Rio de Janeiro

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Hi everyone!

We have spent the last week in the amazing city of Rio! We have had the best time and are very sad to be leaving.

We met up with 3 friends from uni so it was really nice to be in a bigger group. We had all booked to stay in a hostel in an area called Ipanema which is next to Copacabana. Its a lovely area with a shops, cafes, resturants and a main square. Our hostel is only 2 blocks from the beach so we have made good use of the close proximity!

On our first full day (Friday 24th) we headed stright to the Christ the Redeemer statue which hits on Corcovado hill. We reached the top quite quickly and the views of the city were breathtaking. We learnt about the history and importance of the statue, which was created to mark 100 years of independance from Portugal and has since then been restored in 2009 which was evident from its imacualte condition. Unfortunatly we didnt beat the queues however we spent well over an hour at the top, making sure we were taking everything in. We have taken loads of great photos but again the hostel won´t allow us to upload pictures!!!

Over the weekend it was so hot we spend both days on Ipanema beach and the waves are fantastic, we all had so much fun being thrown around in the sea. Each evening we watched the magnificant sunset on ipanema beach as the sun sets between a pair of mountains called the two brothers. We have also sampled some of the local nightlife, going to a street party in an area of town called lapa and a nightclub in leblon.

On Monday we set our alarms bright an early so we could get to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountian before the tourist groups arrived. It comprises of 2 cable cars: the first one takes you to a platform where there is an auditorium displaying a video explaining all of the history of the cable car. You then board a second car to take you to the top, and the views were truly amazing, to be able to see the whole city and all the beaches with christ the redeemer watching over it really is something special.

We then headed back to Lapa during the day to find the well known Lapa Steps, a set of steep steps which have been tiled on all sides by a chilean artist called Selaron. It was amazing walking up and down the steps looking at the different tiles and pictures from all over the world. The tiles ranged from a photo of Princess Di to a tile celebrating a couples recent wedding in Sheffield and everything else in between. It was really nice because it was a work in progress and tiles are forever being added so it never becomes outdated.and tiles are sent to the artist from all around the world and if we´re lucky enough to visit again we´ll be sure to remember a tile of our own.

Yesterday we did a tour of the largest Favela in South America called Rocinha (little farm), which we were initially aprehensive about but are so glad we did it as it is definitely up there as one of our favourite experiences of the trip so far. We arrived at the bottom of a steep hill where we all jumped on the back of a moped taxi which zoomed us up an incredibly winding hill through the heart of the favela. We then made our way down to the bottom which took 2 hours, through small windy streets, local artists galleries, day care centres, houses and schools. Along the way we were treated to some live percussion and samba dance by some local teenage boys, it was particularly special as these boys were using buckets, bins and tin cans as instruments but they were really great! We were told all about the history, crime and drug problem and ways in which schemes (like the one that provided our tour www.bealocal.com) and the government are doing to tackle the problems.

Sorry guys to be continued our transfer to the bus station is here!

Much love xxxxx

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