Blogs from Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

9th March ’13 Rio, Sugar Loaf Mountain and Copacabana Well we got up early today and were first for breakfast so we could leg it round to the cable car for Sugar Loaf Mountain and hopefully beat the bus trips and we did. The sky was clear and so we paid our money and got in the cable car, which first took us to Urca Mountain (of mountain view room fame) and then on up to the top of Sugar Loaf. The views were glorious and stunning, a 360 degree panorama of Rio with all its bays, beaches, mountains, suburbs and the statue of Christ the Redeemer looking down from its perch over the whole city. There were paths leading down and around the mountain and I think we explored them all (no surprise to those ... read more

This blog entry chronicles the last day and a half I spent in Rio by myself before flying back out to London. It also gives me a vehicle to show off some more of the photos I took in the this stunningly scenic city.... The name of company taking me from Paraty back to Rio was called easytransferbrazil.com but in reality it was anything but. Again, it all started well - one of four people in a massive minivan with air-conditioning and DVDs playing on the main screen (even if it was Welcome To The Jungle starring "The Rock"). As with most people here, the driver seemed pretty laid back, and didn't speak any English. We then stop for "five minutes" which was more like twenty, while the driver decides to get the minivan washed by ... read more

So for the first three days we were in Rio we really had no intention of going to the Sambadrome because of the inflated cost of tickets but after speaking to people from the hostel every morning, hearing what an amazing atmosphere it was, we soon changed our minds and bought two tickets for the last parade on the Monday night. It was the best night we had in Rio. Whether it was down to the litre of cheap rum we drank or the buzzing atmosphere I'm not sure . The Sambadrome is made up of two long lines of grandstands flanking a concrete runaway where samba schools parade to impress the audience and the judges. The parades featured giant, weird and wonderful floats and they were surrounded with thousands of beating drums and amazing dancers. ... read more

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 ... read more

So here we are, finally, after a couple of flights. The first was fairly uneventful apart from Mr Kinobi (at least that´s what his XL England shirt said on the back - might have been a tribute to Obi Wan who, as far as we know has never been near a rugby pitch, aeroplane or Italy) complaining that it was too cold. The second was even more uneventful for the first few hours - so much so that we weren´t actually moving and both hads time to get through a film an a nap in the three hours it took them to de-ice the plane, runway and probably whole of Rome. In hindsight, a direct flight with British Airways might have been a better call. Anyway, 13 hours later and the snowy chill of England was ... read more

Ok, last ever blog from a grey, glum-looking Rio. The sun has barely shone here, but the beautiful Costa Verde coast has definitely made up for it. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Christmas and glad to see the back of our backpacks, grimey hostels and SA scumbags, but we'll definitely miss this way of life! 09/12/11- After publishing our last blog in Paraty, we returned to the pousada for crackers and a poolside beer before catching a minibus to Penha village. We were dropped off next to a church perched on top of a massive boulder, and walked down to an even bigger boulder in the river, creating a crazy natural water slide! Lunatics sometimes surf down this monstrous rock (there's even an annual world cup!), but we only saw people sliding down it. Olie ... read more