Rio - Part 1

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Well what a turbulent relationship I have had with Rio! Things started out well when I met a Peruvian man on the plane who happened to speak English, Spanish and Portugese (national language of Brazil), who after getting off helped me to exchange money and then get a taxi. Things took a worrying turn when the taxi driver sat on about 20-30km over the speed linit, ducking and weaving out of traffic, nearly collecting a few cars while a few cars tried to return the favour. At this point I decided it was better to take in the scenary, on the way into the city spotting Sugar Loaf Mountain and also Christ the Redeemer sitting atop Corcovado Mountain, two places I was going to visit the following day. I finally made it to my hotel (just), and with a slightly increased heart rate and settled in. Due to the crazy time differences I had a bit of a look at Copacobana Beach before relaxing for my city tour the next day. Again my relationship was tested when I woke up to do my city tour, to find that it was raining, and not just a little! I got on the bus anyway and unfortunately due to the heavy cloud, the views from the top of sugar loaf mountain and Corcovado were virtually non-existent. There was a positive to the day though as I met a couple of lovely Irish girls and a guy from England. At the end of our disappointing day Steve (guy from England) and I went to a Brazilian restaurant where I had steak (of course) and then we proceeded to have a go of a few Caipirinhas, a Brazilian cocktail, which I'm pretty sure are alcohol and a dash of fresh lime (i.e no good if you have too many). Needless to say I woke up feeling a little tired in Sunday. Sunday then threw me a curveball when I found out my email had been hacked, and my poor sister was getting woken up at 4am Oz time by me to help sort it out which she did (marathon effort) Thanks Prue! Monday, my last day in Rio for the first visit, I wokeup to a beautiful sunny morning, so I walked the beach a couple of times where a group of about 20 odd military guys were running the beach (shocking site...not) and the water was great to dip the toes in. All along the beach there were people playing soccer and raquet ball, sunbaking, singing (just a great atmosphere in general), the perfect way to end and up and down first stay in Rio. To top it off I had a ripper taxi driver on the way back to the airport, practically being a tour guide all the way back and full of charm that you would expect from a man in his 60s. Im hoping the last few hours in Rio are a sign of what I can expect when I head back there at the end of the trip. Next stop is Quito, Ecuador.

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