Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
We arrived in Rio mid afternoon and got hit by the hot air as we stepped off the plane. Heading into the city we had our first sight of the Sugarloaf mountain and the Statue of Christ the Redeemer – which we would see more of in the city tour the next day.
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In the hotel we had a pleasant surprise meeting up with some of the people from earlier in the tour. At one stage earlier in the tour we had been a group of 24 people, but this decreased as time went on until by the time we were at the falls we were a group of two people! The hotel is excellent and close to the beach, which we could see from our hotel balcony. In the evening we walked along Copacabana beach where the temperature was still 26 degrees at 10 pm.
Today was a clear sunny day, which meant that we had perfect views for our tour of the city. The temperature, though, reached between 35 and 40 degrees! Our first stop was the statue of Christ the Redeemer, which is situated on a hill (called Corcovado, which translated means the hump of a camel) inside a National Park. The Park is a large area of protected coastal rain forest. To get to the statue we were driven up a steep winding road through the forest before getting out to climb over 200 steps to get to the base of the statue. From here we had fantastic views of the city and of the statue. From here we drove past the Maracana stadium which was built the year Brazil first hosted the World Cup and which this year will be the venue for the World cup final.
Then we went on to visit the Cathedral – a modern building which is dedicated to St Sebastian. The shape of the building is unusual, built step wise like the pyramids but conical in shape. Inside the most striking feature were the beautifully colourful stained glass windows. Our lunch stop was at a traditional steakhouse, which provided an all you can eat buffet with lots of nice salads- even vegetarians could eat well! The final part of the tour was to the Sugarloaf Mountain, which we ascended by means of two cable cars to gain yet more splendid views. The rest of the day we spent walking along Copacabana beach and our planned long lie in tomorrow was shortened by staying out at the waterfront watching the waves and drinking cocktails until just before midnight.
Another hot and sunny day so in the morning we took a local bus to the Botanical Gardens. The trees provided some shade from the sun. It was good to stroll around the gardens and to enjoy the different scents and the sounds of the birds and insects in the trees. We saw monkeys and a hummingbird, but the highlight was of course the plants, particularly the orchid and bromeliad collections and some of the giant bamboos. After this it was another short bus ride to spend the afternoon at Ipanema Beach and we both spent time in the ocean cooling off, riding the waves. Later of course we returned to Copacabana Beach for cocktails before returning to our hotel.
Sadly all good things come to an end, so this is the last entry of this trip, arriving back late on Friday evening.
It’s been a blast 🙂
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