Advertisement
Published: August 3rd 2013
We spent 6 days in Rio, and it was fantastic!..To kick start the trip we decided to tandem handglide from the moutains in the Sao Corado region which is amongst the rainforest...Thoroughly enjoyed it despite questioning why l wanted to run off a platform into thin air strapped to a strange Brazilian called Alex! but we managed it and loved every second. We flew above the rainforest like birds, over the sea and finally landing on the beach.
We also completed the main gringo trail, walking along the copacabana and Ipanema beaches (Craig and myself competing to find the man with the smallest pair of budgey smugglers on), going up to the Christ de Redentor to marvel at the city from one of its highest points, walking around the lagoa and watching sunset and Rio lighting up at nighttime from the top of Pan de Azucar (Sugar loaf moutain - which was a highlight for both of us).
Ate lots of yummy food, and to my delight there were churros sellers on every corner - if you dont know what a churros is, it is a sweet pastry like a donut but long and thin which in Rio they
fill with either, toffee or chocolate sauce ! MMM! toffee sauce is the way to go in my opinion. Also treated ourselves to an all you can eat meat extravaganza...every type of meat you could think of stuck on their own skewers and sliced in front of you. Its just like Fazenda in Leeds, however in Brazil they are called Churrascari and are luckily on most street corners. We also ate (and Craig enjoyed much more then me) the national drink called Acai which aledges to have many health benefits, l had some of the other national drink called the Caipirinha, which has some kick to it...woo!
SO, apart from seeing the main sights, and also eating LOTS of yummy food we went and partied...We partied our asses off in an area called Lapa - its where Craig and myself realised how much we liked SAMBA music! we LOVED IT!..the streets of Lapa are lined with samba clubs. In these clubs you enter and are given a slip of paper which has drinks you can have on it and tick boxes - when in the club you present your slip to a waiter who ticks what drink you want
and serves it to you. No money is exchanged and at the end of the night you take your slip to the cashier who adds it all up plus the entrance fee to the club and you are then allowed to leave. This idea l think is quite good in theory, however, on the slip are no prices for the drink and things can easily get carried away as you dont know how much money you have spent - as you can imagine the cashiers takes all form of payment and there are LOTS of bouncers on the exit doors if you happen to ´loose´ your slip and are very intoxicated. We watched two live bands in a club called Sacriledge which we enjoyed - we stood out like two sore GRINGO thumbs... but ho hum! we made ´samba´friends and had a boogie... We left here before we spent all of our travelling money and found a live samba band playing under the caricoa aquaduct - This was lots of fun with stalls selling beers and cocktails (l got on the Caipirinha train again) for cheap prices and danced with more locals and stayed until about 2am. We saw that
that it is quite safe in the crowd at 2am but once away from the pack (so to speak) its everyman for themself, having watched a lone fellor being mugged in front us...so it was a ´TAXI!´ home to the safe hostel....
Things we learnt in Rio de Janeiro;
1) Dont forget to take a map when leaving the hostel
2) When given directions -FOLLOW THEM DOOFUS!
3) Toffee Churros - YUM! everyone should try them at least once whe given the opportunity. Im thinking about setting up a potential stall selling these delicous treats at Glastonbury if anyone fancies it!? will pay in churros.
4) We definetly need to learn the local lingo (Spanish is the main language in S.America/Central America so we need to get ourselves back to school- pronto)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.27s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0649s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mub & Dad
non-member comment
Sounds as if you are having a fab time. We are quite jealous having been to Rio about 3 years ago and know all the places you mentioned - except, of course the night clubs!! Love Mub & Dad xx