sábado, novembro 18, 2006

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!! NEW YEARS EVE IN RIO!!!!!!!!

Hi,
On the same day when I felt dissapointed when I saw on the tv news that New Years in Copacabana would be the worse ever (c´mon, you don´t put olny one stage with louzy attractions for a party where there should be 2 million people coming from all over), I read on the other hand, Ipanema will be the place to be.

Nokia mobile company will sponsor the party and will bring The Black Eyed Peas to perform, FOR FREE, on Ipanema Beach, just after midnight. It won´t be so crowded as it was on the Rolling Stones concert this year, but it will be fun!!!!!!!!

more info here when I get it or at the website - www.nokianewyearseve.com

quarta-feira, novembro 15, 2006

Here comes the summer and its parties...

Officially, summer only starts on december 21st, the year only finishes on december 31st and carnival is from february 17th to 21st. Even knowing very well all those dates, weather is already changing, the parties are already starting... Here is some piece of advice to those wanting to come to Rio for the hottest (literally) time of the year!

First, I got to tell you all the awful truth - yes, things can get very expensive this time of the year, from airplane tickets to accomodation and renting a chair on the beach. Why? Its the holiday season, the city gets another athmosphere, everyone is more happy, open to have fun, meet people. Rio becomes the place to be! So, make your budget a little bigger. It gets more expensive, but not impossible to come.

If you are considering coming for new years or carnival celebrations, book or arrange your accomodation as soon as possible. Some places (cheap ones) can or will be booked by now. For those on a budget and that open to use public transportation, I´d recomend looking for the hotels and hostels in Botafogo, rather than the obvious Ipanema and Copacabana. Botafogo´s beach can (and is) crap, unbathable at all, but the area is very well served with transportation (buses, subway and taxis), nice restaurants, good shopping malls, great movie theathers and nightclubs (my favourite one is there, Casa da Matriz - www.casadamatriz.com.br). My tips? Here are some of it (I don´t get any money from them, just know people that stayed there and have visit some of them!) - www.alphahostel.com / www.acehostels.com / www.riohostel.com.br / www.riotijucahostel.com.br (the last two ones are members of the International Hostels chain. The last one is not in Botafogo, is in Tijuca, for those looking for a north zone flavour on their trips!).

You don´t need to feel miserable just because can´t afford comming for new years or carnival in Rio. If you at least can be here between the parties, like early january until early february, you will have many parties coming up. All the samba schools will be practicing on their homes and at Sambadrome (for free), all the street blocos have parties to practice and some of them will be already parading. The beach will be great, weather fantastic. Rio is always a party!

looking for local friends in Rio?

Hello!
I´ve noticed that the new wave about backpacking is the online communities where you can offer from a place to crash to company to show the city to the visitors. I´m a member of two of those groups - www.hospitalityclub.org and www.couchsurfing.com

Here in Rio, we made a mailling list group to put all the residents togheter, but we are open to recieve messages from visitors! Our website is http://groups-beta.google.com/group/hc-rio and the email (you don´t need to be a member to send) is hc-rio@googlegroups.com

Drop us a line!!!!