I just wrote half a bloody page and then it all disappeared... god damnit damnit damnit... oh well... so here we go again... ill save a bit more often... lesson 1..
So what i was trying to say, I would have loved to have some photos going with this entry, but having been robbed again.. thankfully not by a 12 year old girl this time, cause that was just embarrasing.. of my camera.. im gonne have to do my best to make justice to some of these happenings with words.. it aint gonne be easy, cause it has been bloomin marvellous!! By far the city of Rio de Janeiro.. or the marvellous city as they so aptly call it has been dishing up one great night after the other.. just when you think it cant get any better, you are at the front of a carneval procession dancing the samba with the samba queen.... how on earth did my life come to this :) I have been so happy its gonne be hard to describe, but anyway,im gonne give it a my very best shot..
So one of the nights which I thought was not gonne possible ever gonne be beaten, Davide, Marco (D&M from here on) are having a festive dinner in our gorgous flat (on the 13th floor with stunning panoramic views over ipanema beach... how Marco sorted this out is a mystery to me, but i shall be forever grateful).. anyway, in ticks a message from Tee, the San Fransciscian DJ and resident carioca (carioca being someone from Rio.. either by birth or spirit.. or both)... asking if we would like to join him, Nadia and Steve to a favela funk party.. 'Fuck Yeah' is my immediate response... D&M on the other hand are a bit more apprehensive.. as a seasoned carioca myself by now (20 days in total after all) and a day trip to the favla in question with Tee (which by the way, was amazing.. so friendly, relaxed and so alive!!) I thought this has gotte be unmissable, whilst D&M were more worried having come straight of the plane pretty much.. however, i managed to persued them (very easily i should add) and a short while later Tee and his posse stood at the door, we had a few drinks, admired our view (every day, all the time) and then off we went in one of the vans continuesly driven between the favlas, the blocos, Ipanema.. whereever things happen or people need to go, by some very hard working and entreprenurial young guys.
Arriving in the favela late at night is almost like stepping into a film set (not that I ever have, but i have read that sentence many times, and it seems suitable for this purpose). There are people hanging around everywhere, mostly young at this time of night. Its a bit dark, its dusty, its a bit run down, but its alive, and there is anticipation in the air (probably coming from us). Some kids hanging on some stairs shouts at us to speak English, which apperently is very funny.. Tee obliges and starts rapping at them in his Californian drawl..the kids love it and Im feeling tremendously cool.. Steve nearly gets knocked over by the moto guys.. Young guys riding up and down on their motorcross bikes, through the narrow lanes of the favela dropping people off after a hard day at work (ive been on the back of them twice, both quite hair raising, more so the second time, with a beer can in each hand, a carnival hat and a helmet that kept riding up my face.. haha..well that was another party, another night, another story...)
... then we get to the party, the boys gets frisked and Nadia and I are ushered in the ladies entrance.. think we are the only westerners there... and OOOH MYYYYY GOOOOD!!!!! The music... it hits you like i dont know.. a tonne of bass.. inside it is litturally a wall of speakers.. and not a small wall.. its bloody HUGE.. im guessing 10-15 sq. metres... its so loud its actually physically painful... but oh so so so good!!!! the UK health and safety would have shut it down in a second.. how these people are not deaf i have no idea... There are 3 djs in 3 corners of the room, its one massive big room, and they take in turns to play, so we just move from one place to the other in tune with the music... in front of the bar, 3 rather old chaps are standing on boxes and you pay them for your drink tickets, i note that they all have cotton in their ears.. the only drinks are caipirinias and beer, so i suppose they dont really need to hear anything.. The caipis are half the price of ipanema and twice as strong... so far, outragously good.. so we get the drinks and hit the floor.. its not like you can stand around and chit chat anyway...
And my god the dancing.. haha.. the girls are shaking their asses, wiping the floor with their asses, teasing the boys with their asses.. there are asses everywhere and they can move.. and so can the guys... its a, i dont know what it is, cause ive never seen anything like it.. but its an absolute specatcle and if you love to dance.. its a bloody miracle!! And what makes it maybe even better.. or i dont know.. more outragously fantastic.. is that these kids, well its not only kids, but a lot of kids.. im guessing teenageers upto some early- mid 30s maybe... are as excited to see us as we are too see them.. I try to do the ass swiping the floor move and and end up actually swiping the floor as i fall over twice in the first attempts.. and my new girlfriends laughs and helps me up both times and then proceeds to instruct me.. My european ass is falling a bit short...and flat to be honest.. but im soon getting the hang of it..(the ass is still depressingly flat though). If i ever did this in a disco in Europe id probably be arrested for lewd behaviour..here i get an applause.. D&M are dancing as eagerly as me.. if a straight place was ever gay friendly this is it.. i dont how long we are there for but a good 3 or 4 hours of non stop dancing.. i dont even have to go the loo as im perspiring the caiprainias from every pore.. sorry.. the truth smells..
When its over.. its very dissappointing actually, but probably good for the ears... we head down to this little piazza.. well a crossroads with a bar, and as is normal here, and no one seems to really care.. guys are selling beer cans from a cooler bags at low cost.. just in front of the bar.. the bars are makeshift, dusty, dirt floor and the people are tall, dark, handsome, pretty, and very very friendly... in no time we are all engaged in different conversations.. Im chatting with a former favela resident of 24, tremendously charming, plays all the instruments in his samba school, is self though in English, he makes me laugh my head off and proposes to me at the end.. i dont say yes.. but i dont say no either... i could live like this.. then we chat with a local drug dealer, who is equally friendly, and a strangly blond chap, who turns out to have a Deutch mother who lives there as well, a 23 year old italian who is about to enter his 3hrd marriage.. cause his second wife is in prison for drug trafficing.. so dont misunderstand this.. there is of course drugs, but also there are a lot of very hard working, very charming, utterly friendly people here and there is not one single fight happening.. its music, its laughing and drinks..and shit loads of people.. if this had been anywhere in the UK or Norway for that matter.. and this much testostorone and alcholol someone would have started a fight by now.. but nothing..its all gooood... Tee, D&M... actually have to drag me away by the arm.. i could have happily stayed to watch yet another sun rise.. and i have seen rather a lot over RIO allreaday... so anyway...that was the night i went to the favela funk party... shaking that ass!!
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