Rio Rocks!

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Mango Tree Hostel
This is where we stayed for the first 5 nights of our journey. We arrived at 10pm on Thursday and we were met by Tracey at the reception. She gave us a tour of the hostel and explained the rules. For 5 days the Mango Tree was to become our home and with each day we became more comfortable. The room was perfect and we had air conditioning to keep us cool when it got too hot outside. Breakfast was the same every morning and was and served from 7:30-10:00am. Wi-Fi was available in the lobby and the internet was provided for free on three computers in a room upstairs. The hostel was very safe and had a bar open from 6pm-10pm. This was good as it meant noise was kept low at night as everyone was not partying in the hostel. If you wanted to drink there were plenty of bars and clubs nearby to go to. The security in the hostel was also very good and no-one was allowed enter without showing their pass through the iron gate. There were lockers provided and we had keys for our room. The bathroom’s were communal and were always kept clean and never too busy. A large TV room was provided with big couch’s but it was rarely used. I would really recommend this hostel to anyone and all sorts of people stayed here, young, old, couples, singles and many different types of nationalities.

Ipanema
This is a pretty cool and safe neighbourhood in Rio. The streets are lined with trees and a lot of the shops are expensive and exclusive. There are many cafes and restaurants and the food was generally good. There are fruit markets in the squares daily and a hippie market on a Sunday selling all sorts of arts and crafts. The beach was only a block from our hostel. The beach was beautiful and there was a lot of sports happening on them. Football, volleyball, racquetball, and many others. The sand would burn the feet off you it was that hot but it was soft and clean and nice to walk on. Huge waves crashed on to the beach and I was told that when you get hit by one it tosses you around in the water until it is finished. Every residence and apartment block is closed with huge gates and Michelle commented that who ever has a gate company must be pretty rich. I could only imagine a certain minority of our society would make a great living out of it! D’ ya wanna buy a gate boss!

Safety
Rio is safe. To a certain degree I might add. We never felt under threat and as I said before ‘no means no’. We did at times feel uneasy but that was from hearing people say bad things about it. I’m not saying now you should leave your wallet on a café table while you have your lunch but with common sense Rio would be no threat. Don’t bring out your flashy camera. Don’t leave your stuff on the beach while you swim. Don’t carry your money visibly. Leave jewellery at home. Stay out of the dodgy areas. Follow these simple steps and you’ll never have a days bother. Most of them you would do at home anyway, so why would you do them in Rio.

Sights
There are a serious amount of things to do in Rio. There is something to do everyday. For starters you have all the different districts that you can visit. Santa Theresa for its cobbled arty streets, Lapa if you like to party, Copacabana and Ipanema for the beaches and shopping. Urca beside the Sugar Loaf mountain. Centro for the business district of the town. There are many more and each deserve a visit if you have time to do it. Then there is the national forest park in the centre of Rio with all its wild life, flora and fauna. There is the universally recognisable statue of Christ looking down on all the people of Rio. The Brazilian football stadium the Maracana. Horse racing, Favela tours. There is just so much to do. It easily deserves 10 days and we are already planning our return.

Favela’s
These are like shanty towns built all over the many hills of Rio. As Michelle said, they look like Christmas tree’s when lit up at night. They are controlled by the gangs and crime is said to be pretty low in them as the punishment for many crimes are very harsh. We didn’t get to do a tour of a Favela and we wish we did but as I said we didn’t have time to do everything. House is built upon house up the side of the large hills. They even have McDonalds and banks inside them I’ve been told. These are obviously poor people but it is there way of life and where they live. I have put up some pictures so that you can see what they look like.

Food
They love sugar and bread here in Rio. Lots of fatty foods can be found in there diets and cake shops are two a penny. Lots of the food is deep fried and we have eaten things that we did not know what we were eating and still don’t. They really like there sweet buns and the shops and cafes are loaded with them. We didn’t get to try much Brazilian food but what we did have was very nice. They don’t serve anything out of the ordinary and beef is plentiful. I found out the type of banana they use for cooking is different to the fruit we know and tastes different too. Overall the food was good and the Per Kilo restaurants are very handy for travelers like us.

People
The people here are very nice and friendly. We didn’t have any problems at all other that we didn’t know any Portuguese.


Overall we loved Rio and wish we had longer to stay here. We said it would be the perfect place to be unemployed in! You can head to the beach everyday, play sports, go to the free samba shows and watch the world go by. I don’t know how long someone could do that but we could certainly give it a try. It is a very clean city for its size and very green. There are trees everywhere and they are proud of it and respect it. All we can really say is that RIO ROCKS!

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Comments

[jas0n gold]

wat day do
i c u like my home town da favala dat is my project home/ansesary and my people im proud dat u take the time to go n visit n witness da life styol out side of da U.S thank u for careing yo firend jason gold