Blogs from Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 11

At approximately 4.27pm this afternoon, on the beach of Ipenema, Rio De Janiro, amidst the build up to final Champion's Parade for Carnival, an attempted thong theft was thwarted by a New Zealander tourist, who inadvertently witnessed the event whilst sunbathing. He stated, "I was just lying here on my side, when a bunch of about five young boys walked by, the last one slipping his feet into the thongs, which had been left in my care while their owner took a dip in the ocean, mid stride and continued walking off. When I realised, a called out 'Ooi, their not your thongs!', and the would be theif turned around and glared at me, removed the thongs, and walked off."... read more

We arrived in Rio at 2am and went straight to bed. The next morning we collected our tickets for Rio Carnaval and spent the afternoon walking along Ipanema beach. The beautiful bronzed bodies were squashed onto every available patch of sand and as we passed the gay section the bodies became even more bronzed, incredibly buff and impossibly crowed. After sunset we went to a block party and joined in the drinking and dancing as a samba band played in a small park. The Carnaval had started. To shake off the hangover we joined the beautiful people on the beach for a few hours and then watched a football match at Rio's Maracana stadium. I'm not really into football so who the teams were and the quality of the game passed me by, but the atmosphere ... read more

To say that I LOVE Rio is an understatement and I know it´s a massive call but after all my travels throughout the world I can easily say that Rio (in my opinion) is the best city on the planet. I always thought New York was the best but this place absolutely kicks over NYC. It´s spectacular, beautiful, alive, friendly, sexy, exciting, exotic, dangerous and absolutely fabulous. Even Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were staying a few doors down from me this week. I think my hostel was full so they had to go to the Copacabana Palace hotel instead. Everything you dream Rio to be, it is. The party vibe is awesome and the beaches amazing. I am staying on Ipanema beach which has a more local feel to it instead of the very touristy ... read more

Great beaches. Beautiful people. Lively city. Incomprehensible language. Yeah, I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. First of all, WOW! The energy and vibe in this city is great. People are relaxed and very patient. I don't speak a word of Portuguese, but I love how it sounds. There are some words that are similar to Spanish, but not really, so I still have a hard time understanding people. Sometimes I just stare at them blankly and smile. I'm like, "uhh....what??" I didn't buy a translating guide book. My friend, Homer, kept telling me I didn't need one. Wrong. We see foods on menus and just make guesses at what we're ordering sometimes. I did find out that "frango" is chicken. I'm good with that word. Oh and "obrigado" meaning thank you. That's pretty much all ... read more

I am sitting in a little internet cafe on the beach in Ilha Grande. This is an island about 150km South/West of Rio. It is beautiful and the moment I got here I knew it was just what I needed. The first 5 days of my trip have been pretty full on and I am really looking forward to just relaxing, chilling and re-chaging the batteries. Rio is a fantastic city and I felt a lot safer than I had believed I would. Everything I had heard before I arrived was that everone got robbed! While you definitley have to be careful, I didn´t really feel threatened once. Rio reminds me of Sydney in many ways, It is a city on the ocean surrounded by beautiful lush green national parks. Like Sydney it is so ... read more