Fun in Rio

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Saturday, November 22, 2008

Hello again, we are getting to know Rio more and more and have been doing lots in the last few days.
we spent the rest of Wednesday out at the museo republica as it was wet then went up one of the many hills to a district called santa theresa. This is a bohemian area with artists and cafeīs. You have to ride a street car called a bondinho to get up there. Kids were hanging out the doors and people were jumping on and off, it was really good fun even though it was rainy.

Bondinho

That night we met up with two Belgians who we shared our dorm with and a couple from Sao Paulo and went out to a bar called Bip Bip which is well known for live music. We were there on Bossa Nova night.
Next day the weather was really good so we went up to the iconic Christo Redentor up on the Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio. We got the cog train up through the forrests with all  the other tourists to get a view of the city. It was cool! What a great city - mountains, sandy beaches, forrest all laid out below us!

Looking down on Rio from Corcovado

In the afternoon we went past a supermarket and chilled out on the Copacabana beach! We saw some baywatch in action as someone swam out too far, but didnīt see the "Hoff". The helicopter had to swoop down, drop 2guys in, then lower a big fishingnet, scoop them all up and drop them all off on the beach again! Thatīs one way to get a free helicopter ride!!

Baywatch on the Copacabana

We headed over to Impenima for sunset and watched the surfers as the sun came down with a beer in hand. It looks like a pretty good life if youīre a Carioca.
Fridays weather turned out pretty good so we got chatting with the people at the hostel to find out about some climbing on Sugar Loaf. They called up a guide called Fred who came round so we organized to meet up at two for a climb. We spent the morning on Copacabana checking out some football and volley ball as we walked along then back to the supermarket for some cheap eats then got the bus for climbing. We met up with Fred on the bus then headed round to our route that wass supposed to be easy! The route was really slabby with lots of balance moves we both felt a bit like bamby on ice. I think my climbing skills have gone down hill! Even the vultures thought we were rubbish as they circled above us! But it was lovely to be there, climbing up among the cacti, saw a hummingbird from one belay. We topped out to see all the other tourists who took the cable car and headed down with them. It was a really cool experience.

Us after the climb