2007-03-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

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Finally I end up my city tour with Confeitaria colombo, a local patisseria very popular with people from rio that have different tastes of brazil. It has been in rio since 1880s and apart from its lavish decoration and moderately high prices, it has perfect tasting pieces with an excellent service. I especially recommend people to try pastel de belem and palmitos.. And I am of course back to my famous arcos de lapa for a good rest....

And finally it is my last day in rio, it has to be spent well... I decide to go to corcovado, which was a perfect decision, it holds the famous statue christ redeemer, which is a huge modern scultpture of christ. It looks as if christ is floatin in the air from certain views.. For me it is good, but I am not overly impressed with this either (a problem you always have when you travel a lot =).. But the views of rio from corcovado are absolutely stunning, and I totally suggest anyone on short time in rio to go to corcovado instead of pao de azucar. I didnt take the regular path which is a train ride to corcovado it is expensive with an infrequent schedule, there was a authorized brazilian street stout selling tickets for a tour with minibus which goes both to corcovado and another vista spot where you can get more pictures, and is air conditioned. It was a nice decision and I recommend it if you come across the same..
The person in the second picture is a friendly paulisto, and actually it seems he is overly friendly and I soon understand why after he asks me in portuguese "which ones do you like more, brazilian men or brazilian women" =)... Sorry but I am not gay,, he is still a nice guy with another gay friend of him, so I join those guys for my trip in corcovado...
For the last two pictures up, I told you that the views are much more gorgeous in corcovado, didnt I...

Another good thing about corcovado is that, they have explanations of what you see in the panorama in panels in front of you. You dont have this luxury in Sugar loaf mountain. So you are simply looking without having a serious idea there if you are without a guide or a carioca... Some more beautiful views of rio, sugarloaf mountain, and me =)

Yes, the pictures up to here are from the vista point, not corcovado. So you can get better close up photos with a good zoom. The third picture may not seem like a stunning picture, but the reason it is there is that maracana (the famous brazilian football stadium) is in the middle of the picture.

And finally we come to famous christ redeemer. As I told you , it is ultramodern and a nice architecture, but not a the next wonder of the world, at least for me... I dont remember the name of this inner lake in rio, but it is a good spot in rio for watersports.

The first picture shows a 7 km bridge that connects rio to its suburb, niteroi. It hosts the famous museum of modern arts designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeier, who actually designed the city of brasilia (capital).. The second picture shows another view of the coves of rio (remember the joke about the spiral ?).. And in the third one you can actually see some of the beaches.

In the second picture, the beach you see is copacabana probably the most famous beach in brazil, which extends for 4.5 km and is absolutely packed all year round... I had some good pictures there too, I dont know what the hell I did with them, so sorry, you will have to see it from other websites.. And I end up my pose with my friendly gay friends...

A funny story with them.. I give the camera to one, and go to the back of statue christ redeemer for him to take my picture with the statue from the back so that I will be giving the same pose with the statue (my brother thinks that I am a statue pose fetishist!!)... Then I wait until he says ok... I return back and he says, "niiiiiceeeeee".. I expect a good pose with me and the statue, but when I look at the pose all I see is a zoomed pose of my butt =P.. Of course I dont want to try to explain the guy the pose again and dont want to crack up in front of him either.. But I am really cracked up inside =)

After that my friendly gay friend gives me his email and tells me to call him, so that we can meet in Sao Paulo, and go dancing etc. =)... Yeah, sorry maan, you are cool but I am not gay.. But it was nice to hang out with them. And I honestly appreciate those gay guys.. They are a lot in Brazil, and they really make the competition much easier for straight guys =P..

And I finally end up my rio de janeiro with Maracana of course, the famous football stadium of Rio. I am lucky, because that week there is an important match between two main rival teams of Rio De Janeiro (this is like rivalry between cimbom and fener) and the fans of the teams are very deep about it as you will see. Here even the local teams are very important, especially in Brazil, football is one of the main culture in every single parts of the country with hundreds of teams.

Between Flamengo and Vasco, we decide to stay in the side of Flamengo... We try to wear anything away from the colors of the teams, because violence is apparently common after the matches between fans of those two teams... Soo everybody is ready set and go... As you can see the first batch of pictures are about the hordes of the fans. We are very close to the players actually, and it will sound funny I know, but it is the first football match of my life... A huge shame for a turkish, but my friend dario near me is italian, and it is his first match too =)... Soo we are like the shame pair of europe =P...

As you can see there are some little fans too about those team, the best fans are the ones that start early right? They know the best swears the best slogans etc.. =)

The first part of the match ends in 1-1 Vasco Flamingo... The second picture is from the break, and this old guy took that ball from one end of the stadium to the other end!!!!! In the meantime of course everybody is shouting and jumping for their team..

The stadium is honestly smaller than I expected for me... But apparently it is what it seems like, it has a capacity to hold 45000 people!!!! And I think we took the royal seats or something, we are like 50 m. away from the players when they are close by!!!!!

You can see the italian and the turkish the shame of whole europe right =)
And now the interesting pictures from the stadium come... It is not the match I care about at all, I really liked the players dont get me wrong, they are playing real good... But football is one the least from interests of my life, I simply couldnt care less. The thing that attracts me to macarana is the passion of the fans, not the players... In the second picture, you see a fan who was probably brought up since he was a kid, he does the hand signs perfectly with complete synchronization to the fans of the other teams =))

And now even more fun part starts. The match ends 1-1 and it is an elimination game, there is no extension so it is directly penalties... The most interesting faces are in those moments in football, as the pictures will approve it too. Third picture is a perfect example for how to watch something with and interest, while the last picture is an example for a complete disaster... =)

The first picture is the perfect example for western beliefs, the second picture is the scoreboard of terror when vasco was 1 and Flamengo was 0. The third picture is the picture of desperateness, while the last one is the picture while watching a hitchcock movie =)

The first move is an example from turning to jesus christ from western beliefs, whereas the second one is the proof that it worked this time =)

The third move is totally purified unexplainable sudden release of dopamine, and adrenaline from a direct intake of loads of prozac and viagra together, while the last one is the face that would be made during an orgasm =)

Yes, the score is 3 - 1 and the scoreboard is displaying the heaven right now!!!!

Everybody is jumping and celebrating defeating those evil bastards, of course this was what god wanted, the bad loosers to lose right =). It is time for the second carnaval this time, and in the mean time we give our we are happy that the game ended pose =)

And this is also a perfect end for a rio that started with a carnaval, immediately after the game, I go out to dinner with Dario and leave rio with very interesting ball of feelings...

Now it is time for buzios... One of the famous holiday zones for brazil, especially for cariocas. First I start with my narsistic poses with the beach in the background... =)

What I love about buzios is how the hotels are environmentally friendly integrated into the background, they are not ugly, they fit with the colors of the forest, the nature is preserved and there is just many but not too many number of hotels.. Unfortunately I believe that originally the worlds most beautiful city, Antalya, has to learn from those pictures about correct urbanization. It is simply gorgeous as you can see and not hard to see why here is very popular among cariocas...

I go ahead with some more photos from buzios giving you a better idea about the place...

The first picture is still from buzios.. And after buzios I go ahead for another holiday village close by, called Arraial de cabo (cove of cabo)... Honestly, there is not much to see there other than a gorgeous beach which is hidden at the back of a hill, "praia Forno", but by itself it is worth going there. And a moment of sensory climax... There is a cafe just near the beach called cafe del mar, and apparently cafe del mar is also a famous cafe in spain ibiza, and it has its famous soundtrack which blends in absolutely perfectly with the beach and the sea. I am watching the perfect beach with waters going wide out from the original moment for the hit of the waves (the slope of the beach is very small, as if it is straight all the way). A few seagulls are flying against the wind on top of me, the change in color of the blue reminds me of the perfect blue in cozumel the fauna near the beach is nothing less than a combination of unusual, extraordinary and amazing. The waves, although small are perfectly smoothifying anything drawn by little kids around slowly and slowly. And the perfect music from cafe del mar... I enter the water, it is cool but not cold one of the most relaxing moments that can be had... It is simply an amazing experience, yes I absolutely got the best I could get from Arraial de Cabo....

As you can see I am a little bit confused with the beauty, and dont forget to give another goodbye pose to this gorgeous praia de Forno before leaving the place... Now I am ready to see the best beach in my life time even after this one, I am heading for Ilha Grande, another popular tourist destination in the east of rio... And I am absolutely ready to have the week of my life with the most surprises... I will simply see three of the bests in my life within this week!!!! This is Umut, I am in Brazil, my fiesta country...

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My Rio continues