Random Walk - Brazil

Aug 18 2007 - Aug 25 2007

7 days of absolute fun and pleasure in the land of coffee, soccer, the samba and world famous beaches - Brazil.

Brazilian steak houses, playing with the waves (ipanema, copacabana and buzios), sleeping on sands, hours of beer-pong sessions, random bar hopping, a crazy hang-gliding jump, four wonderful hours in the sea, the best discotheques in Rio, Corcovado and The statue of Christ Redeemer - Random Walk Brazil produced probably some of the most enjoyable days I've ever had.

Good enough to relax one of the spirits of the blog and post pictures of others. Here is the group of 16 that makes the GSB RW Brazil 2007 party.


So this is what happened...

Aug 18 2007
Departure
Rio is two time zones away from Chicago and approximately 12 hrs away. We traveled by Delta Airways - Chicago to Atlanta and Atlanta to Rio. It is pretty much like taking the overnight train from Chennai to Bangalore, only here you wake up to see a touch down among trees in a muggy Winter day in Rio.

Aug 19 2007
Ipanema
We were picked out of the airport by Maria, our tour guide. We then traveled to Ipanema Plaza, where we stayed for the next 2 days. The hotel is 20 yards from the famous Ipanema beach and our first day was spent living with the waves in this beach. We had a pre-arranged Brazilian Steak House dinner to attend, following which we tried to taste a bit of the Brazilian night life - with very little success. Sunday nights, apparently, are not the happening ones in Brazil.

Aug 20 2007
Hang Gliding, Impromptu Songs & Dancing the night away...
This was the Crazy day. We woke up and traveled to São Conrado, a nearby cliff for a hang gliding session. The jump was bloody awesome - to put it mildly. I'll upload the video on youtube sometime soon. We returned from the jump, and spent the rest of the day in relaxing and playing beer pong.

We went to a restaurant in downtown Rio for our dinner. During dinner, one of my tour mates decided to infuse some fizz into the tour and decided to sing for the group. The fact that the restaurant also had live music helped her and we were witness to two good songs, sung quite well indeed! From here, we decided to go to a discotheque and reached one halfway up the same cliff from where we performed the hang gliding jumps. The place played some lively music and we had awesome fun dancing the night away...

Aug 20 2007
Buzios
Buzios is a 2.5 hr drive away from Rio. We traveled in a bus and viewed the amazing Brazilian countryside all the way. Buzios is also a small resort town, with a good retro look to it. We stayed at the Buzios-Perola (meaning pearl of Buzios), a very impressive resort. The first day in Buzios was spent in leisure and more beer pong sessions.

Aug 21 2007
Catamaran tour & more Impromptu songs
This was to be a day in the sea. We spent four long wonderful hours in the beach, with nothing but the sea in sight. The Buzios has lot of small land patches around in the sea and some of them make for wonderful little beaches - very private. The tour took us to many of these and we were lost in nature's glory. We even spent time in one of the beaches, which i think was by far the most scenic of all.

We returned in the evening and had dinner in another Brazilian style restaurant, where they had live music again. This time, another participant sang a few songs for us with the band.

Aug 22 2007
Beach Day
Thursday had no activity in the list and so we hit the beach. We spent time playing with the waves again, and some of the guys tried some surfing in those really strong waves. We also played some volleyball in the beach, which was good fun as well.

In the evening, we had dinner in another Brazilian style restaurant, and tried searching for some good dance bars, but returned to our rooms after multiple failed attempts.

Aug 24 2007
Bye Bye Buzios, Brazilian Sea food & Baronetti
We headed back to Rio on Friday morning, and reached our hotel around noon. We immediately jumped into our beds for some rest as we knew that our last night in Brazil would be long.

We had dinner arranged for us at a very nice Brazilian Sea Food restaurant. The food was yummy and the setting of the place done very well. We enjoyed our food and were also shown glimpses of Brazilian Samba dancing. The spring festival must really be quite a spectacle.

By this time the guys had come out with a short list of all discotheques in Brazil and heard opinions of multiple people on what would be the best place to go. Baronetti stood on top of every one's list, and so we headed there. True to every one's suggestion - the place was very awesome and the group had a rocking time, dancing till 5 in the morning.

Aug 25 2007
Corcovado & off to the windy city...
The last day in Brazil started with a trip to the Corcovado and the Statue of Christ Redeemer. We travelled by bus to the foothills and took a train from there to the top. The status is an awesome sight in itself, and the view of Rio from atop the Corcovado is just breathtaking. We had more Brazilian food on the way back to our hotel, where we slept the remaining of the day.

Our flight was at 11:30 PM and we were dropped at the airport by our travel guide. Twelve hours later, we were in O'Hare and an hour later, I was home...

We've had so much fun at Brazil that most of us are still recuperating from the trip. I can fall asleep a any place at any time of the day, and i am positively sure that this is not jet lag. Many of us fell sick and are now much better.

Whatever it took, the Brazil trip was worth every penny and and every second of it. If i were to do it again, I will - just give me the same group of people!!!