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Country: Brazil.
City: Rio de Janeiro. Currency: 1Euro = 3.58 Real Elevation: 61m / 201ft Arrival Date: Friday November 1st 2002. OK so I got here after a fairly long trip to the southern hemisphere!! I left Dublin friday afternoon and flew to London Heathrow which I´ve done a million times so that was fairly uneventful. I needed to get from Terminal 1 to T4 and seeing as I had checked in the entire way to Rio when I was in Dublin all I had to do was get to the terminal on time!! Easily done until I realised that while checking my ticket in T1 I had lost the bloody receipt!! Not too fussed I made my way to the the ticket desk and they issued me a dummy coupon after someone in T1 had handed mine in!! What a great start to the trip eh!! This better not be a sign of things to come was all I could think! Anyway I got on the flight and flew 11 hours to Sao Paulo where there was a brief stop to let people off and then we continued on to Rio!! There was the most amazing sight of an Island called Funchal in the North Atlantic as we flew over it was completely lit up in the pitch black surroundings!! Then as we flew over Rio it was bright and about 7am local time when I arrived and the landscape was a lot more mountainous then I expected! It looked with a sea bed with all these rolling hills and valleys everywhere!! Then we landed and I was very glad to see that my backpack had made it all the way too!! So I hopped in a taxi and went to one of the hotels in the lonely planet guide that I brought with me!! Only thing was as soon as I cheked in and saw the room I checked right back out again!! It was a complete dump and I´d never seen anything like it in my life!! They then tried to pawn me off another "nicer" room for a cheaper price!! I had a quick look and then just left the hotel altogether!! I´d forgotten just how poor people are here and how different the living conditions are! In fact how different everything is and so it took a bit of getting used to again. I then found a much nicer more expensive hotel just up the road and settled in nicely after a small bout of panic that I was all alone in the world!! So I had a short rest and a lukewarm shower and headed off to the Sugar Loaf!! why not get stuck into the sightseeing while I was still jetlagged!! And here it is the Pão de Açúcar or (Sugar Loaf). It has two cable cars that climb 396m (1300ft) above Rio and the Baía de Guanabara. 
I decided to try my luck with the local buses and make my own way there!! Which I did without any problems. It was an experience hanging on for dear life in the bus though and figured that this definitely was a sign of things to come so I´d better get used to these type of bus rides!! When I got to the Sugar loaf it was absolutely beautiful and very exciting taking the glass cable cars to the first and then second peak! While I was there it was really relaxing to just sit up there a read my book and decide what to do tomorrow!! I found my way home after missing my stop and having to walk for a bit back to the hotel but no bother cos I found this internet cafe and after a quick chat with Thomas in Holland (thanks Tom) I managed to survive the first day!! All in all a success I´d say!! :-) I´m gonna go get some dinner and head back to the Imperial hotel in Catete for a good nights sleep in my air conditioned room with TV and swimming pool!! ok so the pool is not in my room but it´s in the hotel so I´ll take a dip tomorrow I reckon!! WHAT!! I need to break myself in gently to this cheap travelling thing...hehehee It´s only two nights here so I´m gonna treat myself! Anyway thats it for now signing off sat 2nd of November. Date: 03-11-02 , Sunday Well I´ll tell you about my day today then, I had a nice breakfast and decided to hit the Copa Copacobana!! I left my book and maps behind cos they say nto to bring bags and stuff in case they´re robbed...So I had a fair idea how to get there! Get on the bus that said Copacobana!! :-) So again with the mad bus journey until I saw a sign in a shop that said Copacobana so i hopped off the bus there...somewhere.. walked towards the sea and sure enough there it was!! You know what I´m glad I´m on my own cos besides the millions of people walking , running, cycling, sunbathing, selling stuff and playing beach volley ball...there´s no-one here to see how white and flabby I am!! Oh happy days!! 
But it´s really ok cos everyone is half naked everywhere you go and I´ve seen a lot of bodies with a hell of a lot more flab than me!! heheee But Ohh the men!! and all the cute little puppies and my god the tinsy bikins!! All very eh ...interesting..in very different ways!! So after sufficiently baking myself (sorry Liz) I made it back to the hotel but instead of getting off the bus too late today I managed to get off to early!! I really need to remember where I get ON this dumbass bus!! But it worked out well cos I walked past the place where I needed to get the bus to the Corcovado later! Perfect!! So I headed up to the Cog Train to bring me up the mountain to the Corcovado. The Cog train is an electric train that runs on the original tracks used to bring the statue up to the top of the mountain. The track is extremely steep and runs through a beautiful rain forest and National park called Tijuca. It not only looks beautiful but it smells beautiful too!! It´s kinda hard to explain but imagine all these trees, plants and flowers with the sun shining through and a cool breeze blowing through the open windows of the train as it saunters along at 19miles per hr...all I could think of was "Ahh this IS the life!" :-) and all I could do was smile! So up at the top here is the view of the Corcovado, the 750m (2460ft) mountain peak with the statue of Christ the Redeemer at its summit, offers the best way to become geographically familiar with the city of Rio de Janeiro. I took the obligitory pictures and wanted to take more but they always seem to be passed by in photo albums so I resisted. Anyway the spectacular views are best experiences in person then confined to a picture 
It´s the strangest thing being up so high, although I will get higher in Peru but for now 700m is pretty high. The odd cloud that passes seems to roll towards you before engulfing you and then disappearing behind you off the other side of the mountain, the sun shining throughout keeps you hot the whole time though! Then something I never knew is that there´s a tiny chapel at the base of the statue too where the Pope once said mass. I knew the Pope was there but never knew about the chapel. I have to say that yesterday I was a bit aprehensive and thought that I´d be happy to leave Rio but after today I really wish I could stay here a bit longer and that I put a bit more sun block on my arms!! heheeee Ahh they´ll be fine! The sun is just gorgeous!! So I´m strolling back down the steps and standing reading the history of the statue when I hear these Irish accents of these guys beside me! So i turn and say "you guys must be Irish" and the guy turns around and says "I know you!" It was only Malcolms mate from college that we used to hang out with when I was seeing him!! You know what It really is a small world! So that´s it for now..I leave tomorrow so I´m just gonna chill in the morning before I head off to Chile!! It´s all Good! :-) Important lessons learned!! - never trust a taxi driver in any airport!! Ever!! - even in very hot countries bring a long sleeve top on the plane. They have air conditioning and it gets cold! - when in Rio dont bring big bags/backpacks on the buses! they all have these turnstyle things that you can barely fit through even without any bags!! - it`s unclear whether you get on the front or the back of these buses (mostly the back) both seem to work but remember to pay at the back even if you get on at the front!! - you have to be quick if you wanna get on any bus!! I think they saw the film `Speed´ and every bus driver thinks the bus will explode if he stops to pick people up or let them off!! hheee get all hands and feet on quickly cos they aint waiting around! - bring lots of insect repellent cos when the mosquitos bite you on teh tip of your finger it hurts to type!! and dont scratch!! - and wear sun cream!! (thanks Liz!) ;-) Here are the photos!! (Back to my Itinerary.) |