Tue, 28 Dec 2004 03:38:09 -0800 (PST)
Another Brazil Update

So, I have now been in Rio just over a week and have seen a few more interesting things.

I have been hanging out a little bit with a big monsterous American guy who has an IQ of a clam, but who also used to be on the American Olympic Bobsled team. About a week ago, him and I signed up for a ¨flavela¨party , which is basically a party in the slums surrounding Rio. We got there, and there and on the street there were piles of garbage almost up to the roof of some buildings. The organizer guy told us as we went in to be careful of transvestites as they can be very convincing. We then went inside a large warehouse via the VIP line since we probably paid 100x what the locals did. The entire building and neighbourhood was shaking with the volume of the music coming out of the warehouse. As we entered, I could feel the music vibrating every organ in my body -- luckily I had brought earplugs with me (I am 32 now!), and I put them in and my ears were saved. I am sure that most people who go there regularly must be nearly deaf. As the night went on, the American guy (Rick) met a really beautiful Brazillian girl who he started dancing with, and then started kissing .... well, of course after a few minutes of that when he stopped to get some air, the local Brazilians told him that he had actually been kissing a man!

A few nights ago my friend Elias arrived from Toronto. We decided to go from our hotel in Copacabana to a club in Ipanema (two of the nicest and richest neighbourhoods in Rio). On the way there as we were passing through a tunnel trough a small mountain between the two neighbourhoods, a lot of the cars in front of our taxi started pulling over and slowing down ... we couldnt really tell what was going on, and our taxi kept moving on through the tunnel .... next thing we heard was two gun shots. Both Elias and I ducked our heads down in the back seat, and Rick just sat there looking dumb. After that I asked the Taxi driver what that was, and she said ¨Thats Rio¨.

After we got to the club, they told us there is a minimum charge of 30 reals (like 10 bucks), which was no problem. So we had a few drinks, and Rick went to pay, and instead of being 30 reals (cause he had only spent 26), they charged him 56 ... turns out that if you spend less than 30 then they charge you the cover charge plus your drinks, and if you spend more than 30 than you just pay for the drinks (only in latin america!) .. so after I realized this, we argued with the guy about our bills for about 20 minutes, and finally they added a few drinks on (that we didn-t drink) to bring us up to the minimum of 30. Typical Latin American way of thinking!

Today I am going to go to a beach town called Buzios. Should be a nice place!