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Published: September 26th 2010
Monday 20th September 2010 Arrived in Rio late on Monday and got the bus to Ipanema (the trendy & expensive part of Rio, a bit like Chelsea). We didn't have anywhere booked to stay - Organised as ever - so we wondered a little and tried a few hotel/ apartment blocks, but they wanted between R$350-R$795 (around £140-£310) a night. Obviously, this was a little over our backpackers budget so we continued trudging through the streets with our backpacks until we came across "The Girl from Ipanema" hostel, at a bargain R$80 a night for a private room (although this meant a twin roon so we spent the first night of our honeymoon in bunk beds!).
Tuesday 21st September 2010 The sun was out so we had a lazy first day. Breakfast included a cheese & ham toastie so we asked reception for the translation of "no meat" (sem carne), which will probably prove to be Joanne's most useful phrase in Brazil! After breakfast we went for a long walk along Ipanema & Copacabana beaches to explore. As we were strolling to the beach Joanne remarked that the view reminded her of Bognor! ha ha...
In the
evening we tagged along with some people we met in the Hostel to a club called Melt. With free Caipirinhas (the local drink) with entry it seemed too good to be true, but they are basically pure Brazilian sugar brandy & lime and blew Joannes head off so she had to get a can of sprite too (lightweight)... Melt had a fantastic local Samba band playing all night and really created a wonderful atmosphere... Richard may have had a few too many Caipirinhas because he kept getting up in the night trying to steal the curtains and bed sheets to wrap around himself on the way to the communal toilets.
Wednesday 22nd September 2010 We went on the Brazil Experience tour today... Starting at the Hangliding beach, but it wasn't the right conditions, we continued on to Tijuca National Park where we visited a beautiful waterfall... there were two racoons but Joanne missed them both!
Corcovado was next with the amazing Christ Redeemer Statue which overlooks Rio. The statue had just finished being cleaned so we were lucky to have missed the 4 months it was covered in scafolding. The Christ Redeemer had such an effect that
we are both now "born again athiests". But seriously, the views over Rio are spectacular and we were fortunate that it was another sunny, clear day.
We were taken to a little cafe in Santa Theresa followed by Parque das Ruinas, with more views over the city. Then Joanne's favourite part of the day - the Lapa Steps (or the Great Madness as it is affectionately known) where artist Seleron has been tiling the vast steps & surrounding walls, creating his masterpiece since 1990. Joanne was filming Seleron & his crew at work and gave them a wave... Seleron invited Joanne to fix a tile herself which was great fun and will now include her in a small piece of Brazilian history. We walked all the way down the steps before realising that the tour group wasn't going back up and we didn't have a photo of the tile - so we both sprinted back up the 250 steps to get a photo and Seleron also signed our postcard.
The tour bus dropped us off at the bottom of the cable car for Sugarloaf Mountain where we decided to hike up to the 2nd cable car station. We
saw Marmosets (little monkeys) playing in the trees - we got some footage on camera and continued up the path (unfortunately missing our turning and hiking 15 minutes on a slight incline to a dead end! We turned around and found the correct path straight up (which made a lot more sense) and followed this for 30 minutes until we reached the cable car to take us across the ocean to Sugarloaf. The views, again, were spectacular - we coukd see all the way over the city right back to the Christ Redeemer... we stayed until it was dark with all of the lights of the city completely changing the view and then headed home via bus & metro.
Thursday 23rd September 2010 Another lazy morning on the beach, we then wondered down to copacabana to change all our cash. A women had her necklace snatched in front of us just as we reached the Cambio Exchange (a harsh reality in Rio)! We changed up our money & they got the rate wrong so we ended up with £40 more than expected (hate it when that happens) and carefully made our way home.
We decided (after checking
Joanne with Selaron
After adding my tile to the Lapa Stepsthe weather which forecast rain for the next two weeks) to leave for Ilha Grande early the following morning to try and catch at least 1 sunny day in paradise. It was a hard decision as we had planned to go to a Samba Party and visit the Favelas in Rio (the Maracana was closed so we had decided against a football match) but the weather was not on our side.
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Mark
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Great idea, I can read this each morning before job searching!! Sounds like you're having a great time. Had some LP Guides for you, Rio, Buenos Aries City Guides, Belize & How to Stay Healthy in South America, but trying to ebay them. How to stay healthy has sold, a watched on the Rio book. Look forward to next entry.