Rio de Janeiro
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2007
1
21
44
Trip End
Ongoing
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Christ the Redeemer sits atop Corcovado mountain, is justifiably one of the new 7 wonders of the world. The views of Rio are also spectacular. Next we checked out the Lapa stairs, which are made from colourful tiles from every country in the world.
The following days the weather took a turn from the worse, with intermittent rain, and always overcast. Some of us took this as an good excuse to go to the cinema, a nice little luxury when away from home for so long.
I also met up with Bernado, a guy I had met on the Inca Trail 3 months ago. He showed me around quite a bit, took me out to some local drinking holes, and showed me around Niteroi, the city where he lives (just outside Rio, across a 13km bridge). It was great to have someone from Rio taking the time to show me some of the local spots.
I also met up with Luiz, another local whom I had travelled with in Chile for a few days. He runs a company that organises tours through a Flavela (slums). The tour started off with getting a transfer to the top opf the Flavela on the back o a motorbike.
Sugarloaf
That ride was quite an adrelanie rush - the drivers are insane, to put it midly. They accelerate to slip through narrowing gaps, a few times I had to lean over to avoid being hit by side-mirrors. All in good fun! The rest of the tour was much more relaxed, though we saw how the locals live, and even saw a couple of ´soldiers´, the enforcers of the druglords, walking through the Flavela heavily armed.Before I knew it, it was Christmas! The hostel had organised a booze cruise, so most of the hostel went on this. We cruised around the Bay, initially enjoying the magnificient views, but soon the free Caipirinahs did they´re job and we focussed on the party! It was great fun, and continued back at the hostel in the evening, but, alas, it all gets a little blurry after that!
My final day in Rio the weather had improved somewhat, with only mild clould coverage. I used that opportunity to go up Sugarload mountain, in the mixed state of still beeing drunk and the inevitable hangover slowly aproaching. The views of Rio where pretty amazing. The rest of the day was spent on Copacana beach, where most of the hostel chose to recover from the previous nights party.
Natal was my next stop, though due to it being the holiday season most flights we´re fully booked. So to get to Natal I had an early morning flght to Brasilia, Brazils captial, where I spent a full day loitering and checking out some of its famous buildings. In the evening I cought a flight to Recife, slept there for a few hours, before catching a bus to Natal early the next morning.
