Samba Time in Rio!

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I made it to Rio! After 3 months of travelling around this vast continent I have finally made it to one of the greatest cities of the world - Rio de Janeiro (the river of January), founded by the Portuguese and home to about 7 million souls. It’s a great city in a fabulous location, probably the most impressive setting for a city I have seen - just about beating off the challenge from Cape Town.

I had a nice time of it in Paraty, once the sun finally came out. We spent the last day aboard a boat which cruised around the islands around the Costa Verde. It was festival time in Paraty - they celebrate the local sugar cane spirit ‘Cachaca’ by partying all weekend in the main square - very entertaining! We left Paraty on Saturday morning after having to perform one final massive truck clean, although a couple of characters off the truck were too hammered from the night before to do anything at all. Arrived in Rio at around 4pm and checked into a decent hotel in the Flamengo part of town - a good location, not far from downtown but still close enough to the beaches. Spent Sunday doing the full tourist frenzy - i.e. going up Pao de Azucar (that’s Sugar Loaf mountain to the non-Portuguese speakers) for great views of the bay, then on to the hill of Corcovada which is best known for the statue that sits atop its hunch-backed peak - Christo redentor (the statue of Christ the Redeemer). The statue made it into the list of the new 7 man-made wonders of the world compiled just recently. You do get fanatstic views from up there and the helicopters get well close up to Christ’s face, but I wouldn’t rank it up there along with Machu Picchu or the Taj Mahal. I watched the sun set from atop the mountain whilst quietly seething as in the distance I could see the Maracana stadium all lit up, full of fans awaiting the kick-off of the Flamengo match which I was wanting to see but my tour was over running by more than an hour, thus depriving me of the experience - bugger, bugger, and twice more bugger! Some of the other guys on the trip made it tho’ and they said it was an amazing experience - a really nice atmosphere with lots of samba bands and great footie. I did make it to the Maracana stadium yesterday and did the full stadium tour which was excellent. You get to go to the top of the stands and also visit the dressing rooms & set foot on the hallowed turf (which was in pretty bad nick actually). The highest recorded attendance at the stadium was over 199,000 people in 1950 - must have been an awesome sight. The stadium has been recently modernised and made all-seater but it now can only hold 95,000 - a much more modest experience but still a truly great stadium of the world.

I also managed to check out the beaches (Copacabana & Ipanema) just to see if all the local ladies do in fact wear those Brazilian-style minimalist thongs! I can definitively report back that they in fact do - although quite a few of the ladies shouldn’t really have been wearing such items, especially with their big bellies hanging over their tiny thongs - not a good look really! The blokes are even funnier with their 70´s style ultra tight Speedos on - another fashion faux-pas! But there really is a high proportion of good looking people in this city - but I bet most of them have been on the old plastic surgeons trolley at some time or other!

So, I must now depart Rio and return to the reality of life back in the UK. I’ll be glad to get home but I’m going to miss all of this - I’ve had a fabulous time, met some great people (and some tossers) and had the time of my life! Adios South America - hopefully I’ll be back some day soon.

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Photos

View From Sugar Loaf Mountain
You get a great view of the city from here, although it does get rather smoggy due to pollution.

Beach at Ipanema
The best beach in Rio?

Christo Redentor
The one and only, Christ the Redeemer.....a Rio landmark and recently voted as one of the new seven man-made wonders of the world.

Maracana Stadium
It may not be able to hold 200,000 people any more, but it's still a magnificent football stadium.

Old Cathedral
The new cathedral may be a lot bigger, but the original has much more character.

Sugar Loaf Mountain
The classic view of Rio.

Comments

[Rayna]

Great summary
Great read and description of your time here, would love to see all of this myself one day. Interestingly, the bigger ladies wearing thongs summarises this part of the world perfectly in that they simply enjoy life and do not care! Our selfish, vain and snowflake generation could learn a lot from this culture! It might make them less miserable! Thanks for posting! Good read