Woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head.
Decided to to the Parc du Catacombo which I assumed had some catacombs. I found out they did not. Audrey, Florent, Vero and I walked to the park around the lake in the middle of Rio. It was raining out which didn’t help my feet in sandals as they were pretty tender from walking in the rain the day before. We started along a nice path and admired the flora and fauna. The lake is quite nice and is surrounded by views of the mountains. In some ways, Rio reminds me of Gaspe.
We finally arrived at the Parc to realize it was closed for some reason. It may have been due to the rain or due to the Reveillon. We then made the ultimate decision to continue around the lake…a 7.5 kilometer walk. Not an easy trek on an empty stomach and wet feet. At the end of the walk, my feet started developing blisters on the toes. Not fun at all. When we got back to the apartment, it was timed nicely as Erica, Philipp and Chris had returned from a disastrous shopping trip where they accomplished nothing.
We picked up some beer and supplies for the night. I was amazed that Erica had some magical account number at the grocery store which got us some discounts on our purchases! I then picked up some band-aids to protect my toes. The thing is, I heard that you should wear footwear in the water at Reveillon as there is glass everywhere in the sand. So this meant continuing to wear those darn sandals.
Upon returning to the apartment, we found tout that we could catch the buses to Copacabana Beach all night long! This allowed us to have a nice pasta dinner and then go swimming again. Rain or shine, we are going swimming every day. Erica did not want to join us as she thought that it was too cold outside at 24 degrees. I find it interesting that as a Canadian, I find the water as warm as it is on the warmest summer day in Canada, but the Brazilians just find it too cold!
The waves were huge this time and you get tired after being pummelled by them constantly. Especially when you get salt water in every orifice of your body. Florent had a waterproof camera used for diving so there are some excellent shots of us in the water.
The guard at our apartment offered to keep our keys for us while we swam but we never realized what he was saying until it was too late. We thanked him upon our return.
Apartments around Leblon area (and pretty well all of Copacabana) are well defended. Each place has iron gates and security guards for each building. While this creates a safe environment, I am constantly reminded by the fact that I am in a potentially dangerous area. However, I do feel safe walking the streets.
We got changed and headed for Reveillon at Copacabana Beach, home of six kilometers of sand, and 3 million party-goers. The streets were full of life as we drove towards one of the biggest parties in the world.
When we got off the bus, we entered into the streets where the entire city was taken over by the thousands. We made our way to the beach where we met up with Alexandre, Diego and Vanessa. Vanessa was one of Erica’s friends that had taken a liking to Erica’s twin brother and there were many times during the night where they disappeared into the crowd. May I also point out that the other guys witnessed him performing the 270, which is a 270 degree spin-kiss. I can’t say I was witness but it was the talk of the town for the rest of the week!
We navigated the crowd to get to a spot on the beach. I can compare the crowd to the KISS concert at Bluesfest this summer. It was crazy. There was a concert going on and supposedly millions of people on the entire stretch of beach. I saw two other concerts within the stretch of beach. We parked ourselves around dancing locals and had a great time waiting for the fireworks.
Considering I don’t know how the countdown from 10 to 1 sounds like in Portuguese, the only indication that something was going on was the explosion of champagne bottles and fireworks. Kisses went around as well as some champagne in the hair. A crazy fight between two women broke out in front of us. This was a From Russia With Love fight to the death where at one point one of the women had the other in a choke hold! It was a strange fight as they would stop and argue once in awhile. We realized that they must have been high on something, and it wasn’t the fireworks! I joked that they were fighting over the opportunity to speak with Chris Soulpatch.
The fireworks were spectacular…imagine the end of Canada Day fireworks happening across the sky for twenty minutes. I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of colour to the fireworks.
Later on, we lit a candle on the beach which is part of the religious experience of Reveillon. Erica explained to me that by lighting a candle, we have opened the area around us to a ceremony where people would dance around. We started off the dance and before you knew it, there were others who joined in showing off their dance moves. Vero loved this. She even learned a few new moves from the locals that I’m sure she will pull out at the next Canadian wedding.
At one point, a man asked me what the significance of the two candles were. We had shaped them like breasts and told him so. I brought Chris over to further explain and we realized we were quite stupid to suggest that a religious ceremony could be demeaned so. Erica explained that the candles can signify whatever we wish in the New Year.
An interesting quandary is how to urinate amongst millions of people on the beach. The answers lies in the water. Armed with my sandals (in fear of cutting feet on glass), we went into the water to offer some flowers (an offering to the Goddess of the Sea) as well as myself offering something else to the ocean. I can’t say we were the only ones…out of millions of people, I would estimate that only 100 stay on the beach all night long! At some point they always come into the water! Scientifically, there is no real harm in swimming around in this either. You’re probably more prone to getting a rash from lake water than a giant ocean!
The water was quite full of trash, however. At one point, I joked with Vero that a condom had landed on her shoulder. There was garbage everywhere we swam.
We went back to the candle pit and enjoyed the night of reverie which included Skol beer, Chris’s overpriced Bohemia beer, dancing with the locals and listening to live music. Giant video screens showcased some crazy belly dancing on stage. Can I point out how amazing it is to celebrate New Year’s without snow?
The second shameful moment of the night happened when we were packing up to leave around 4AM. Chris had joked about swimming the area with a candle between his butt cheeks. We then had him pull down his shorts to get a photo of a candle sitting above his cheeks. All innocent fun until we noticed someone came over to Diego and began pointing at Chris looking annoyed. We then both realized what we were doing may be considered sacrilege and felt pretty bad. We apologized to Diego and he said it was not a big deal and we should not worry about it. We continued to apologize profusely about how we didn’t want to taint a religious symbol and he smiled and said it wasn’t the candle that the man was annoyed with, it was the white ass hanging out in front of his kids at 4AM! We felt a lot better after that, although it was a good lesson in what *not* to do in a foreign country.
Another point: The tide came in and started sweeping everyone’s stuff away, glass bottles included. Very scary.
We took the bus back and hunted for a bite to eat while Chris & Phil passed out. Vero and I opted for a slice of pizza. Funny enough, the takeout box was lined with foil which made no sense to me considering we were sitting in 30 degree weather and Canada can only afford cardboard boxes.