Honeymoon day 3: Rio

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Already falling behind in the blogs and we've barely started our trip! We'll see if I can keep pace...

I'm counting day 1 of our honeymoon as our travel day from L.A. to Rio de Janiero. Normally I wouldn't count it as a day but it was awesome so it counts.

The reason it was awesome is all thanks to our good friend Jeremy who hooked us up with first class tickets. His dad is a pilot so he gets a certain number of standby tickets to use - and we could get first class if it was available. First class was full on the way from LAX to Miami but we got on first class from Miami to Brazil. That was the leg that counted. We got a 5 course meal, free drinks, ipads for entertainment, seats that reclined almost flat for sleeping, and a breakfast in the morning. The only problem was we were so eager to take full advantage of the perks that we hardly got any sleep on the flight.

We arrived in Rio happy from the flight experience, but super groggy from the lack of sleep and 6 hour time difference from California. We managed to find a bus to Copacabana, which is a popular beach city in Rio with lots of hostels and things to do. We had circled a few places in our guide book to check out, and our plan was to walk from place to place and pick which one we liked best to stay the next few nights. The bus took about an hour to get to Copacabana, after weaving through Centro and some other areas of Rio. We had a tourist map from the airport so we were able to get our bearings pretty quickly and find our way on foot to the first hostel.

Everything was going according to plan, until we found out they were full due to a holiday. A MAJOR holiday, "Proclamação da República", which is celebrated for 5 days throughout Brazil. We walked to two more hostels on our list, and they were both full for the same reason. They laughed when we wanted a room for that night. Thats what we get for flying by the seat of our pants.

We got on the internet at the third hostel, and finally ended up finding a hotel on Orbitz (for about 4 times more than we had intended). We had to walk another 1/2 mile to get there, but we were glad to finally have a place to stay. It was fairly nice, half a block from the beach, so we decided to stay there for two nights so we could enjoy the city without having to look for a new place. But at the same time we were anxious to get out of town to avoid the holiday crowds and high prices.

After a short nap and showers we felt much better and decided to explore Copacabana a bit. Copacabana is a 4.5 km stretch of beach, 4 blocks of high rises, then almost vertical rocky hills. Supposedly it is one of the densest populated areas in the world. On a hot sunny day, supposedly the beaches are completely packed with the stereotypical Brazillian beach scene.

When we made it to the sand, we didn't exactly get that vibe. In fact, there was hardly anyone on the beach. Did I mention it was overcast, windy and almost raining? Even though it is almost summer in Brazil, it is the rainy season (January is supposedly the wettest month). We didn't luck out on the weather that day. We had an enjoyable walk along the beach, but we were pretty bundled up for the most of it. We ate at a sidewalk cafe and pretty much called it a day.

The next day was pretty jam packed. It was overcast again so we decided to pack our rain coats in our day bag, which ended up being a very good decision.

We started out by catching a bus to the base of the train that leads up to the Christ statue on Cordova (a must-see in Rio). The train was booked for a few hours so we decided to take a taxi up. They drop you off near the top, then you have to pay to take a mini bus up higher. But you're still not done, 200 or so steps up before you finally reach the base of the statue.

The place was packed with tourists, many doing the Christ pose (is that sacrilegious??) which is pretty funny to watch. Even with the crowds though it was definitely worth the trip - the view is spectacular. I imagine it would have been even better if it was sunny but oh well. Here's a couple panoramic videos from the top:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42585283@N08/8191202053/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42585283@N08/8193095529/in/photostream

We ate lunch at a cafe near the statue and it started POURING. Good thing we already got our pictures because the visibility dropped quick. We waited in a long line and finally got a taxi back to the bottom.

Next leg of the trip was supposed to only take a little while but it ate up a few hours. We tried to take a pair of buses to get from Cordova to Urca, but we took the first bus too far and had to walk through town for 10 blocks or so. We then realized we were at the wrong bus stop after 20 minutes of waiting, and thanks to a helpful local we finally got on the right bus to Urca.

Urca is home to a cable car that goes up two mountains, on the edge of a peninsula overlooking the ocean and the city. The first mountain is called Morro da Urca, which is 220 meters high - the second is Pão de Açúcar (Surgarloaf Mountain), which is 400 meters tall. We decided to hike up the first mountain and take the cable car to the second.

The hike was actually really cool, steep and through really jungly terrain. We saw some monkeys - not sure what kind they were. Halfway up it started pouring again, we were glad we had our rain coats. Finally we made it to the top and got some more good views of the city and Cristo, from a different angle.

We decided not to take the cable car to the top of Sugarloaf - the rain would have obstructed most of the views anyway. We hiked back down, caught a bus back to Copacabana and called it a night.

We had planned to stay longer in Rio, but due to the holiday and bad weather we decided to high tail it out of there. We'll have to visit another time when there is beach weather and no major holidays. We're in Paraty now (still raining) but that is for the next blog. Until next time!

Here's a few pictures from our brief time in Rio:

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Comments

[Matt Potterton]

First Class!
Jeremy you da man!