Blogs from Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 3

The most beautiful city. First time in south america. Rio Carnival. ... read more

Landed on the 17th and welcomed at the hostel El Misti with a ridiculously strong Cairpirinha, we felt ready for Rio. Not to be stopped by jet lag we used our four days to see the main sites and attractions: Ipanema Beach On the first day we ventured to the famous Ipanema beach and was strangly greeted by a Justin Beiber song, which has continued to follow us since - Hopefully this is just a Brazil thing and won´t continue the 3-4 months we´re in South America. It felt like paradise with the mountainous views, blue sea and long stretch of sand. With some swimming, beer drinking and lounging we admired the pretty bikinis and turned away at the speedos. Botanic Gardens After being toasted in the sun on Ipanema beach we moved onto the Botanic ... read more

30/12 Today was the day we went to the favela, Rocinha. Now, to just cover a couple of things: a) a favela is best described as a 'ghetto town', they're where the poorest people in the city live, they're infamous for the presence of drugs, there've been riots in some because of the police drug raids and theyre the places where people often get killed in mudslides. Foreigners are generally not welcome without being on some form of tour. b) Lots of people ask how we felt about, effectively, going to gawk at poverty and this was something we were a bit concerned about ourselves. But we had heard really good things about the tours and the projects they fund and frankly the favelas are fascinating, it is a way of life which is nothi8ng like ... read more

02/12 So the random adventure continues and indeed its a continuation of 3 idiots abroad as we attempted to reach the Novo Rio coach station to buy tickets to get to Salvador. We wrote down bus numbers, got the change out, paid the three of us on (in amazing portuguese), went through the very restrictive turnstiles (only just thin enough) and we made our trip to 'Rodoviaria' (bus terminal - well... the journey... Tasha described it as like being in an episode of speed, she wasn't wrong. That driver did not know how to yse tge brake peddle as we weaved our way across lanes and through tunneçs - Rita Queen of Speed had nothing on this. It was cool to go on the bus with the locals and see different parts of the city - ... read more

Hello Everyone, Well its been a very eventful first few days of my little South American adventure. The flight to Rio was hectic enough in itself. At one point I was sat waiting at Heathrow waiting for Amy and Rosie to arrive and was told that they wouldn't make the connection due to their flight being delayed. At that moment my heart sank. I mean I'm relying on Rosie for her language skills and Amy for her ability to restrain potential muggers to get me through the next few months! The thought of me alone in Rio did not make me happy at all....But alas, after some pretty special running through terminal 5 from the girls, and a delay with our flight, they made it. In the queue for the plane we met our very first ... read more