| Feb 20, 2006 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil & The Rolling Stones Show
| (click to enlarge)
 | | All the backpacks lined in the hallway for cleaning |
| From the bus terminal Matt, Missy, Meital, and I shared a cab to Copacabana, site of the Rolling Stones concert, and where I was to meet back up with the rest of my travelling group, plus a bunch of new faces, in an apartment they had rented for 4 days specifically for the show. I met up with everyone in the apartment, the guys I had been travelling with throughout Patagonia, saw Ash again for the first time since I met him in Salta in December, and was introduced to all the new people (I think we were 13-15 staying in that tiny place). Soon after we went to chill out on Ipanema beach, just a short walk away. And by the evening it was time to start the pre-concert festivities.
About the show, it was promoted as the largest concert in world history, and did indeed set the mark. They played on the famous Copacabana beach to over 1.2 million people stretched out for about a mile in front of them. Then there was another estimated half-million or so watching from anchored boats in the water, and balconies and rooftops from all the high-rise buildings lining the beachfront avenue in Copacabana. The band stayed in the famous and ritzy Copacabana palace, and had this whole motorized contraption built that took them from the hotel entrance across the avenue and onto the massive stage which was flanked with incredible large screens so that everyone there could still see the band play. Our apartment was just a few blocks away, and although we did not leave until just before the concert was set to start, we were able to get really good positioning because we unintentionally entered from behind where the stage was, and thus were immediately realtively close, up near the front and off to the side. The concert itself was great, even though I have never been much of a Rolling Stones fan, it was just impossible not to feel the energy of nearly 2 million people dancing and singing. It was also the hottest, sweatiest, slipperiest concert I have ever been to, but never mind that. They played for a good amount of time, covering all the hits, and afterwards the crowd slowly dispersed without much problems. I do not have any photos of the concert itself, but I encourage you all to search Rolling Stones in Rio pics on google to get an idea of what the scene actually looked like. Those illuminated white tent tops off to the right when looking at the stage is about where we were.
The next morning we had to leave the apartment, which was an interesting packing and cleaning job. Most of the crew then left that day to slowly work there way up north, Carnaval in Salvador being our next destination just a few days away. But my original travelling group, Carmin, Dan, Tanner, Brian, and I stayed for 2 more days in Rio in a hostel in the Flamengo neighborhood since we had already purchased bus tickets direct to Salvador. Matt and Andrew were also staying nearby so we spent some time with them asll well. Considering what we had just witnessed, and what was about to come, we decided to take it fairly easy these next 2 days. They were very slow moving and relaxing, more or less involving not much more than hanging around, lazing on Ipanema beach, and eating. |
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