Rio, a great ending

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Now we are at the end of our holiday which has been so good.

We booked 2 different places to stay in Rio....the bad and the good. Our first 3 nights were up past the Sheraton near a favela (slum) and it looked so much better on the website...it had a pool and our delux room had sea views. In reality, our room contained a double bed and a broken DVD player. The pool was an empty jacuzi and breakfast was a toasted cheese and ham sandwich. Now we are at the well recommended Mango Tree.

We ate one night in the favela and went there for groceries......it's quite safe if you don´t go too far.

Tuesday

The prettier side of Rio was seen with a city tour which included Corcovado (Christ the Redeemer), built in 1930's to celebrate Brazil's independence from Portugal. At night it is lit and shines like a white cross from the highest peak. Below is the pretty Santa Teresa area with its trams and run down colonial buildings where many artists live. Through the Lapa district of Rio´s nightlife and onto the bell shaped, concrete cathedral. Then to the now famous Selaron Steps. These were a grubby set of stairs transformed by the artist Selaron as he gradually tiled them and the walls around. He came out of his studio and wandered off down the street while we admired his work. To finish off we went up Sugar Loaf, named after the cone shaped loaves sweetened by sugarcane. A cable car takes people to the top for fabulous views of the city, mountains and beaches. The sun went down, the city lights came on and Christ the Redeemer shone.

Wednesday

We've done a tour of another favela (Rochinha, where 65000 people live) on the other side of the mountain, which is a giant mass of granite like all the other mountains here. Rich live so close to the poor. We rode up to the top, where there are fabulous views of mountains, forests and beaches, on the back of a motorcycle taxi. We could take no photos till we were well inside as the gang which controls the favela, watches the entrances and other areas. They leave their marks on the walls, in this case ADA. Also bullet holes from gang wars. Bullets can penetrate the brick walls, pass through the room and lodge in the opposite wall, too bad if you are in there watching TV. The streets are narrow alleys hardly more than a metre wide, between rough built houses and shops, winding concrete stairways leading off, up or down. And lots of filth.

We walked back down via local artists, shops and child care projects. We gave pens,etc to kids drumming on cans and plastic bins and dancing in bare feet on the dirty conc path. Power and water are stolen from the mains companies, so there is a tangle of pipes and powerlines running everywhere. Large trees push over houses, others collapse when the foundations give way. In the sky flutter the small 5 sided kites flown from the rooftops by men and boys. Others lie flat against the steep bare rock of the mountain. A channel has been built near the base to direct summer rain from flowing into the favela and washing away houses.

Thursday

A pleasant few hours spent in the beautiful botanical gardens.

Friday

And of course, the beaches....so famous. At the end of Ipanema beach Supersurf are running a competition. Hawkers sell bikini tops, biscuits, ice creams, drinks, you name it. Umbrellas, towels and chairs can be rented all along the beaches. Life guards patrol the beach from numbered posts at regular intervals. People play all sorts of ball games on the sand and joggers, cyclists and skaters use the path by the road. Kiosks selling drinks and snacks sit on the wide path by the beach every 100m or so. Oh and some people swim.

Brazil is very expensive and we weren't expecting that. And their meals are huge. Since we arrived, we've been eating one meal between us and there's still food left over. The body beautiful, as seen in Rio adds and movies, is not a common sight, but the G-string is, but only on women.

Saturday

I've developed a taste for the local drink, caipiranha, but at a street party in Lapa last night, Jill and I ended up with tats on our hands. Don't know how that happened. We went out about 11pm with a large group from the hostel, and returned about 3am.



Jill's hanggliding flight off one of the mountains down to the beach, got cancelled, she may be able to fly tomorrow morning as her flight back to China leaves in the evening.

So today we'll finish off with a cycle round the lake and along Copacobana beach so we can say, Been there, done that. Then one last swim at Ipanema beach. We've already had a coffee at the Garota de Ipanema on the next corner, where the song, Girl from Ipanema, was written.

Tonight we'll find a nice restaurant....it's my birthday tomorrow.....to celebrate that and our return to work. No, wait, to celebrate a great holiday.

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Photos

Christ the Redeemer
he's so tall and close, the photographer has to sit on the ground

Selaron Steps
we always find the Aussie connection

views from Sugarloaf
Copacobana Beach on the leaf

favela artwork
a way for residents to make a living