A sugar loaf and a flying Jesus

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February 14th 2012

Published: February 14th 2012

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manjnkesh

In da jungle

Both of us on Pao do Acucar

As far as going out went on Saturday night, our prematch nap may have continued through to the morning, so we woke up fresh and ready to hit the beach.

There´s a fine line between being tanned and being frazzled, but in our case there was no doubt we were the latter. Thinking it was cloudy and that clouds didn´t have the ability to move (and the fact that we´re English), we ventured out to Copacabana with no sun cream and paid a price we are still feeling today. Copacabana is a five kilometre stretch of unrelenting sunbaked sand filled with the upper echelons of beauty. The sea, while clogged with a bit of rubbish and sewage here and there, is a warmish temperature. It´s quite nice.

That paved the way for the favela funk party in the evening that took place in what used to be a warehouse somewhere in Rio. We can´t remember too much about it but had a good enough time that our ears were ringing the following morning.

Again (a bit later) Copacabana seemed to be the plan and we invested in a parasol and some chairs, rather sorrily keeping our tshirts on

Cristo Redentor

Jesus lit up looking strangely savage

and sat there for a few hours. We then decided we might as well do something constructive and went to Pao do Acucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain to you Rio rookies). It was a shame we got there just after the sun went in behind some clouds, but seeing the city lit up was unforgettable.

A quiet night followed an epic KFC gearing up for our trip to Corcovado, the mountain where Cristo Redentor (flying Jesus) stands. We took a taxi to a smaller mountain from where you have a good view of Jesus (amongst other things) before going up the the real thing. It´s set in forest that we were surprised to find out is home to sloths, boa constrictors and praying mantises (we didn´t see any of them though). Jesus was on form today, greeting us with open arms, and bathed in 34 degree sunshine. We took some piccies, ogled the view for quite a long timeand then came down again.

We decided to go to a different beach, a smaller and quieter one near the Sugar Loaf that allowed for more expansive swimming than the destructive waves and currents of Copacabana and Ipanema and a decent