Advertisement
Published: March 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Sugar Loaf (Pao de Azugar)
This is a view of sugar loaf, the big rock. Taken from the Christ the Redeemer. Ok, where to start. We flew into Rio from Chile after some last minute panicking due to a cock-up with our tickets for the flight. We got it sorted out but had to pay to have a ticket reissued which was a pain in the arse but the nice flight centre folks refunded us for the hassle so was all good. Jumped off the plane and it was hot! Jumped on the bus for the ride to our hostel in Botafogo. We were pretty smashed up (only tired, unfortunately) after our early morning flight so we went for a wander down to the local shoppo and got some dirty McD's burgers. Had a bit of a look around and went back to hostel and pretty much passed out.
Our second day there was a Sunday so we headed off to the big enclosed market and had a stickynose. It was really cool, two big stages with local bands and some people dancing, Samba we think. Stalls selling pretty much everything but your preverbial kitchen accesories, including plenty of beer and dead animal on a stick! It was inside this big stadium kind of thing and being 35 dgrees outside,
Sugar Loaf (Pao de Azugar)
View from the top of sugar loaf. Rio and Copacaban (I think)... I think it was about 40+ inside with all the people and coal-pit style BBQs crankin. Stu bought himself a very cheesy Brazil singlet, bright yellow with BRAZIL across the front. Had to be done. We left there and bumped into a Brittish couple from our hostel on the bus. They were heading down to Ipanema so we tagged along with them for a little while.
The couple from England, Ritchie and Michelle (hi guys!) were very cool and we spent the next coupla days with them seeing the sights. We went up to Sugar Loaf which is a high rock Island in the bay, accesable by cable car. Got up there just before sunset and watched it set over the statue of Christ the Redeemer with a great view of the city. It was spectacular, especially at night, just amazing! I think we had a few drinks as well over those nights, perhaps getting into a bit of the local sugar cane spirit that absolutely nocks your socks off. I think its 40% and you can buy a litre of it for 1 or 2 AUD!! We also went up to Christ the Redeemer, getting our 'tour'half the
Sugar Loaf (Pao de Azugar)
View from the top of sugar loaf. Sun setting over Christ the Redeemer. advertised price thanks to some brilliant haggling by the Poms!
We swapped hostels after the first four nights as the Poms were off south and we wanted to hit the beach for a few days. So we found a hostel in Ipanema whitch is probably the nicest beach in the area and bummed it on the beach for 2 or 3 days. The beaches there really are incredible, as are the beach bootys!! Although we are unsure why Copacabana gets all the glory as we found Ipanema to be much nicer and more fun.
We soon got sick of the hostel tho and happened to stumble across an add for an apartment for rent. We were still gonna be around for 8 more nights so decided to check it out. It ended up being a pretty nice, basic apartment in a central area, although a bit far from the beach. But as the price was right (about half wat we were paying at the Ipanema hostel!!) we moved in and it was great to have a base of our own for that week. Ritchie and Michelle came back to Rio for a couple of days and 72 hrs
Sugar Loaf (Pao de Azugar)
The Pomms...and the Aussies, note Stu's singlet!! of mahem insued!! We had a couple of nights out, one night in the neighborhood Lappa and the next down at the local Irish for St Pats. We also managed to get to a football (soccer) match before the Poms tookoff again. It was between Botafogo and Fluminense, I think there is a bit of rivalry between the two so that made it all the more entertaining. The crowd was about 60,000 with the hardcore fans from each team at different ends of the ground and smoke and flares and all sorts of fun!!
As we said, the Poms where off again that night and we had 3 more nights (I think) before we flew out to London. Spent most of the time on the beach and Tyahnne kept herself amused by dressing her and Gaz up in some Carnival costumes that we found in the apartment we were in (check the fotos...hahahha)!
Basically we had a ball in Rio and although it seems like a blur now we loved it. We had planned on doing some other parts of Brazil but Rio sucked us right in!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.183s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0911s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb