At the Copa, Copacabana!

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Howdy readers!

It's been a while since our last update, so we should probably let you know what has happened since our last post.

We flew in to Rio on the night of the 19th. We were staying on Copacabana beach because all the accommodation on Ipanema was full.

Found some food in the way of crepes at this little place called Yonza. Dirt cheap food and drink, a must for anyone staying around this area. With large manga style cartoons on the walls, this place was pretty cool.( Bowz was keen for a night out, but as we were planning on flying next morning, i convinced him to head home early, so we finished about 1am- Danyane )

Got up the next morning for our hang gliding adventure! After a few hiccups, we made it up to the top of the 512m peak in Rio's national park. We couldn't see a thing because there was low cloud, but you basically had to run with the glider and take a leap of faith off the pier.

It was absolutely amazing! When we dropped through the clouds, the beaches of Rio opened up and you could see all the way up the coast. It was a relaxed flight, where you could take pictures + videos with your own camera. My instructor spent half the time on his mobile phone hahahaha. Anyway, he pointed out the largest Favela (slum) in Rio, as seen in City of God, and the houses we flew over were the most expensive in Rio, about $6MR ($4Maus).

Our transport dropped us off in the afternoon to take the tram up to Christo Redentor (or Christ the Redeemer- statue). It was really quite beautiful up on the top of the hill and the statue is very impressive. It was smaller than I expected, at only 30m high, but you can see it from most places in Rio. ( still pretty big when you're standing under it, actually it was really amazing to see )

For dinner, we headed out to a Mexican restaurant/bar and decided we were going to get loaded on Tequila's ( we did manage a run in the afternoon, so didn't feel guilty AT ALL ). Shots were ordered as an entree and we found that they used massive shot glasses. The Tequila was much nicer than what you'd find in Australia but it still doesn't make it any easier shotting doubles. After a few rounds of these, we were pretty lucid, had some dinner and pushed on to a samba club.

We made it in eventually after the door girl didn't believe Danyane was 18, and she didn't really understand the term "cradle-snatcher" hahaha. The live Samba music was great. Lots of drums and horns, Patty, you would have loved it. Finished up about 3am.

Bummed around Rio on the Thursday before flying out to Florianopoulos in the afternoon ( where i was looking forward to some sun, sand & surf! ).

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