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Published: January 29th 2007
Climbing
Canadian friend This is the first leg of our South America trip and what a great place to start!
We arrived to Rio in the pouring rain and were a little bit annoyed, especially as our taxi had not shown up at the airport! Never mind - we eventually got to our hostel in Botafogo and went straight to bed. Getting back into the swing of travelling was going to take a few days - especially as we appeared to be the oldest around - even older then the owner of the hostel!
Rio is a great place and even though we spent 5 busy days there we only just touched the surface. The weather improved after day one and even though this was winter it was still boiling hot!
Day one we walked and walked - Rio is big but everywhere you go there are great views and interesting things to see. Our hostel was in a great location, 10 mins form Copacabana and an easy bus ride to the centre. Everywhere seems to have a beach and on the beach someone is playing football - no wonder they are the best team in the world.
We spent a day in the centre going to the cathedral and then on a tram to an old part of the city. Passing some lovely colonial houses and also the famous favelas. It is amazing that millionaires live next door to shanty towns - but that's what makes Rio. The unfortuante side effect of this is that you always feel a little unsafe walking around and the stories of people being mugged in our hostel alone were almost enough to stop you going out at all. We must have been lucky as we had no such problems.
Another day we went walking with a group from the hostel to a peak a little south of the city. From the top you had an amazing view and could also watch paragliders launching themselves into oblivion. We spent a day on Copacabana and Ipanema beach playing football and swimming in huge waves. Ipanema beach was something else. Absolutely packed with people - you could hardly move!
One night was spent at the regular Lapa street party - drinking Caipirinhas from Bettos stand and taking in the almost carnival atmosphere. Scores of people dancing and drinking
in the streets, food vendors all over the place and really cool music coming from everywhere. Us oldies dipped out around 4 am but things were still going strong then. Driving back to the hostle there were football matches going on all along the beach - does anyone ever sleep here???
The final day we climbed Sugar Loaf mountain. It was hard work in places and the guides were quite happy to let us get on with it without much instruction - they had a football match to get to. Sally had a little slip which was a bit of a shock but once at the top we were rewarded with some more amazing views.
We finally had to leave Rio but could have stayed even longer. It is a beautiful city and the people are very friendly - would love to go back for carnival sometime!
The first few days had been exhausting so we decided to head to Ilha Grande for some R and R. A stunning island a couple of hours off the mainland with one of the best beaches in Brazil.
We had linked up with an American called
Sim, he spoke Portuguese wnd was nice enough. I was determined to use the tent at least once so we camped on the island in a campsite overrun with crabs! Quite amusing hearing Sally scream when she found on in the bathroom!
Despite the idea of relaxing we spent one day hiking up to Parrots Peak, 1500metres above sea level and a real slog. The hike was great as it was through coastal rain forest and you could hear monkeys all over the place. Once again the views at the top were great and the walk down a little eaasier.
The next day we hired bikes to go across the island to visit the old jail. Brazils answer to Alcatraz. Despite the mountain bikes it was again exhausting as the track was too bumpy and steep to ride on. The other side of the island was beautiful and not a person in site on the beach - the prison was not that interesting!
The rest of the time was spent eating and wondering around. Diving was an option but the weather turned bad so we decided to head on and wait for a better
opportunity!
Iguasu Falls was the next stop and after a long bus journey missing out Sao Paulo we arrived the day before my birthday. The falls are pretty spectacular and can be seen from both Brazil and Argentina.
We stayed jus two night on the Brazilian side and had a good day at the falls, Sally got attacked by some ant eaters and we got very wet in the spary from the falls. We also managed a quick trip to Paraguay but only spent 30 minutes there. It was just one big electronics market and quite cheap too.
Brazil is too big to do everything but what we have seen so far is certainly not enough! Next time we will head to the North East but for now it is into Argentina.
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