Santa Teresa and Corcovado

Yesterday I thought I'd take a break from the constant training and only did the morning class. I decided to do a bit of a touristy thing and met up with a group of Couch Surfers in Santa Teresa and spent the rest of the day (6 or more hours) walking!!!

Walking...

Ever since I've been on holidays I've been walking A LOT... but not all in the same day! Whenever I walk it makes me appreciate the little things in a neighbourhood you'd miss if you drove by in a car. It realise how lucky/lazy I've been to be able to drive a car a short distance and have the money to pay for it all, while I see others less fortunate than myself but they still have the truest smiles on their faces. It also makes me realise how lazy society has become to rely so heavily on public transport to get from A to B and on how much we miss out seeing when you zoom by them in a car. You never know: that little café might have the best home cooked meals in the world, or hottest waitress in Rio.

Santa Teresa...

Anyways yesterday I went to Santa Teresa and spent about 1.5hrs walking around there which is tiring in itself, because the suburb is on a hill and many of the roads and stairs wind up and down and all around. Not to mention a French guy was leading and it seems almost like we were going in circles, only up and down hills. It was pleasant and we got to view some favelas on a hill and walk through a small part of them. After walking for around 1.5hrs we rested at some cantina for lunch before making the long ass trek up Corcovado. It was also where a guy had his red car parked out front fixing the subwoofers and stereo system in the back of his car so he could play some LOUD ASS baile funk music. Totally straight out of Fast and Furious, except in the middle of narrow street in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. Go figure.

The cobblestone roads of Santa Teresa

Taking our rest before going up Corcovado... L-R Max (french dude), old french dude, me and some random french dude that lives in the 'favela'

You can see the tracks for the tram (bonde)

The famous stairs in Lapa/Santa Teresa

Jorge Selarón, the man that spent 18yrs to complete the stairs... and me with a Brasilian brown belt (forgot his name, Allan?) that led us up and down Corcovado

Top of Parque das Ruinas and the view of Rio de Janeiro from there.

(Brasil??) Favela ... you can see it from Santa Teresa

More stairs and a pic of graffiti I thought was cool. Walked up and down more than 5 flights of stairs like this, not to mention up and down hills.

Corcovado...

Corcovado is the hill that Cristo Redentor (Christ statue) sits atop. From our rest spot in Santa Teresa it took probably just over 3hrs to walk up to the top of the 'mountain.' The only thing was that towards the top there was so much cloud cover you could barely see 50meters in front of you, which would of made it pointless to pay and try view the statue. Luckily I'm still here for another 4 months so got plenty of time to see it on a sunny day. Also next time I'll make sure to wear my "Jesus is my homeboy" t-shirt.

The start of the ascent up Corcovado.

Small 'waterfall' we saw on the way up.

I wish they also include how far you got to go on the signs. This was taken probably a good hour or more into our walk.

That 'fog' up there is actually the beginning of the clouds which just got thicker the higher we ascended.

This was my first experience of 'walking through/on the clouds' and a pretty cool one at that.

Finally reaching the top. You can see how thick the cloud cover is up there.



The descent...

... was an interesting event itself. Instead of walking back down along the same road we followed some train tracks for a bit before taking a left onto a jungle path. I didn't remember to take any pictures till I was near the bottom because most of the time I was concerned about not slipping and falling only to have trees, branches and rocks to break my 50º angle fall down the hill. Knowing how goofy I am I wouldn't of been surprised if that shit happened but after a bit I got used to it and where the best parts were for footing but was still very cautious. There was a part where we had to use a rope attached to some ropes to get down a steep bit which was cool. Then a main little stream that had many waterfalls we came across on the zig-zag path down.

Following the train tracks down.

The water was so nice and cool here and I had a sip when I was informed it's alright to drink. So fresh!!

I had a small epiphany while looking over some of these "jungle trek" photos. Wouldn't it be cool if you had a Predator costume and just ran around laser-pointing some people and then jumping out through the leaves and all? I reckon it would :)

A sign at the very bottom, I'm pretty sure it shows the trail we took.... Ok I'm just guessing.

Words really can't describe enough the views and experiences of these places. You really have to be here and experience them yourself to appreciate it and do it some justice.

That being said, if I was told before hand that we'd be walking for 6 or more hours I would of said F T S! (you can fill in the blanks) and probably made a polite exit and gone home.

Connect the dots...

The other day I was thinking to myself and came up with a metaphor that described my learning process of jiu jitsu or really anyone and any martial art for that matter. The learning process is like one of those "connect-the-dots" picture.

Right now at the moment it feels like I'm learning the dots (positions, submissions etc.) but as time goes by and the more I train then I'm learning to connect-those-dots in the picture. But at the same time, the more I progress the picture grows and there are new dots and lines to learn.

The weekend past...

Anyways a few random pictures from my weekend which include a Saturday arvo at the beach followed by The Prodigy concert at night.

To say "kite surfing is popular at Barra" would be an understatement.

This is what happens when you're a gringo at Praia do Pepê. A random TV show will spot you and ask you questions in broken english then have you say things in português (most likely self-depreciating) into the camera. It was entertaining though.

At least they'll have a hot assistant lady with them, that realises it's hot at the beach and takes her shirt off in front of you... *HIGH 5*!!

A random blonde girl that managed to avoid being 'harrassed' by the tv show guys... they tried... twice!

Group of jailbait on the right... because I know that's what you perves wanna see hahaha

A few of us that attended The Prodigy concert

One of the many pictures I took... quite a few of them came out pretty good

Cauliflower ear

Before...

...and after

1.5mL later...

I kind of started getting cold feet on the whole draining thing, but then as Tom said "I already bought all the stuff needed for it." It wasn't too bad getting it drained and I could probably do it myself next time (if I feel like it), just that I keep getting visualisations of piercing my whole ear with the needle haha.

Now I've been wearing an earguard (that Andre traded me for some açai money) and making sure to wipe my ear with disinfectant after training or taking a shower. Also covering it with a some cotton and a bandaid. Hopefully all that will help keep it down in the long run. Also got to remember to buy an ice pack from the pharamacy to help keep the swelling down.

I'm no expert but if anyone else was wondering what you need to get it done:

- Syringe (serenge in português I think)
- Disinfectant (a must!)

- Some cotton or something to apply the disinfectant (before and after draining)

- Bandaids

- Gloves would be good too although I forgot to buy some

Anyways here's the video for your viewing pleasure. And a big thanks to Dennis for doing it for me (knowing myself I'd probably be goofy enough to stab through my whole ear).

Copa Cyclone pics & Cauliflower ear

Cauliflower ear...

Well my cauliflower ear is growing a bit bigger so hopefully Dennis will be able to drain it tomorrow. Should make for some nice pictures and a video for another post. Andre also kindly exchanged me his headgear/ear guards for some açai money. I was contemplating leaving it for a bit, as a "badge of honour" kind of thing, but then I thought the chicks might not dig it. Plus memories of that time Kimbo Slice popped James Thompson's cauliflower ear with a punch... nasty stuff *shudder*.

Training & Daylight savings...

Today I just did two sessions of training. Morning 8am class and the no-gi class. I rocked up right on time at 8am (or so I thought) but there were already guys, mainly the older guys, there that looked like they had been rolling for a while. I was kind of confused but just thought that the older guys decided to start earlier today. But then the muay thai guys showed up early too and started their class early AND later that afternoon while watching Dennis and the guys train the 6:30pm class showed up early as well.

Finally I found out that my time was 1 hour behind and there had been a daylight savings change that I was totally unaware of. Which is lucky or otherwise I would of continued showing up late to classes by an hour haha. It was a strange day, time wise.

No-gi was good because Zé Mario was there at the no-gi class again, which was cool to see, and also because Antonio Braga Neto took the class today. Neto's a really nice guy (I think all the Brasilians I have met so far are nice guys) and greeted us (the gringos) when we were at the Copa Cyclone competition, wished us luck and told us to relax etc.

We drilled an escape from mount and how to reverse a guard pass. Then did some positional sparring then normal sparring.

Pretty much all the guys in there are black belts too. Well except for some purples that come and the blues, but I'm the only white belt that's been going there atm. Definitely learn a lot each session and I'm curious to see what my no-gi game will be like by the time I leave.

Mario Sperry...

Every time I see him there he's always giving some tips to the other guys or showing them something "new" or a variation. I can't understand the whole explanations, but sometimes it sounds like the other guy would be doubtful on how a position or technique would work then Zé says a few words and you see the look of realisation/understanding on the guys face.

Copa Cyclone Tournament...

Anyway here are a few pics from the Copa Cyclone Jiu Jitsu Tournament 2009. I'm going to load most of them onto my facebook and then post a link to the album once I'm done. The tournament was over two days, Day 1: whites-blues-purples, Day 2: browns and blacks.

Leozinha (on the right) before his match...

and looking at the guys giving advice while working for the guard pass

Zoro and Leozinho

Tarsis (guy on the right)... won his match on points. Tarsis is a really a top bloke, he remembers my name (real one, not 'Pacquiao" :)) always greets someone with a smile and introduces me to any people I haven't met before.

Neto winning his match... I think he finished all the guys in his matches. I kind of feel sorry for them because they probably thought they'd do real well till they found out he was competing.

Anyway I'll save the rest for later. If there's any topics or suggestions people have on what I could blog about please let me know. Also please feel welcome to leave some comments and feedback on what you think of the blog so far.