I donīt believe it! Iīve just typed this all out and then tried to copy it so that we didnīt lose it if the upload didnīt work properly but I was working on a Mac and they donīt recognise īcontrol Cī so I lost it all. Grrrrr!!!! So this might be a slightly shortened version.
On Sunday, we made our way down to Copacabana beach and walked its entire length. Okay, so itīs not that far (3km) but it sounds good! Beach was lovely and ocean was very blue but Chris was a bit disappointed by the lack of bronzed beauties. We did have our first Coco though - a hollowed out coconut filled with īcoco waterī- very refreshing.
From there we wandered over to Ipanema - a bit like Copacabana but for posh people. Thereīs not really much else to say about these areas - the beaches are nice and there are lots of hotels, restaurants etc. Basically, the tourist part.
We then made our way to the botanical gardens, which were lovely. One of the kings, I think it was King Joao VI, apparently created the gardens to collect specimens from all over the world and although there were lots of exotic looking trees etc., there didnīt appear to be any good old English oak! We also saw our first wild monkeys which was cool...although we missed them the first time we walked past them so it was a good job that on our way back, there were lots of people watching them!
Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, or Lagoa to us locals was our next stop - a nice lake area with a park around it - quite a pleasant walk but you risk your life if you go around there due to the multitude of bicycles of all shapes and sizes that are hired out - we discovered where Rio drivers get their practise in!
Following a bit of a palava with buses, which involved narrowly missing one, the next one overtaking the bus at the bus stop we were at, making it impossible to stop it, and then deciding to get the bus doing the same journey in the opposite direction, we finally made it back to our hostel.
Yesterday we decided to make our way up to Corcovado - the mountain that the Christ the Redeemer statue is on. Without meaning to bore you with bus stories, we had another interesting time trying to get the bus up there but luckily we had Nathalie with us and the 4th person we asked finally gave us the right information.
The train up the mountain was fun - it runs at about 45 degrees! We made it to the top intact though. The views were quite spectacular, and the statue is certainly big! Itīs 30 metres high, with a īhandspanīof 28m - quite a feat of engineering/architecture! We were quite lucky with the weather as the large cloud that had put in an appearance earlier in the day vanished as quickly as it arrived, leaving us with clear views...apart from the smog! You can see for miles and as Rioīs setting is so spectacular, it makes it even better. The amount of tourists wasnīt good though - it was heaving up there! One slightly disconcerting thing - I was quite interested in visiting Tijuca National Park, apparently the largest urban national park in the world...until I read the info displayed on Corcovado that is...under the īresident reptilesīsection, they listed about 6 different kinds of snake...maybe not!
The journey down was made more interesting by an inpromptu party provided by a couple of Brazilian musicians - good fun.
The next part of our day wasnīt so nice - we went to the bus station to get some information about buses for the next leg of our journey. Bus stations are never very nice and Rioīs is no exception. Luckily, Nathalie did some of the asking for us and got some of the information, otherwise I think weīd have given up and come home there and then! Itīs going to be an interesting trip! Chris got hassled by our first beggar as well. Luckily he seemed to think that the man would have the money so he left me alone. He didnīt seem too impressed when we didnīt give him anything but eventually went away.
Dinner last night was had at a restaurant a couple of doors down from our hostel and we managed to get 2 huge main courses, 2 desserts and drinks for under 6 pounds! Excellent :0) The food was really tasty and accompanied by rice and black beans, which apparently is the staple diet of Brazilians. Daniel, the guy who picked us up from the airport, informed us that Brazilians eat black beans every day of their lives...Weīre not sure if we could put up with that many but they are nice for a few days.
Today we decided to visit the īSanta Terezaīarea of Rio - itīs an old part of town and very pretty in a īfalling apartīkind of way. Great tram ride up there, for the princely sum of about 55p for both of us, return! Unfortunately, we didnīt have time to get off and walk around as we wanted to get back to Urca, the district weīre staying in, to get up Sugarloaf mountain for sunset.
And what a good decision that was. The top of the mountain is reached by cable car and the views from the top are beautiful! We both thought that we prefered the views from there to the ones from Corcovado. This was probably helped somewhat by the fact that there were about a quarter of the amount of people up there. The sunset was beautiful and the perfect end to our stay in Rio...followed by dinner at our new favourite restaurant!
Tomorrow the adventure really begins as we make our way down to Ilha Grande, which is supposed to be a beautiful island south of Rio. Unfortunately, in order to catch the boat to the island, we have to catch a bus at 5:20 in the morning, meaning a taxi at 4:40. Those who know me know that Iīm not a great morning person so Chris is looking forward to that on!
Take care all and weīll let you know how we get on with our first bit of our journey when we can.
Ciao for now!
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