Blog: Ain’t no Party like a Brazilian Beach Party

… because a Brazilian Beach Party last all night long (continued from last post)….

We spent a total of 5 days in Saquarema, and as the week wore on we were spending more and more time on the beach, or sitting on the patio drinking. This all changed as everyone’s cash began to dwindle, and on our 4th day it became imperative that we find a bank machine. The day before Cam, Kyla and Stewart had walked some 5km to the neighbouring town in search of an ATM, with no avail. But Allan told us of a bank machine in the town at the Texaco, and with very little choice we had to make the trek. Fortunately we decided to take a bus this time, and we arrived in town and began our search. We wandered up and down the main streets until we were just about to give up, when we asked for directions from a passerby, and to our luck it was just around the corner. We all withdrew the money we needed to get us back to Rio, and to celebrate we decided to go to the supermarket and buy some food to barbecue. For less than $10 we purchased potatoes, bread, and 2 giant pieces of fish, and headed back to the hotel to prepare our feast. We spent the entire evening cooking, drinking and smoking weed, and some of the other guests decided to trade us beer for fish, and we cooked for 7 people. Stewart and I spent the whole time organizing our feast,which consisted of fish, fried potatoes and garlic bread, while Cam made sure that there was always a joint going around (or, at the Israeli guys request, a bong – which he expertly “McGuyvered” out of a Fanta bottle) and Kyla kept everyone entertained. At the end of the night we were all wasted and severely stuffed, and slowly, one by one,the dinner guests one by one began to not return from their “bathroom breaks”, we all retired kings of the barbecue.

The next day, a little hungover and defiantly exhausted, Allan told us that he would organize a trip for the night to Buzios, a nearby town where he assured us there would be a party. Being as we had already slept most of the day away, we went to the nearby market, and bought some more bbq supplies (this time consisting of Steak) and made ourselves an early dinner as we pre-drank for the long night ahead. The plan was to leave around 10pm, and drive the one and a half hours to Buzios, just in time for all the clubs to begin picking up. By the time 10 rolled around, we were all starting to feel the buzz. The 2 Dutch guys decided not to come along, so it was the 4 of us, Allan,

Mikey – the Israli guy who was also at the hotel – and our driver, who i never caught the name of. The drive there was long and a little cramped, but fortunately we made a few stops at gas stations, which conveniently has beers for sale at the pumps. We arrived in Buzios just before midnight, we made a few stops – one to get some Caipirinhas, and the second to get some Sushi!! – and then it was straight to the club. The place was packed and hot, but we found a place in the top of the club that wasn’t too packed, and started our night. 3 Brazilian girls were dancing nearby and with the help of Kyla’s dancing skills, we made quick friends of them. The drinks seemed endless, and time stopped existing, but we danced until at one point we realized that there was basically no-one else in the club. We told the girls, who Cam was valiantly trying to convince to come back to our hotel (even though it was an hour and a half away), that we should continue our conversation outside. Im not sure if it was at this point, or possibly a bit earlier, that we had somehow misplaced Stewart. Kyla later informed us that he had probably left with the girl that he had been making out with for the majority of the night. We walked outside, and to our surprise the sun had already started to illuminate the sky, and Mikey and Allan were sitting on the curb opposite the club smoking a joint. We helped them finish it, and the second one that they sparked up shortly after, and then Kyla turned to me and said “where’s Cam?”.

Now we were missing 2 of the 6 people we had come with, and Kyla and Allan went off looking for anyone we were with. Mikey seemed concerned about Stewart, but i kept assuring him that it would all work out an he should probably just stop worrying about it. Eventually everyone came back from their own little adventures – except Stewart – and we decided to walk back to the van. We drove around the town for 20 minutes in hope that somehow we might find Stewart, with Cam every once and a while yelling his name out the window, and Kyla kept assuring us that he was happily rotting in a ditch somewhere and that we shouldn’t worry. Mikey seemed the most concerned and at his request we kept driving around until we saw a Bob’s burger and we decided that maybe we should just eat. In this 20 minutes, somehow the van was robbed and 2 of Allans shirts and Cam’s shoes were stolen, but we were all so wasted that we didn’t really seem to care or notice. Eventually we all passed out and when we woke up we were back in Saquarema, and barely conscious, we transferred ourselves into our beds.

We were supposed to leave Saquarema this day – Sunday – but by the time we all started crawling out of bed, there was no sign of Stewart. I was out on the hammock just enjoying our last day in town, when Stewart suddenly appeared, and after a few questions he responded with “I dunno, i had to run away… i didn’t even really know where I was, but here I am now”. In our hungover haze, and all the loose ends finally tied up, we all packed our backpacks and caught a cab to the bus station. After a short wait, and a small snack, we were sitting on the bus en route to Rio de Janeiro, and we finally said goodbye to our weeklong getaway paradise.

We were finally back in Rio, and because of what had happened last time, we decided that we should probably stay somewhere other than Ipanema (if youve ever heard the song “Girl from Ipanema”, trying having it play constantly in your head for 8 days straight, and you MIGHT understand why…) and we found a hostel in the neighbourhood of Gloria. Cam and Kyla had 2 days left in Brazil before they had to fly back to Vancouver, and since in our first 3 days in Rio we hadn’t seen any sights, or gone Bikini shopping as Kyla HAD to do before she left, we decided to make the best of our 2 days there. Our number one goal was to climb to the top of Corcovado Mountain, where the gigantic statue of Christ the Redeemer stands, which stands overlooking the entire city of Rio at a massive 30 meters tall, and its outstretched arms span 92 feet. After a hassle with a tour guide that was trying to force us to take his tour (he was trying to rip us off and even told a taxi driver in Portuguese, that “these guys were mine”), we decided that we would spite him and pay the extra $10 to take the tram to the top of the mountain – which ended up working out, because we saw a monkey on the way down!

It was an amazing two weeks, but all good things must end, and the next day Cam and Kyla had to return to Sao Paulo and catch their flight back to Vancouver. It was amazing to meet up with people from back home, and i’d like to think a good time was had by all involved. For Stewart and I, there was still another 4 months to go, and we were starting to feel exhausted by Brazil, and decided that we needed to keep moving on, as we had already spent far too long in Rio, so we opened up the Lonely Planet guide, took a look at our 3 options, and randomly chose our next destination: Paraty…. which is where we are today.