With love from Rio
Trip Start
Jul 15, 2005
1
2
7
Trip End
Aug 15, 2005
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Sunday, July 17, 2005
We hope you`re fine and the weather in Europe is not too bad.
Here, well, itīs winter, so we have pleasant 30° during midday. So, what happened since Friday?
Our flight was alright, we had brought a bottle of wine and candles to Madrid airport, got a bit drunk, so we fell asleep immediately after boarding the plane to Rio. Which was good because service, food and seating were real crap on Iberia.
We arrived in Rio at 7.00 in the morning and caught a cab to our hotel. Julia, we highly recommend Hotel Hispano Brasileiro! The room has no windows, but thatīs rather an advantage, because of noise and security. We have our own bathroom, just the electricity cables above the shower, taped with Scotch (!) are a bit worrying.
After breakfast, we started to do the Lonelz Planet Walking Tour, but gave up after 20 min, left THE BOOK in the backpack and just followed our nose. The old part of Rio is soooooooo beautiful!!! Old colonial houses, juice shops on every corner, narrow streets and a beautiful market. We bought a watch on the market which Thomas is wearing now. My old travel companions probably canīt imagine Rebecca witthout watch and guidebook!
Anyhow, we enjoyed it all, it was relaxing and exiting and we got quite a good feeling for the city. In the evening, we had dinner at a Chopperia (beer garden). We both ordered something to eat, which was a mistake, because one dish is more than enough for two, two steaks with rice and fries is one dish!
After dinner, we went to Lapa district where we discovered a narrow street that is a bit like Kao San Road in Bangkok, old, dirty, full of food and drink stalls and big party going on. Just that tehre, we were almost the only tourists, this is the place where young Cariocas (Rio people) go. Great Caipirinha, live Samba music and meeting crazy people, we simply loved it.
Following THE BOOKīs safety advice, we took a cab back home.
Today was tourist day. We went on top of Corcovado where the huge Christ statue overlooks Rio. We had an amazing view and made fun of the Japanese tourist groups. From Corcovado, we took a bus to Ipanema beach. That was quite a hard day, you can imagine!!! So exhausting hard work to watch all those people and to lie in this soft sand ...
We took some great pictures of Cariocas which we will attach when we are home. Guys, youīd love these bikinis!!!
Tomorrow, we will fly to Cuiaba via Sao paulo, from the famous small airport in downtown. The view must be amazing, so we are already looking forward to it. From Cuiaba, we will start our trek to the Pantanal, wetland natural reserve close to Bolivia.
Take care, folks!!!
Comments
Brasil is great
Hey guys,here in Manaus it is great,too.
You can have a look at my experiences here under :
http://Julietta169.fotopages.com
Enjoy your trip!!!!
Cheers,Julia