My Next Five Days

Today- Friday Feb 16th........our debrief. I can do the optional Red & Black Ball. This is where you have to wear read and black. I'm going to pass on that. I will be going to Lapa...the next district by where I am to see the live street shows/music.

The children's Samba Parade is also this evening ....well actually midnight to 6 am...this is when all the parades are. I saw a few of them walking around today after practise. They are sooooooo cute with their teeny tiny costumes and all painted up on their faces!

Saturday... Sugarloaf Mountain and Corcobado (The Statue of Christ) tour...aprx 4/5 hours. I can do an optional tour in the afternoon of seeing a live Soccer match at the Maracana Stadium. Not sure if I will be doing this at this point. I might.

Sunday......The Sambadrome!!!! I guess it takes 3 hours to get there. We are in sector 13 and it's going to be a crazy fun time. This is one of the Samba Parades. A very serious competition where they get judged for the dancing, costumes and music. It continues other nights as well. Tickets to get into these events are extremely expensive. Especially this night.

Monday.....free day and night.....with optional tours of the Jungle near here (jeeps).

Tuesday..........Organized tour to one of the Favelas (shantytowns). A large number of the population live in these. I actually saw a program on 60 minutes or one of those shows on Favelas in Rio. They are run by drug lords and are very dangerous. The 'slums' of Brazil. This is one country where the rich are very rich and the poor are very very poor. The average salary here of someone that works is 250 Reais a month. That's $125.00 USD. Most people get into the life of crime due to necessity.

Later that night we are on a sunset boat crusie around the harbour for about 2 to 3 hours.

One of the big balls in Rio is also on Tuesday night...............the Gay Ball.........not to be missed. It's highly recommended by everyone and I think most of the tour will be going. It's one of those optional tours. I think it's going to cost around $5o USD.......AND ...you have to dress up! I can just pretend it's Halloween in Calgary!

Wednesday is the end of this tour and I will have a pre-departure meeting for my next leg of this trip.

The whole city is shutting down for the next 5 days.

We've already been pre-warned to take out money from ATM's now or exchange money quickly as the Banks are closed until next Wednesday and the ATM's are not serviced during this time.

Everyone is going to be partying!

I love this city!!