Highlights:
Tour of Vidigal & Dois
Irmaos Trail: very authentic.
Acai.
Cycling around Lagoa Freitas
Lowlights:
Hang gliding.
Bondinho Santa Theresa:
non-functional.
Lunch at Santa Theresa (bar
do Amaudo): expensive (R$40) and terrible.
Confusing, slow Onibus (took
2 hours on the first day to get to Copacabana and got lost getting back on another
day)
Not having keys to Fabios
place (got locked out).
Lost my wallet with student
card in it (ended up buying a waist money pouch and made a fake student card at
a printing shop)
Places:
Favellas de Rocinha: Visited
Rocinha with Rogeiro (a crossfit coach) in the evening. The experience was
brief. I was a little edgy, but didn’t feel threatened.
Trilha Dois Irmaos e Favella
de Vidigal : The hike was fairly easy, it had an amazing view of both
favellas Rocinha and Vidigal on either side, as well as view of the coastline.
Corcovado & Christ the Redentor:
Bruno was scared of getting there after sunset so we practically ran up the
mountain, completing a two and a half hour trail in almost half the time. The
Christ Redeemer statue was magnificent. The view of Rio was also beautiful. We
didn’t want to pay for the lift down, so we walked in almost complete darkness
down to the bottom.
Lapa: A party city of note,
had an abundance of bars and restaurants in close proximity. We went there on 2
separate occasions. Although we didn’t go into any of the “classy” bars due to
them being expensive, we partied on the streets, where the Caipirinhas were
cheap, the music was awesome and the atmosphere was energetic.
Santa Theresa: unfortunately
the Bondhino (streetcar trolley) was not functional, but we took a walk around,
and got ripped off at a restaurant that Bruno’s guidebook recommended. It was
extremely expensive and the food was below average. Never again will we ever
consult our guidebooks with respect to food.
Lagoa Augo Freitas: We
cycled around the lagoon for an hour with Micheal.
Pao de Acucar & Trilha
Claudio Coutinho: We hiked halfway up on a trail (which was pretty challenging)
and then took the cable-car all the way to the top. The view on top of Pao de
Acucar is stunning with a panoramic view of Rio. We got a free ride down at
19:00.
Jardim Botanico: a botanical
garden that was nothing spectacular.
Sahara (Uruguaiana Market) :
this market sold everything under the sun, bought a cool meme T-shirt.
Praias Copocabana,
Leblon, Ipanema, Apoader (watched a beautiful sunset on 2 occasions here): the
beaches themselves are very beautiful, however the hotels lining the coast are
pretty run down and unimpressive.
The Real Gabinete Português
de Leitura: an incredibly old library, that contained 3 stories bursting with
books.
People:
Fabio DIa: competitive swimmer.
Micheal Stritmater: German, always
game to do stuff, hooked up with Mariane, loved soccer - watched semi-final
Euro Cup with him.
Gregorie: French,
spoke English like a professor, always
behind the computer.
Eduardo, great guy, very
friendly, loves South Africa, took us home to his family, part of Band
BomBocoda.
Mary Ellen (wife of Rodrigo)
Carioca free Culture: American, taught us portugues lesson + slang, took us for
a walk through Vidigal, saw samba girls band with her and went to Alex &
Wilson’s pad.
Rogeiro: Crossfit
instructor, took us to Rocinha, did a crossfit session with him on the beach
with Bruno & Fabio.
Alex and Wilson: lived in a
small house decorated with elaborated, funky art pieces made of recyclable
materials(surfboard fish, etc). Wilson was in the process of building a
transformer-looking robot.
Activity:
Crossfit workout: Sprint,
Squat, Sit-up. Was my first crossfit experience, pretty difficult but I
managed.
Hang gliding Asa Delta :the
hang glide was short (only 6 mins), expensive ($R300) and very disconnected.
You could see they were just out there to make money and nothing else. I didn’t
enjoy this as much as I thought I would.
Foods:
Churros: A long,
cylindrical, fried doughnut filled with either chocolate or caramel.
Pacoquita: a nutty like
fudge that just melts in your mouth. Addictive!
Bom Bom: a chocolate sweet
with a soft toffee, caramel-like centre.
Drinks:
Caipirinha de Limao (Lapa): cheap
($R5) for a 500ml cup. This time it was
excellent, the taste wasn’t as rough and had a great lemon flavour.
Words:
Bambi = Gay
Co e’ = How’s it going?
Tira onda = Show off
Meia = Six
