rio de janeiro - la cidade maravilhosa

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Really enjoying Rio so far but the drastic temperatures still impede movement a bit... have kind of got into a pattern of early-ish rises, activity in the morninng, retreat to hostel outof mid day heat and gt lunch, relax and shower then back out late atfernoon early evening aghain when its cooler. Found a wee gem of a place which serves fruit smoothies of anything imaginable which are so refreshing.. will definately be going back there.

Rio is so different from how i imagined on so mny levels.. Its much more European than i would have thought, more developed and not as scary. Obviously there is abject poverty like any developing countries and have seen some nasty sights like kids sleeping rough but i thought it would engulf you. I'm in the centre though so aware things will be more touristy here. In terms of safety so far so good.. it realy doesnt feel any different to larger european cities and you are hassled much less than north africa, turkey etc by the looky looky guys. Long may it continue...!

We have been scooting about quite the thing on public transport too. Buses, metro, its all well linked up, easy to use and seemingly safe. The metro would rival London and is def not a typical south american metro - or what i would have imagined. Alarmingly though i noticed a women only carriage on one - the fct there is a need for one makes you think a bit!

After familiarising ouyrselves with surroundings and chilling at the beach first stop was the iconic Christ the redeemer statue. We took a train - doesnt feel right calling it a train as it was going up almost vertically up a mountain. The views were unreal over the whole city and the statue itself was impressive, envokes the same feeling of seeing the pyramids or the eiffel tower for the best time but the views are probably the best ive ever seen!

After getting down and a quick visit to a church to cool down we hopped on the bus and went to the botanic gardens. Had kinda hoped to see more in the way of widlife but it was more fauna. Really nice and relaxing though with fountains, waterfalls etc, gran would have loved it! We saw a toucan to. The heat got the better of us again and headed back to the hostel for some downtime.

The following day went for a wander around the city centre as believe it or not hadnt actually properly been yet. Compared to the rest of the city i guess it is quite unimpressive. Quite economic, some modern buildings and a few older ons but generally really hectic and businessy. After thinking we could walk along the coast but ending up at the docklands we stumbled across the national history musuem where the temperture was what can only be described as pure bliss! Spent a couple of hours going through the exhibition an learned about the background to brazil and the struggles of invasion v indigenous communities. It was really interesting and felt much better informed when i left. Only an independant country for 200 years!

Later on that night we saw about a 10 strong group of brazilians from a band had descended to our hostel! Had been enjoying the 4 people to a 12 bed dorm but they were all friendly. Notquie surehow the hostel came to book a Sao Paolo band to come for 1 night and put them up but hey it was fun. Every friday and saturday night there is a 2 hour free cocktail session so it was our first meeting with other travellers. Except from 1 french guy pretty much everyone was brazilian, argentinin or frm chile. Met some cool folk and woke uo feeling no worse than a bit dehydrated which is a win for me!

On Saturday took a bus up to the hippy area of Santa Teresa which was cool. Up in the mountins with a cracking view, wee stalls, brightly coloured paintings and lots of street art,Easy going after last night.

More rio to follow.. have had various problems uploading pics and salso with my tablet, I can't upload photos through my SD and having to use garys.. big pain!

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