Woke up in pitch blackness with a very itchy head. Great, nits are just what I need right now. Turns out it's 10am but the curtains are just very good.
The shower is brutal, as there's no hot water in our new down-market hovel... err hotel.
Fern doesn~t want to offend his ex-boyfriend~s cousin~s boyfriend by moving back out the day after we arrived, after he'd fixed us up in a room with four beds (read: dorm). I mean, as I said to Fern, it's only possible to sleep in one bed at one time so we don't need the other two beds. Whatever the case, we~re staying.
We finally step out for our long-awaited beach day - to soak up some of Ipanema Beach's best rays - to discover it~s actually overcast and blowing a gale.
We opt for Plan B which is, you guessed it, eating.
We enter a cafe just as some pigeons are flying out, and have the usual bad coffee and delicious pastries. Where is all the good coffee in this country, that~s what I want to know. I mean, fine, take my cigarettes, take my alcohol... but don~t take my caffeine, please.
We pass a pleasant breakfast reminiscing about the northern territory and ... gosh, I can't think what we natter on about.
We then walk the length of Copacabana - I take pics and record sound.
Then Fern gets a call from one of his friends/love interests, and we jump on a bus to orka (pretty sure that's not how you spell it) - which it turns out is where Rio's second biggest tourist attraction - SugarLoaf - is located. I have yet to get to the statue of christ, one of the world's seven wonders.. but I have seen a LOT of rent boys (one of the world's lesser-known wonders)
I strongly recommend a walk around the base of Sugarloaf to anyone, it made me wonder why I live in Mexico. Francine and I drive to a running track plonked in the middle of the city, a couple of thousand metres above oxygenated air, but not out of reach of the ubiquitous fumes... and run around in circles. Yes, there are nice gum trees there, but that~s about the extent of the eye candy.
Here, the air is thick with oxygen instead of fumes, the view is amazing both out to sea AND on the track... and it feels like home, on my skin, in my lungs and under my feet.
The vista of rocks jutting out of the sea, rainforest dropping into water, little old fishing boats bobbing about in the bay ... and monkeys, yes, MONKEYS in the trees of the rainforest... is amazing.
I left the boys to themselves and came back to Copa where I discovered the perils of walking unaccompanied by a male. My head is still itchy.
On the bright side, my idea to slightly amend my print feature from Straight Male Rent Boys Who Sell Sex to Male Tourists, to Rafael: The boy from Ipanema / Ipanema's Icecream Boys went down a TREAT. That is because Rafael is actually a god, and the pics are amazing. I will post them when I get back to Mex.
So not all is lost.
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