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Published: March 9th 2016
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As our plane flew into Rio, we were amazed by the beauty of the scenery beneath us! The mountains, turquoise sea, white beaches and green rainforests surrounding the city are simply stunning. We were expecting to relax a little and enjoy the city at a leisurely pace as we had 12 days here. It soon became apparent however, that there was far too much to see and do to allow that, especially during carnival week! it also became obvious very quickly that we were going to be moving a lot more slowly than we had been due to the extreme heat here… It was 42 degrees on our second day!
Aside from the insane heat, Rio is such an exciting city and provided an amazing way to finish our incredible six months of travelling around The Americas! So, we have picked our highlights of Rio… we did lots of other brilliant activities too, including a hike to Leme Fort with amazing views, a night in a samba club in Lapa and Sao Cristovao Fair, where we ate the most amazing tapioca!
The Sambadrome The Saturday after carnival saw us in the the famous sambadrome dancing at the Winners
Parade, where the six best samba schools recreate their performances from the competition. The atmosphere was brilliant, the costumes were incredible and the floats were unbelievable!
Sugar Loaf Mountain The views from the top of Sugar Loaf were beautiful in every direction. Part way up, you get off to change to a different cable car, which provides a nice little viewpoint out to Urca’s red sand beach. Then from the top, we could see all the way down to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, around 8 kms of sand away! We could also see Christ the Redeemer standing on top of his hill and the boats in the harbour below, as well as the many gorgeous islands off the coast of Rio. It really is the most amazing setting for a city!
Bike Ride to Ipanema We spent a very hot day cycling to Ipanema beach. The route took us past Flamengo beach and on to Botofogo, where we could see Sugar Loaf in one direction and Cristo in another. Very cool! We took a little detour to Praia Vermelha (the red beach) and then continued on to Copacabana, cycling past the trendy bars and cafés along
the coast. We then carried on to Ipanema, making it to the very end of the beach and ascending to the lookout for the view of the whole 4km beach. One of the most incredible things here was that immediately behind us was a favela – a brilliant example of what Rio is like, rich and poor right next to each other. Now a little bit sweaty, we went back down to the beach and set up with some chairs and a parasol in the sand, and a couple of coconuts. These were delicious and very refreshing! We spent a blissful couple of hours in the shade on the beach, having a swim when we got too hot, before heading back on the bikes. Unfortunately, when we got home it turned out that I had managed to get sunburnt in the shade! Gutted. I’d made it 6 months and then got burnt on the penultimate day!
Christ the Redeemer (Cristo) This seemed like something we had to tick off the list, and we weren’t that excited about going as we’d heard reports of hours of queuing and hordes of crowds at the top. As it was, we left
it until the end of our stay, when the weather was a bit dodgy. We caught the bus to the funicular, and were amazed to see that there weren’t many people about. There was apparently reduced visibility at the top so there was a reduced rate on tickets and hardly any queue! We were a little unsure but decided to go up anyway. The funicular ride up was great fun, I saw monkeys! The view from the top was still pretty spectacular. It was grey, but we felt that this made it look quite moody! It was good to see the iconic statue and the views out to the Maracana, Sugar Loaf and Lake Rodrigo de Freitas were very dramatic.
Santa Teresa Our studio flat was in the area of Lapa, in a great location near the Lapa Arches, the Cathedral and the famous Escadaria Selarón, named after an eccentric Chilean artist. These steps are wonderful, decorated with tiles from all over the world, leading up to Santa Teresa, a lovely cobbled area with gift shops and cafés. We also found a park with lovely views out over the city and, on another day, caught a carnival parade
here.
Maracana Tom’s priority whilst in Rio was obviously to visit this iconic stadium. We didn’t manage to see a match here – it is currently not being used in preparation for the Olympics – but we got to look around. He managed to embarrass himself by having a shot on the pitch! It did not go in. The stadium itself was very impressive and we got to have a look around the changing rooms, press area and sit in the dug out.
Ipanema Sunset This was a beautiful sunset with the sun going down between the Two Brothers Mountains. We had a fairly cloudy sky, which added to the lovely colours, and as we sat on the sand watching there were waiters patrolling the sands with trays of Caipirinhas!
Stormy Copacabana This was very cool. We were attempting to watch sunset this night too, but having lazed on the beach for a while looking out to Sugar Loaf and watching surfers, the skies were getting increasingly grey and angry looking. Eventually the thunder started. Before we knew it, we were running in the rain with enormous forks of lightning in the sky in
front of us! Amazing. Couldn’t get a photo though!
Ilha Grande (Big Island) Boat Tour We decided that it would be nice to get out of the city for a day, and Ilha Grande seemed a good option. There was a 2 hour drive to Angra dos Reis, down the coast, and then we got on our boat for the island tour. The boat was full of enormous mattresses in the middle, where we could laze around with big pillows. The first stop was a tiny little island where we could jump off the boat and swim, followed by a lazy wander across the island of white sand and palm trees. Next we were taken to the Blue Lagoon, just off the coast of Ilha Grande, a pretty little area with some colourful fish to snorkel with. We had snorkel issues and I couldn’t see a thing through mine but managed to steal Tom’s from time to time! Next was a gorgeous long beach. We decided to escape the crowds and walked all the way to the other end of the beach, which was completely empty and the views out to sea were beautiful. Finally, we had a
buffet lunch and lazed around for a while on the beach on Ilha Grande, before heading back. It was a fun day with lots of lovely scenery!
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