Copacabana for the new year

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Wow, what a few days....
On New years eve, Shane and I met with Newton (out hostel owner) and a few other guests in our hostel for drinks before heading down to the beach for new year to watch the famous firework display. He gave us each a Caipirinha which is a famous Brazilian cocktail made with rum, lime and sugar. It was extremely refreshing. Then we headed down to the beach with what seemed like the rest of the world, people blocking the roads, even stopping traffic. Newton took us to the best spot, right in the centre of copacabana beach so that we saw all the fireworks. People were marking their spots with sand castles and rings in the sand and the beach was heaving- 2 million people were there.
When Shane and I were flying in to brazil we saw many ships out at sea and couldn´t work out what they were, but later we found out that each of these huge ships were carrying hundreds of fireworks for the display. It is very difficult to describe the actual display, it was utterly incredible and went on for about 45 minutes with me and Shane standing there with our mouths wide open, they lit up the sky for miles. The only distraction was that one of the ships was hit by a firework and caught fire quite badly so many rescue boats had to go out with huge water sprays.
After we had seen the diplay we couldn´t bring ourselves to stay for the celebrations as the jetlag had set in and we were shattered so unfortunately we went back to our extremely hot hostel and went to bed.

Two days later we signed up for a bus trip that took us around the city. Our first stop took us to the famous Brazilian football stadium, we didn´t get to see inside but we were taken to the footballers walk of fame-see photos.... After this we were taken to the Metroploitan cathedral, with it´s unique architectural design it is shaped like a pyramid and has some amazing stained glass windows. Our final and favourite stop was of course Christ the Redeemer. the huge statue of Jesus Christ with his arms open wide. It was located at the peak of Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park and overlooks the entire city, the views were breathtaking and although i tried my best with the photos, again, the view was impossible to capture. we even saw some raccoons which made us chuckle.

The day after this we moved hostels thank god.... no more broken fans or cockroaches 😊

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Comments

[karin]

hi wow wow it looks amazing i wouldnt have got that close to the racoons tho you are brave i cant believe how much you have seen in 5 days i look forward to the next chapter i feel as tho were there with you both but its bloody cold xxxxxxx

[Mum]

Wonderful pickies
What fantastic photos! obviously you are both having a great time! Snow here has gone but it's still cold - know where I'd rather be... will show the blog to both Grandmas and continue to tell everyone everywhere about it ad nauseum - most of the gym seem to know and are watching with interest!! Great to hear you on the phone the other night - soooooo puts my mind at rest!!!! Keep on keeping on!!! Lots of love .....MUM and DAD xxxx and a big X to Shane