Blogs from Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America - page 2

Another day is over here at the Olympics in Rio with day #4 in the books. We were up earlier this morning and headed back to Olympic Park. We didn't have a chance yesterday to mention it, but Rio has done a fantastic job with their brand-new subway line (Line #4) connecting the southeast coast and beaches like Copacabana and Ipanema with the southwest coast of the the city (the Barra region). What's interesting is that right now the new line is only used for those traveling with the Rio Olympic Transit Pass as well as a ticket to an event that day. No locals have had the opportunity to use this new subway line yet. The stations are absolutely beautiful, completely finished, bright, modern and spacious. This will be a major legacy for the people ... read more

Day 2 here at the Olympics was a full day of Women's Basketball. We woke up early in order to travel to the Deodoro cluster of Olympic sites. Part of the Rio Organizing Committee's strategy was to spread the Olympic sites out around Rio. The Deodoro cluster is about an hour train ride northwest of the city centre. The cluster hosts all of equestrian events, handball, field hockey, shooting and women's basketball. There is a practice pool there too. The cluster itself actually is completely within a huge military base. Picture the Olympic venues sitting inside CFB Borden or CFB Garrison. To say that security was at a maximum at this location would be an understatement. We felt extremely safe, as we have during the entire trip so far. When you consider we have roughly 30,000 ... read more

While they call it Day #1 of the Olympics even tough competition has been happening for a few days and the Opening Ceremonies were yesterday. It is the first full day of competition throughout the various venues here in Rio and it was also our first day with tickets to an event. The men's cycling road race this morning was a non-ticketed event which allowed tons of locals and visitors to take in the race at various points throughout the course without a ticket. We've been big fans for Italy's Vincenzo Nibali and we were disappointed when he crashed out on the final decent of the day! These guys rode their guts out for over 6 hours on one of the toughest Olympic courses ever, for over 230km, only to lose out on a medal a ... read more

Flying into Rio, you could see Christ the Redeemer in the distance along with the famous coast lines, along with Mount Sugar Loaf and the Olympic Stadium. Filled with anticipation we landed at Rio airport over the ocean and in no time checked into our hotel. We wandered around the city centre, homeless people everywere ...... no doubt they are going to be ushered out of the city when the Olympics are hosted. But so far not a trace of Olympic fever, no banners, no merchandise products, no sponsorship signs and only 6 weeks to go. The next day my dream of seeing Christ the Redeemer came true boarding the tram that climbs to the top. How magnificent he his and the veiw of the most breath taking coast line that surely is the most recognised ... read more

Obviously, Rio de Janeiro is an iconic city for many reasons. There’s Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain, football and, of course, Carnival. We didn’t plan to be here for carnival – it kind of happened by fluke – but we’re so glad it did! So, we landed and soon realised the extent of the madness that is Rio in carnival time. The taxi driver was getting more and more irate as every road he wanted to go down seemed to be shut – and we were panicking as the meter was going up! Anyway, we arrived at our AirBnB place to find a lovely little studio flat in the middle of Lapa, samba town, and our host Alex waiting for us. It soon became obvious that Alex was in the carnival spirit himself and, as ... read more