People watching on Copacabana beach
Trip Start
Aug 06, 2007
1
25
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Christ the Redeemer
! It makes for some interesting and uncomfortable sights.....hehehe:)Viv (my Brazilian friend) has been calling me from New Zealand and basically set up a full itinery for our time in Rio - which is awesome! I just wish she was here to show us around! It is an awesome place! The only downside is that you have to pay attention to your surroundings the whole time - and stay on your game - which is easy to forget when you become overalled at all that is going on here!
Rio is truely a beautiful city - it has it all - peaks, a lake, a harbour, beaches, jungle - you can almost see the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer from anywhere, which is absolutely awesome and more so up close!
We really lucked it with a guide names Luis. As we have been skeptical of anyone who has come up to us on the street - I wasnt sure whether Luis - who claimed he was an English speaking tour guide was legit....but he was absolutley awesome! For far less than the advertised city tours - Luis intercepted us at the bottom of the Sugar Loaf - and said he would take us on the best tour of Christ the Redeemer and then drop us back, we would take his car with air conditioning, and he would tell us everything we wanted to know about the city he loved...in english (a rarity) - so we hopped into his car and hoped for the best. And it really paid off - Luis was a good man - and we learnt so much more than trying to make it around the sight with a tour in portugese!
We have eaten at Monchique (a churrascaria) recommended by Viv - basically an all you can eat restaurant like Wildfire in Auckland (but better) - until we are stuffed - I dont know how many more salad bar´s I will be able to look in the eye - but Paul is loving all the meat
Christ the Redeemer beyond
! He is definately making up on the lack of that in Peru and Bolivia! We have been getting up early and hitting the boardwalk with the locals to jog/walk the length of copacabana - it is a really cool atmosphere - about 24 degrees by 7am and it has temperature/time signs the length of the beach which steadily rise while your sweating it out with the locals and tourists alike - again, if you want to work out in white socks, white sneakers a sweat band and your red speedo´s then you can go do so here in Rio! Cracks me up!
We found a wotif.com bargain with Hotel Augusto´s a little further down the street - so we spent two nights there as well - and if you could beleive it - the breakfasts were an even better spread - about 7 types of fresh tropical fruit juices! Amazing. The only hitch was the cab we got to get there - turned out the driver was actually insane (he could not speak or read - Im not sure if that was because he was drunk...) - and drove us on a wild goose chase - when we finally got to the Hotel we paid more than enough of the rip off fare and he proceeded to follow us into the lobby of this lovely hotel and yell and wave his arms and make quite a scene....
We even made it to Rio Sul mall - which Viv had recommended to us - it had some lovely clothes - but I was amazed at the prices...Brazil has definately not been cheap at all. I really wonder who has the money to buy all this stuff......its a little confusing after seeing the poverty and the favella´s etc.
Our next move - will be a bus to Angra dos Reis and then a boat out to Ilha Grande - a beautiful Brazilian Island on the Costa Verde (green coast) with plenty of recreation.
Sa-weet - sounds like us!
