Rio. What an awesome city? 7 nights there just wasn't long enough. None of us wanted to leave this incredible place.
The hostel was cool and all the staff were really nice. Especially Bill
the night porter who continually threw us out free beer and cake. He
only a few words of English but we still had very funny conversations.
The hostel room was about 10 foot by 6 foot with four beds in the room
and no window. It felt like a prison cell especially the day when we
were stuck inside because the rain poured all day. When it rains in Rio
it really rains. Not Irish rain but proper floods appear in minutes.
When visiting Rio beaches were a must. First morning we hit Leblon, Ipanema
and Copacabana. Under the baking sun we were all thrilled. After months
and months of saving and planning were finally here. Rio de Janeiro. Myself and James didn't pluck up the courage to wear speedos. Our pasty white bellys stuck out a mile amongst the beautiful tanned masses. After the beach we got on a bus to Botafogo. Unfortunately it was the wrong bus. As the bus travelled through the favelas
(slums) my blood pressure rose a bar or two. All the books about Rio
say it is so dangerous that I was convinced we would be robbed. We
stayed on the bus to the end and then with some waving and pointing I
managed to convince the bus conductor to let us stay on the bus and
bring us back to Copacabana. As soon as we got to somewhere we
recognised we hopped off and walked back to the hostel. We decided that
there was no need to do the favela tour. We had already seen enough.
Next on our checklist was Cocovada,
(Christ the Redeemer). We went up early Wednesday morning. The statue
is an incredible piece of engineering and the views were amazing. Rio
is nestled between the sea and mountains covered in rain forest. After
our visit to Christ we headed for Santa Teresa. We got a rickety old
tram through the town. It was a nice quaint old town but we bored
quickly. We looked for the steps my friend had recommended we see. We
had no idea what they were called and hadn't brought a guide book with
us. After walking around aimlessly for half an hour Sinead
bought a magnet with a picture of the steps. We hopped into a taxi and
pointed at the magnet. Our sense of direction is awful because a couple
of minutes later he had dropped of off at what we now know as Escadaria Selaron. These steps lead down from Santa Teresa to Lappa.
Since 1990 a man has been continually tiling the steps. He constantly
changes the tiles and travellers bring him tiles from around the world
to add to he work. Really cool and definitely worth a look.
We could not visit Brazil without seeing a football match. We went to see Fleminese play Aguia in the Maracana Stadium. The world cup final will be played there in 2014. It is a really impressive ground. The crowd was really small as it was a cup game against a crap team but there was still a great atmosphere. Fleminese scored 3 goals in the second half, the first of which was a cracker.
Next on out itinerary was the sugar loaf (Pao de Acucar). This volcanic rock in the bay between Botafogo and Copacabana is 395 metres high and gives an incredible view of Rio. We went up an hour before sunset so as to watch the sunset behind Christ de
Redeemer. We never saw the sun set because of clouds but instead were
treated to a huge lightening storm on the horizon behind Christ. Very
cool!!
On our final night we hit Lappa. A few to many beers must have been had. We never heard out alarm and never got up for the 9am bus to Paraty.
The highlight of the night was our taxi journey home. The driver was a
complete nutter. He blared out the samba music and was dancing and
singing in his seat while driving. When we arrived at out hostel he
hopped out and continued to dance on the footpath. What a crazy man!
Photos attached.
