. I think he assumed that we knew he was the ambassador and thought we were asking what does the ambassador do!In the end we had a good night, we talked lots about Ireland and traveling and so on. There was free champagne, wine and food as well so that helped.


Want Spanish?

Que hacés?

Una día, Seamus me llamó para decirme que Jason nos invitaba a una fiesta irlandesa. Dije que sí pero pregunté: “¿Necesitamos vestirnos mejor?". Porque no tenía buena ropa; solamente remera, pantalones cortos y jeans. Jason me dijo que estaba bien. Más tarde a la noche fuimos a la fiesta. Cuando caminabamos para el hotel, un chico nos dijo: "Fiesta irlandesa?" ¡parecíamos irlandeses!


Tomamos el ascensor al piso 6 y cuando llegamos vimos mucho gente, todos bien vestidos: los chicos de trajes y las chicas devestidos. Ya era tare y habíamos llegado lejos.


Seamus comenzó a hablar en espanol con un chico que nos dije que podíamos hablar en inglés porque éramos todos irlandeses! Entonces hablamos en inglés y el chico nos hizo muchas preguntas. De rempente hubo un silencio y Seamus le preguntó: "Que hacés?”


Creo que el chico pensó que era una pregunta rara. El chico nos contó que en Argnetina había muchas personas de origen irlandés e irlandeses viviendo acá. Después nos enteremos que el chico era el mismísimo embajador y que él pensaba que nosotros lo sabíamos.


Al final la pasamos muy bien, hablamos con mucha gente de Irlanda, comimos mucho (gratis!) y tomamos mucho (tambien libre!).


Want English?