Brazuca's Hostel Rio de Janeiro

... Hottest day yet so far, one temperature gauge said it was 38 degrees. So hot Dave failed to finish a meal for the first time in his life. Had a more relaxing day today, getting tired of walking for ages, so been chilling at the hostel a bit this afternoon. Used our uni fashioned cooking skills to make pasta with tomato sauce for the 2nd night in a row but it was pretty tasty. Talked to some other brits who are ...

... Christ with his arms in the air (so unnecessary, and in such terrible, terrible bad taste - how much did Nickelodeon bribe Rio for this uber-cheesy, offensive statue?)

After visiting the statue, we drove a little through downtown Rio and took in some of the views of city from the top of an old colonial home. In the St. Theresa neighborhood, we visited the famous steps of the Convent Stairway of Escadaria Selaron. Here Chilean artist ...

... the crowd up. There are huge flags held above heads and the atmosphere is really lively – more like a concert. Venders weave through the seats to sell drinks, laden with huge bags of popcorn. For me the fans are more entertaining than the game! This is my first football match and disappointingly the score is nil nil. The players seem keen on dramatic displays of pain for feigned. A good experience but I have yet to be converted into a football fan.

... a closed off balcony overlooking the dancefloor, which was essentially a warehouse. Grabbed a few beers and we watched the locals dancing through the window. They were pretty good. All coordinated with each other, quite pro. After a little while we started to feel a little odd. Us tourists up in the VIP setion looking down on the locals, somehow felt as if we were lording it over the, as if we were somehow mor priveledged ...

Day 102 Monday 13th April - Rio de Janeiro Got up nice and early and had breakfast and it was a bit overcast but by the time I showered and changed it had cleared up a bit and was a little bit blue so I headed off to the beach. Walked down to the part in front of the Copacobanna Palace hotel and all the way down it looked pretty dead. It was bank holiday though so maybe people had been out the night before and were sleeping it off. I found ...

... for me in the city and it was rush hour. I've been on many of the world's big metro systems such as London, New York and Tokyo but I'd never witnessed the carnage I did this evening. The pushing and shoving with people trying to get on and off the train was dangerous at times, it was a bit like carnival. If you were claustrophobic or had a problem with people in your personal space, forget Rio's metro at rush hour. Arrived at the stadium in one piece and bought a ...

Today I saw the museum of Amazonian indegenous people as well as the national history museum. They had some interesting stuff. For example, Brazil became the seat of government for the Portuguese emopire when Napoleon chased out the Portuguese monarch from Lisbon. This gave Brazil a ...

... airplanes in front of them.

It was rude not to follow their lead ;)



This is a shot of Katie looking over towards Ipanema (where our hostel is), with Ipanema beach to the left and Leblon beach to the right, behind the lake.



It was only then that ...