The joys of Rio de Janeiro Cidade Maravilhosa

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First let me tell you that both stef and me totally fell for Rio at first sight. We arrived at 22:00 hrs but even in the dark, peeking from a taxi window the city of Rio de Janeiro looks fabulous. After spending some time here we decided we want to move to Rio the soonest possible...

Carnaval -Sambodromo

Monday morning, we decided that our visit in Rio would be incomplete without going to the sambodromo, so we made our way to El Misti Botafogo to get our tickets, the two last ones our hostel had. On Monday it wasn´t Group A Sampa schools but it was the Special Group that counts as similar level. The parade started at 21:25. We made our way there first taking the metro and then we walked. The good thing about hostels is that you an easily find people to hang around with so at least we didn´t go alone. We followed Flo and Max taht got us safely into the Sambodromo Section 12. We missed the first school but we managed to see al the others. There were 5 schools in total. Each school danced, marched, had fun on their way to the Praça de Apotheosis for about one and a half hours, playing the same song. The drum beat changed slightly at times but for 90 minutes we listened to the same song which was the only negative thing at the Sambodromo. The colours, the costumes the dancing the floats... left us speachless.. People marching, beautiful girls bearing wings on their back and hair dancing sampa shaking their whole bodies, others on the floats giving literally a performance... it was just amazing. We were feeling sleepy at some points but we couldn´t miss such a spectacle and did everything we could to stay awake. It was totally worth it, especially towards the end when the Tijuca school came. In our oppinion it was the best. We were in the Sambodromo at 22:20 and left at around 6:00 in the morning.

Copacabana Beach

After the great night at the Sambodromo we decided to lay down a bit and relax at Copacabana beach which is only 5 mins on foot from or hostel. We hit the beach around 14:00 and as soon as we saw the typical Copacabana mosaiced pavement we couldn t believe we were actually there. The sand is white and almost crystallised the water is pretty cold but so refreshing and everyone stays at the shore having fun playing with the waves. It´s funny to observe the little kids how much they make out of it, lauphing and jumbing in the foam. Salespersons constantly approach you with sarongs, bikinins hanging from an umbrella, beach wear, drinks, fruits, ice-creams even jewellery. They shout and sing their stock making their way through the crowded beach waiting for someone to stop them and buy something. After spending sometime on the beach and trying the water, we decided to walk untill the Copacabana Palace hotel which is the oldest hotel in Rio I think. It stuck us again, cupid... We wanted to go in so badly we decided to send an email requesting prices for their buffet lunch or dinner but unfortunatelly our budget cant afford that. What a pitty... We might go for drinks

Açai na Tigela con granola

Since we are skipping lunch we decided to treat ourselves to an açai frozen drink which is delicious. Justine and Kiki told us they use to have it on the beach as their lunch but we havent encountered it on the beach yet. On the way home though there are a few places you can get it and its addictive and so yummi plus good for your health. The first time we took it with babana, the second with banana and strawberry, the third with banana slices and granola, then only with granola. Stef likes it that way the best.

Churascaria

Churascaria is a heaven for meat eaters. It is a restaurant that serves all you can eat meat on skewers. After getting a place to sit you can help yourself to the salad bar that has some other things as well. The one we went was basically the best in Rio though not the one with the greatest variety. It was a beautiful restaurant with nice atmosphere dimmed lighting and delicious food. The salad-bar had -except from a variety of salads- fish, sushi, selection bread and cheese, paella and some other warm dishes. Luca and Aniko told us to meet somewhere in Ipanema and we wanted to go to a churascaria with them so they took us to this one ´Carretago´ We got our table after waiting for half an hour, we ordered our wine and got our card with green on the one side and red on the other. You get the cards to indicate to the waiters if you want food or not. We all went green and our experience started. First came a waiter with ´aligator, which is beef with vegetables in it and cut us all a piece into our plate. Then came saussages, lamp, pork, baby pork, picanha, chicken, pheasant and many others. Stef -surprisingly so- tried almost everything but to be honest she didn´t have much of a choice. One of the waiters kept coming to our table even if we all were on red and turned Stefanie´s card into grenn and waited there with a smirk. Stef said no a couple of times before saying yes. And why not she always asked for a small piece just to try but our waiterfriend had his own way... This routine happened for a couple of times. We were all stuffed by the end of the night but as always, we -barely- had some room for desert. Aniko and luca shared a berry creme something and stef and me took vanilla icecream with chocolate sauce and peanutcookie brittle.

Ipanema Beach

This morning around 11 we arranged to meet Kate at Ipanema beach. We went to post no.9 because our guide had suggested it. It is similar to Copacabana though the water was slightly warmer and clearer. Peolpe come to you with their stock at Ipanema as well though they are not advertising that much.

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