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Published: March 11th 2014
Loaded up on the free breakfast from the hostel and rolls made for lunch. (An excellent habit of Brazilian hostels so far). With beautiful blue skies and high temperatures, even at 8.30am, we set off to Sugarloaf mountain. The bus stop was 2 blocks away and the staff at Che Lagarto really helpful with bus numbers. On our short walk to the bus station we passed through a fresh food market selling amazingly fresh fruit, many of which the market sellers offered us to try - the strawberries were delicious. We later found out that another unusual fruit we were given to try was called Cherymoya, or custard apple. Really nice. There were also live crabs on a string, which we dismissed as dead until they started nipping at each other. I would question their storage of chicken in temperatures of 30+ degrees and apparently zero refrigeration.
Easy bus to Sugarloaf. R$3 per person, which is the same for any bus journey around the city no matter the distance. The bus drivers are mental and believe they are constantly transporting pregnant women in labour to a hospital. Alex was holding on as hard as she could and being from London is decent at keeping her feet on public transport but even she was amusingly flung a couple of steps.
The temperature had risen to 42 Celsius by the time we had reached the bottom of Sugarloaf at 9.30am. The cable cars to the top are easy to get to and cost R$62 each to go up. The views from the 2 stopping points are stunning, would highly recommend. You can see all of Rio and Christ high above the city doing his redeeming. Planes coming in to land at the smaller national Santos Dumont airport circle low over the city.
We took a slight detour to Botafogo on the way back as we took the same number bus but needed to just take any bus with Copacabana on the front. Left us with an hour or so of walking to get back to the hostel, but was a nice way to see a bit more of the city and orientate ourselves better.
Checked in fine and got straight in the shower so we could feel human again. 8 bed dorm with 2 ensuite bathrooms, really good and only 6 of us in there in total.
Dinner at hostel recommended restaurant called Temperante. A self service buffet, which sounds great but is OK. I had the all you can eat option as my first plate came to more than the R$30 charge for 500g, Alex's came to R$24. Overall not bad price and I've never had pork cooked more ways. Broccoli rice was good. Planned to go to hostel 'free' bar (it actually cost R$25 each) but I feel asleep around 6.30pm after the flight etc and Alex wasn't much after.
Woke at 8am the next day so was a hella sleep and just in time for the start of breakfast. Today we decided to go and see Christ in all his stone glory. The weather was clear and sunny again so we thought it best to do the view centric sights in case of thunderstorms that were forecast for a few days later. We were meant to get one bus but it didn't turn up for over half an hour so a little Brazilian woman organised an unofficial tour party, taking us and 6/7 others on an alternative bus then pointing us to another bus which took us to the correct stop from where we rode the tram up to the big man starts. There was an hour and a half wait for the next available tram up so we wandered around the area a bit. Not much to be seen, then whiled away the time play I spy. Score draw.
The tram ride to Christ is one of two ways up; the other being mini buses which are heavily advertised. The tram cost R$50 each and was a great way to get some amazing views over the city and forest which is part of a national park. A far better option in our opinion.
The statue itself is very large. Much bigger than I thought it was, even though you can see it from pretty much anywhere in Rio. As the stone deity stands redeeming the whole city people teem around his ankles like ants. There are loads of people up there all doing the same pose and a lot of people standing on low walls with nothing to stop them falling to get the photo with him. The day we went up there were 3 huge cakes for some reason and they were giving it away free which was a nice bonus. We also saw a proposal via video. Seemed odd with the girl watching a video crying and then the guy asking, but she said yes and everyone clapped and cheered.
Got a bus to Lagoa to try and hire bikes to cycle around the lake there. The bikes are like the ones in London so require you to pay over the phone and as we didn't have a phone we decided to walk. On our 2.5hr walk back to the hostel (Alex was not happy) we found bikes we could pay for by cash to hire another day. Dinner out again at a small restaurant on the street. Brazilians seem to love feijao - black beans a bit like pinto beans. We ordered what seems to be the standard meal of rice, beans and chips with me having roast beef and Alex chicken. It was immense, the portion size very generous and cost us R$65 for everything. Rain started near the end of our meal so we sat and watched it then wandered home for an early night.
The next day we walked back to the lake to hire 2 person buggy bikes. Alex found this one of the funniest things ever, likening us to the Chuckle Brothers! It was R$40 for an hour. Through broken Portuguese and hand gestures we managed to understand that we could get around the lake in that time. This was a big lake and the path around the outside busy with joggers, walkers etc. As Alex has no sense of distance I realised you had to put your foot down from the start to have a chance of making it back in the allotted hour. This is where the hilarity started for Alex. I marshalled my inner Rommel and we set off at a pace Sir Chris Hoy would have been proud of. I was doing the steering and ducked and dived in between people and gave my orders when Alex needed to 'schnell!'. Most of the time the orders were disobeyed because she was laughing at me so much. To be fair the Brazilians don't seem to have long legs and there was no way to move the seats so my knees were tickling my chin; Alex however struggled to reach the peddles. The steering was heavy and needed 2 hands, so to pull the brake lever at the same time was tricky. On a particular downhill section (in my mind it was a black slope for anyone who has skied. In reality it was a gentle decline.) I couldn't steer and brake at the same time so hit the panic button, genuinely fearing we may end up in the lake. This caused Alex to cry with laughter as we careered towards it. Looking back it was tres amusant. After setting some kind of record for getting around the lake we headed back for showers.
The hostel were advertising tickets for the Sambodromo (where the carnaval parade is held) so we headed out to get some money but ran into trouble. The Caxton cards didn't seem to work and there was no VISA signs on the ATM. As I wanted to get the tickets whilst they were still available, I took money out on the Mastercard which worked fine but the ATM gave us a cheeky R$15 charge. Got tickets in sector 12 which is at the end of the route so were the cheapest tickets at R$130 each. We then went for another stroll to Ipanema beach which took 2.5hrs in total but got to see the lovely beaches and the most furious game of bat and ball between 3 old men ever. Imagine hitting the ball as hard as you can at another person and that was the pace they were playing at. Superb facial expressions all round and thoroughly entertaining.
Cooked our first meal in. Kitchen facilities were small to say the least but we cooked pasta, sauce, peppers, onions and some very suspicious looking sausages. The sausages and I had a major disagreement so evacuated them from my bowels ASAP (sorry if you're eating and reading).
The next day we were due to go to the Carnaval parade at the Samdodromo in the evening so had a lazy day as were both feeling the effects of the sausages.
Got the metro to the Sambodromo in centro Rio for R$3 each, the same as the bus and less crowded than the tube. It was really easy to navigate. Settled onto our concrete step seats at about 7.30pm in plenty of time for the first samba school due to start parading at 9.00pm. In hindsight we needn´t have arrived so early, maybe aiming for 8pm as the locals did. But we got ourselves a hotdog and drink and watched the stands fill up around us. The costumes, number of people, music and the floats are overwhelming, the atmosphere buzzing. The sheer size of the floats is incredible, they're huge. As we were at the end of the route we got to see the people being craned off the floats and the floats being taken away. Some of the costumes are just discarded which seemed surprising. The carnaval is super long and we left after the 4th out of 6 schools had paraded at 3am. The official schedule said the 6th school would start at around 2.25am, this obviously did not happen. The schools don't run to the timings and it must have finished around 6am. The stamina of some of the people in the stands is impressive to say the least. One larger lad was worthy of a mention. He danced and sang for 6.5hrs straight, never once sitting down or suffering a lull in energy. Others I'm sure wouldn't pass urine tests but they added to the atmosphere. It's generally such a family event with 3 different generations and about a dozen members of the same family setting up camp in front of us. They were wearing the colours of the final school to perform so were there for the long haul. The matriarch had a disagreement with some gringos who drunkenly stumbled away. It was amazing to see and will obviously be never forgotten. The Sambodromo is where you will see the samba schools and the floats, they don't just go around the city streets so don't miss out.
Slept through breakfast (Alex was fuming with me for this). After slowly getting ourselves together, we decided to go and see the colourful steps in Lapa. Lapa is one of the places you are warned about but in the day as long as you aren't stupid with your valuables it seemed fine. We didn't go at night where some people said they didn't feel too safe and had a couple of things picked from their pocket. However the whole of Rio felt safe and only the walk to and from the Sambodromo was a bit dodgy but there was police everywhere so it was fine. The steps in Lapa are very cool and they have small tiles from all round the world which are interesting to look through. Lapa stinks and the smell when I was feeling a bit queasy was not welcome. Quiet night to try and recover from the trots.
Had booked onto the Favela tour for the day before we left. We booked it through the hostel for R$80 each and it was really good. We were picked up from the hostel in a fiercely air conditioned minibus and dropped at the top of the favela. The guide was really good and told us if he saw drug dealers he would tell us to put our cameras away. This didn't happen during our time but wasn´t surprising considering the favela we went to was one of the 37 under police control in Brazil. (There are 742 favelas in Brazil apparently, so the drug lords still run vast majority). We started the tour at the top of the favela with views all over and without realising it walked all the way to the bottom. We stopped at different points for the guide to describe gun fights between police and the drug dealers. The bullet holes are easily seen in the walls. We saw local children dancing to music played by guys with oil drums and tins etc, a bakery with great doughnuts and some bracelets etc some local women had made. The conditions in the favela made for uncomfortable viewing but the people were very nice and happy. Some little kids shouting 'gringo, gringo, money, money' as we walked past.
Went for food out again as was our last night and had steak, rice, beans and chips which is served everywhere. This steak was amazing, honestly one of the best I've eaten and for me and Alex with a beer and coke it was R$52. Bargain.
Check out the next day was fine and bus to the bus station was easy with the driver pointing us in the right direction. Got a ticket on a bus for Angra dos Reis that was leaving in half an hour and our stay in Rio was over.
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Russell Billing
non-member comment
Rolling it in glitter....
Loved the chance to travel with you both, please give me a heads up on the next installment, I want to live it with you both xxx