Date Written: Feb. 13, 2002 (10:15 p.m.)
Current Location: Buzios hostel
Subject: Corcovado and The Scala Party

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2002
Whoa! What an adventure getting to Buzios and last night was awesome...Today was even better. Buzios TOTALLY ROCKS!!! I have to say that it is better than Rio. Man, these days are passing so quickly it is getting tough to keep up. Tony is taking a quick nap and a shower and I just took one so I have a bit of time to catch things up here.
So the last thing I wrote about was us coming home from the Guapo Loco on that first night in Rio. The next day, I woke up around 10:30 but I was a bit groggy. Luckily, another common Brazilian custom was there to help me out...free breakfast. There was NOWHERE that I stayed that did not have a free breakfast. One common staple in all these breakfasts is papayas. Man, those things are great. After that, I wrote in my journal for awhile and then we decided that we would use the day to go to Corcovado because it was a bit too cloudy to go to the beach. First though, we needed to get some cash. As I said, Tony was unable to get any the day before at the airport so by that point neither of us had any left. Well, much like many little errands like this on the trip, getting cash was easier said than done. Man, we must have tried 10 ATM's and none of them worked. It took us a full 2 hours to find an ATM that worked...Banco do Brasil. It seems like that is the only one that will work for us. That might present a problem. It was already took us over an hour to get cash today here in Buzios. I took out enough to last me until Sao Paulo though.
So finally with some cash in hand we were ready to hit the Corcovado. We decided that we would grab a taxi to the base of a mountain and then take the tram car up to the top. When we got in the cab and started talking with the cabbie, he explained it was much cheaper to just take a cab up...which was actually true. That was one cool cabbie! So this guy takes us up to the top of the mountain, which took awhile and then hangs with us for an hour or so while we are up there taking pictures and checking out the awesome views. It was really cool up there but it was a bit too crowded...probably because of Carnival. You could really see the entire city which was sweet. I remember specifically that at that particular point in the trip, I had become officially tired of "sightseeing". It gets like that on every trip at some point...you just gotta take a break from churches and statues. Don't get me wrong, it is ALWAYS worth it...you just start to long for a little down time. On the other hand, you just keep saying to yourself, "I am in freakin' South America," so there really isn't anytime to stop. That phrase has kept me going many times when the tank was empty.
So after we had our fill of Corcovado, we all hopped back in the cab and the cabbie took us back to the hotel...but on the way, we were asking him about some good places to go for the night. Well, it turned out that one of the best Scala (Samba Schools) parties in the city was on that night, only a couple blocks from our hotel. SWEET! Man, that cabbie really came through for us. We spent almost two hours with that guy. He saved us a bunch of time and money going up to Corcovado, he took a bunch of great pictures for us, and then gave us the plan for the night...all for the low low price of about 12 bucks each. What a great country.
We headed upstairs for a little while to rest a bit. It seemed like we had covered half the damn city looking for a freakin' ATM. I filmed a little bit around the hotel and from the roof and tried to find somewhere to do e-mail. That was about the time I realized that there was no way I was gonna find a place open during carnival so I said forget it.
After that, we all decided to go in search of some grub. Well, near the hotel, a lot of the places seemed pretty empty, except for one that seemed to be jam packed...so that made it an easy decision. We went to the place (the name I forget right now) but we had read about it previously. It is the oldest bar in Rio and it's known for the cheap beers they serve for happy hour. It was packed to the brim. We finally ended up getting a few tapas and sitting at a table outside. We met these AWESOME locals there, one in particular whose name was Marcos. Here is something amazing...one of his girlfriends, who was there, had been a foreign exchange student in...DECATUR Illinois!!!! (that is one hour from where I grew up for those who don't know) That is amazing. I really felt bad that her experience in the US had to be in such a crappy little town...but I guess she liked it. Go figure. It was weird to meet her. Anyway, Marcos and his friends helped us out a lot because since it was so packed, it was hard to get a drink out there. They were regulars so it was no trouble for them. Anyway, we also had told Marcos that we were trying to decide between going to Anga dos Reis and Buzios. I still remember his response: "Go to Buzios...don't even THINK about it." I gotta say, the guy knew what he was talking about. So that was the moment it was decided...that is an important thing to learn when traveling. Ask the locals...they always know. Anyway, he also told us that the scala we were going to was a really good one so we were pumped about that.
After that place closed and we said goodbye to everyone, we headed back to the hotel to shower up and get ready. We ended up having a few drinks and still ordering some more food. That was when I was introduced to a perfect little ham and cheese sandwich that they make down here. I had seen it on just about every menu I looked at but I had no clue what it was. Anyway, it was called Misto Quinte. I've already had 2 more since then and will probably have a bunch more before the trip is over. Incidentally, there is still one other thing that I have seen on every damn menu but I still have no clue what it is. It's called frango. I think it might be some type of shredded chicken but I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone.
Whoa, that was a bit of a tangent. Sorry about that. So around 12:30 or so we headed for the Scala...our first true taste of Carnival! Basically it is an all night party with music and dancing. I have to say, I have NEVER seen a band go on all night like that. I mean, they literally did NOT stop. There was never a "We'll be right back." I still don't understand how they went to the bathroom. They must have just rotated one guy out at a time or something. Another thing about that band...I think they might have played about 3 songs for the 5 hours that I was there. I mean, it just seemed like each song lasted like an hour and a half...atleast they were good though.
Anyway, the scala was quite an adventure. Looking back, I'm not quite sure where the time went. We were dancing most of the time and it was damn hot. Air conditioning is certainly not the norm down here. Now it doesn't really bother me in most situations, but in a crowded venue where a lot of people are dancing and it's 80 degrees outside...I mean...cut me a little slack here. Somewhere in the midst of the night, Tony even went so far as to take his shirt off!! BAM. That's it boys and girls. Once you are taking your shirt of in a club, the trip has reached a whole new level. It really just takes the exact right combination of sweat, alcohol and great dance music to push yourself over that level where you start to think..."this seems like a great moment to take my shirt of and twirl it around over my head." Classic. I must say, though, it ended up working out pretty well for Tony (wink wink). Let me just also point out that a shirtless Tony did not exactly stand out in that place since it was abundantly clear that shirts were optional...for ALL. What a great country.
All in all, the Scala was a GREAT time. It was really festive and I would suggest to anyone that hits Carnival in Rio to definitely go to one of the Scala parties. Around 5 or so, Johanna and I were hitting the wall so we decided to head back to the hotel. Tony decided to stay and shake his ass awhile longer. On the way, we stopped at this little café and grabbed a Misto Quinte. Perfect drunk food. Then it was back to the hotel. We hung out for awhile and then Johanna went to sleep. I stayed up and wrote in my journal for awhile and finally fell asleep sometime after the sun came up. Another quality night on a quality trip.

AC