Blogs from Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 6

Todays adventure took us to Corcovado, or 'Hunchback', which is the mountain where Christ the Redeemer is. Heard from a few people from the hostel that you can actually hike up to the statue so myself and a friend decided this would be a good idea. We got the bus through town to the Parque Lage which is a public park. Inside here is an incredible mansion that is home to an art school. From here you walk through round the back and up some steps to a guard post who make you sign in and give you a map of the route up to the statue. The trail started pretty straight forward so thought that the 710m ascent would be easy. I was wrong. A few minutes into the trail there were crashes all around ... read more

Hi folks! Nach etwas längerer Pause gibt es heute mal wieder einen Blogeintrag. Dafür haben wir die letzten Wochen von Nadines Besuch hier ausgiebig für den touristischen Teil genutzt (den übrigens auch der DAAD in seinem Stipendienschreiben ausdrücklich empfahl :-D) Zunächst flogen wir, wie angekündigt, nach Rio de Janeiro um dort drei Tage die Stadt anzuschauen. Vordergründig geht’s dabei um Copacabana, Zuckerhut und die Christusstatue/Corcovado. Übrigens steht die Christusstatue nicht auf dem Zuckerhut, wie ich bis kurz vor der Reise noch dachte. :-D Ein kleines bisschen mulmig war uns ja zunächst schon, hört(e) man doch von allerhand Kriminalität in Rio, Diebstählen, Überfällen etc. Aber wer nicht wagt, der nicht gewinnt und da wir uns an die einschlägigen Sicherheitsempfehlungen gehalten haben (keine Favelas aufsuchen, keine teuren Sachen mitnehmen, nicht auffällig ... read more

My first trip to Rio de Janeiro happened to fall the week before Memorial Day, so Jenn flew down to meet me there at the tail end of my work obligations for a long weekend. Rio is a famously beautiful city with an incredible array of world class attractions. Iconic landmarks like Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) and Corcovado, atop which stands Christ the Redeemer statue, overlook the breathtaking beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. However, for all the attention and praise that Brazil has received over the last decade, it still hasn’t shaken many of the less favorable reminders of its poorer past. Because of a rural exodus in which many people left their rural homes and moved to cities, only to be unable to find work, there is a shockingly high percentage of visibly poor ... read more

We hired an apartment in Copacabana for our week in Rio. We discovered the price is similar to a hostel and you have a lot more private space. As usual the first thing that we check is the internet. The promised wifi was not there. After some discussion the man from Copacabana Holiday Rentals left to sort it and said he would be back in 20 minutes. An hour later we went to the office and he had gone to lunch!! So we headed to the beach, just three smallish blocks and a multilane street from our apartment. There was a wide level stretch of sand then a steep slope down to the water. The waves were ‘dumpers’ and close to the beach. There were “no swimming” signs but a few people braved the water getting ... read more

Hi Everyone! Still living it up in Rio. Had a great night a couple of nights ago on the copacabana. Went down for 'one´ drink the other night, they have kiosks on the beach that serve beer. THe lads took the football down and decided to have a game. A group of Chileans next to us decided to join in so it was gringos (white people) against the chileans! The gringos beat the chileans 7-0! Stayed on the beach till 6am to watch the sunrise which didn´t look too good since it started raining. Went to the zoo yesterday, it was really good, better than i expected. THere were loads of animals to see, especially birds. We saw a wild marmoset in a tree! THe zoo is in the middle of a park so there are ... read more