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Published: June 14th 2009
Cable Car
It´s not that high...What day is it?
"Is it Sunday today?" A definite good sign when you are trying to wind down is when you forget what day it is. After spending the rest of Friday hiding out from the rain we decided that we had enough of doing nothing and determined that we would get going on the touristy things.
First up after a relatively painless accommodation change was tackling the Sugar Loaf. I was sure that Philippe would be sitting this one out what with his dislike of heights and all, but to my surprise and great pride, he bought his ticket and stepped aboard the first cable car. You can take two levels of cable car. There are great views of Rio from both stops, but the second mountain is a hell of a lot steeper and Philippe decided to bow out gracefully for the second stage. In the interest of getting a thorough set of photos I soldiered on and got a really cute photo of one of the residents of the mountain - a monkeyhino! I must admit I was happy that Philippe wasn't with me for the return cable car because the wind rose
Gulp
I´m fine, really! and the cable car rocked! Back on steadyish ground we regrouped for some Dutch courage and hopped on the cable car for the final trip down.
Having ticked off one tourist thing, we walked back to El Misti Hostel and awaited the Pizza Party. 10 different pizzas with people of 10 different nationalities. It feels like Erasmus again, except I feel about 8 years too old! What was good though was that many people are finishing their South American travels here so we've picked up some advice on must do's.
This morning we awoke again in a determined mood. We were out of the hostel at 10am and found our way to the metro station and on to the Copacabana. It is exactly as you imagine it, except the weather was cloudy, so we could still move on the beach. There were lots of street vendors, lovely surf, plenty of white sand, some girls in thongs playing volleyball and some boys playing shirtless football and.... I'm sure there was more but, well, lets say we were distracted by the beautiful scenery!
Sadly we had to drag ourselves away from the Beach as we had signed up for
Philippe, Christ and Sinead
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. a tour that would take us to the Maracana Stadium. The local team
Fluminense were playing
Gremio, a team from down south. Now I readily admit to being no Eamonn Dunphy, or indeed any kind of football expert, but to my untrained eye, the local team were crap. My grandmother could have had more attempts on goal. Against 10 men, they managed to score nothing, a respectable 0-0 finish. That said, I'm really glad we went. The stadium is awesome. It can hold 90,000 people and will host the 2014 World Cup Final. The fans are out of this world... even with only 17,000 in the stadium, the noise out of them was crazy. They never stop singing or stamping and you can't help but get swept along with it. I would have loved to see what they would do if they had have won, because I was knackered just looking at them!
We are off to see Christ tomorrow, then we're going to make plans to leave Rio and head up the Brazilian coast.
Chao for now,
Sinead & Philippe
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Ann-Marie Rogers
non-member comment
You forgot what day it was???!!???? I am SO proud of you Neylon. Fair play to you both on the blog front, checking it will become part of my daily routine. Stay safe you two xXx