Rio De Janeiro, part1
Time to limber up my writing digits again. This edition is part 1 of a 3 part series on my final destination of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We made it just in time to check out the city before the infamous Carnival festival. This edition includes some of the famous sights from the most beautiful city I have ever visited.
Well, when we last left off, Paul and I were at Iguacu Falls just entering the enormous country of Brazil. In order to meet our goal of making it to Rio De Janeiro for Carnival we boarded one of the remaining buses with open space for the 24 hr ride (Good lord I hope it’s our last) to Rio De Janeiro via Sao Paolo.
We hit up Rio a few days before the festivities began, so we had a chance to do a little sight seeing. Right off the bat a cab driver almost took off my leg at the bus terminal, Paul and I knew we were off to a great start. After grabbing a few of our friends from different parts of the globe, we headed around town. First stop was the beach. Our hostel was 3 blocks from Copacabana beach and the rest of the day was spent lounging, swimming and sunbathing.
The Rio beaches are great because of the activities, people, and most importantly, beach vendors. Need a drink? Bam, Caiparinha in your hand. Hungry? Your sandwich, Senor. It’s great and fairly cheap. We also discovered that each beach area on Copacabana and Ipanema beach was loosely organized into genres of people. There is the family post, teenager post, sport post, surfing post, transvestite post, gay and lesbian post, hot model post, and I am sure any other fringe grouping you can think of. You can see some of these crazy beach dwellers on our pics.
Next up, arguably the most famous landmark in Rio, Christo do Corcovado, or the huge Christ statue on a hill overlooking the city. Unfortunately, no one in our group checked into the weather at the time, or just looked up and noticed all the clouds over the statue. Our view was a little compromised at the top, but we could still see most of the city through the clouds and took some interesting pictures of Mr. Jesus himself emerging from the mist.
Later in the week, Paul and I hit up Pao do Azucar, the Sugar Loaf. This is another hill that is on the northern side of Rio. We took a few buses through town and then a cable car system to the top of the hill. The day was clear and Paul and I were treated to a spectacular view of Rio. You can view many of Rio’s famous beaches, see the Corcovado hill towards the west and view the different areas of densely populated Rio in between the lush hills and sky blue ocean. We could even see the apartment building we rented for a week with some Australian friends.
This was the second best way to view the city, the other involving harnesses, a wing, and a running start. More on that in pt2.