Rio De Janerio
Trip Start
Nov 29, 2007
1
33
115
Trip End
Jun 24, 2008
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Sunday, January 27, 2008
We opted for the taxi ride to the top of the mountain, my God it is a long way up
Saw a monkey on the way up to Christ the Redeemer
. The taxi driver was really nice too, we stopped on the way up at a couple of viewing points for photos. The weather has actually been better today than yesterday, but we werenīt able to get those classic Rio photos that you see on all the movies and postcards, but the experience was great anyway and the views were breathtaking.One of things that you can see quite clearly from the view points are all of the Favelas, these are like shanty towns that have been built onto the hillsides around Rio. They are fairly dangerous places to visit and live and are reknowned for drugs and violence. The biggest of the Favelas is home to 1 million people - so they are pretty big places these days. We actually heard what sounded like gun shots coming from the direction of the Favelas, it may well have been fireworks in preparation for the carnival, but we saw no fireworks and this was mid afternoon!
We were glad that we got there when we did, all of the books say get there before 11am and the traffic was backed up as we were leaving. The taxi up and down was $70 Br, so about 20 pounds, this is probably one of the most expensive tourist things we have done so far, but it was worth it - only wish we could have afforded to do the helicopter ride too, that must be so cool
A spider we spotted on the way up!
!From there we headed back to the hostel to download the pictures, in case we got mugged later in the day and lost all our photos, hey you laugh but that is what happened to me in Australia!!!! We then headed out to Sugar loaf Mountain (Pâo de Aįųcar) to get another fantastic view of the city and hopefully a good view of Christ the Redeemer too. You have to take 2 cable cars to get up the mountain, setting us back another $70 Br - man this country is expensive! But once again the views were amazing. The clouds had got worse so we couldnīt get any views of the Christ the Redeemer, but got some good shots of the city. The cable car was a big huge one, like the one on the London eye and went pretty fast, so I didnīt have time to get too stressed out! Keep taking photos and you donīt even notice you are floating miles above the ground!!!!
It is Carnival here in a weeks time and we were lucky enough to see a practice going on in the street as we walked back to the hostel. I love the music and the fact that everyone just starts partying in the streets, we saw a load of people partying on the bus too - they sure know how to party here!
Our hostel is ok, we are staying in Botafogo, which is actually positioned between Sugar loaf and Christ the Redeemer, so when the clouds do life we have great views on our door step!
We were a bit knackered yesterday after our long bus ride, but we did manage to get out to see Copocabana. It was cloudy so the beach wasnīt all that busy, but it was good just to be there and see the infamous beach where all the beautiful people live and of course that Barry Manilow sings about!!!! Yes Kerry, I have been singing Barry Manilow for the last 2 days and thinking of you!!!!
Comments
Barry Manilow
Great photos. I think Kerry might not have wanted everyone to know that she likes Barry Manilow!
Rio
Fantastic photos - my favourites so far ..can you samba yet ;-) xx
Rio
Fab photos you both look so well.
Tina
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