My Travel to Brazil

In this country I found some amazing people, felt the freedom and fear, and had a lot of fun. For almost a year I couldn’t find the right words to describe everything you could possibly emotionally experience in Brazil. I tried my best. I was writing down and then deleting my thoughts and memories again and again, trying to put them the right way but it was all in vain until I realized that words is not enough to explain Rio; you should live it, experience it, get to know it yourself. Therefore, instead of reading the following text, you really need to consider buying your tickets to Rio right away. It would a be very Brazilian gesture.

We’d always wanted to visit Brazil, and then found a perfect reason – the World Cup Finals (I still hope that it was not Murad’s excuse). In our itinerary we had Rio, the Amazon and Iguazu Falls. We flew all over Brazil from north to south and had the total number of flights of 10, including Moscow!We were absolutely shattered on our way to the hotel after a long flight from Moscow and almost unconsciously were gazing around. On the way from the airport we passed dark and dangerous favelas where, as we knew, even the police didn’t dare to come. The guide told us that earlier inhabitants of favelas would force the bus drivers to stop the buses with tourists going from the airport and rob them, apologizing and explaining that they needed money to feed their families.

We reached the hotel without any incidents. At the hotel they told us that we were staying in two different rooms. And while we were trying to sort this issue out to, arrived a big group of Chinese tourists. Everything merged into one big noisy mess and then I heard the sound of drums. For a moment I wondered if I was going crazy, looked at Murad and by his facial expression I realize he could hear them too!
Suddenly, I saw two half-naked samba dancers wearing feathers and rhinestones, with shiny smiles, and drummers around them beating a rhythm, and all this right in the lobby of the hotel, in between dozens of suitcases, onlookers and the Chinese delegation! I was really shocked, hypnotized by the rhythm, atmosphere, and in a few minutes I forgot about the fatigue and the fact that I was wearing a sportswear and started dancing with the half-naked dancers. While Mur caught a moment and made a video! The most interesting fact is that the dancers’ bodies had far from ideal shapes but they were moving and shaking them in the way that even I thought they were the sexiest women in the world. That was the magic of dance! That was Brazil!

After a little rest Mur and I went to the most famous beach of Rio –Copacabana. By the way, it’s all lined up with black and white paving stones for a reason. Nearby, in the city of Manaus (located in the North of Brazil) is a confluence of two rivers the Rio Negro (it has dark colored waters) and the Amazon River (it has light colored waters), which flow together but don’t mix for a 2 km. They do not mix for several reasons: in the Rio Negro there are plenty of minerals and in the Amazon there is a lot of clay, consequently, the density of these rivers is different, so the mixing process doesn’t take place immediately. So the paving stones are laid out on the beach at Copacabana in honor of this grand natural phenomenon.