Rio De Janeiro and Ilha Grande

---

After a long day of flying from Manaus to Sao Paulo, we finally arrived in Rio just before dusk. Our cabbi was very energetic and friendly and gave us what i'm sure was a brilliant navigation as we drove through the city, unfortunatly as it was all in portugese, we only understood a word here and there but he was quite entertaining none the less. That night we stayed at a Hostel Called the Mango Tree, which was an amazing location just a few blocks from Inpanema, we went out to a restaurant around the corner for dinner and had our first tast of caprihanas, a very tasty local beverage.

Unfortunatly we didn't get to enjoy the great location of the hostel becuase the next mourning we woke very early to take the bus down to Angra dos Ries where we were planning on catching the ferry to Ilha Grande. When we got to the island we had a massive walk along the beach to the hostel, but we were well rewarded when we got there. The hostel was right on the beach and our room had a balcony with hamocks overlooking the water. The town of Ilha grande has no roads and no cars, its just a cruisy little town, whith lots of shops and restaurants.

The next mourning we took a boat we thought was going to take us straight to Lopez Mendez beach, turned out it took you closer to the beach but it was still quite a walk straight up and back down to get there. It was well worth the strugle though as it was probably the best beach of the trip. We meet up with some people we had meet from the hostel the night before, and hung out on the beach all day. The water was gorgeous, and shallow so we could walk out beyond where the waves were breaking and still touch, just the way I like it.

We were supposed to stay in Ilha Grande one more night, and as much as we were enjoying ourselves, we decided we had to much to see and do back in Rio and just not enough time to do it. So we decided to head back from the beach around 3, pack our bags and catch the ferry back to the main land and take the bus back to Rio.

We arrived pretty late and stayed in Botofego at pretty much the only hostel we were able to find room at earlier that day as everything was booked for Carnival. Although this was probably the doggiest hostel of the trip, it had a great view of christ the redemer all light up at night out the common room balcony.

The next mourning we moved over to Copacabana, and then were able to start our sightseeing bright and early. We went to Corcovado, the Cathedral, the Sambadome, and Sugar Lofe all in one day. We had probably the best night sleep of the trip that night.

The next mourning we woke up and booked a hang glidding tour. It was absolutly AMAZING!!! The only scary part was standing up at the top looking at what you had to run off, but once you were in the air it was very peacefull, and not very adrenalin pumping at all like I was expecting. I would compair it to the air version of suba diving.

---

Photos

Hang glidding
Behind me is the plat form I ran off, bellow that people can sit and watch you take off.