Rio

Rio de Janiero, meaning January river as the Portugese people arrived in January and believed the bay to be a river. We stayed in Copacabana which is like Surfers Paradise but not as clean. People tend to sunbake on the beach but not swim perhaps this is because the favela sewerage gets washed into the bay.

On our first morning we went to sugarloaf mountain which can only be reached by catching two cable cars. The views looking over the bay Copacabana and Ipanema beaches is amazing.

In the afternoon we went to the summit of Corcovoda to see the Christo Redentor.  It is truly breathtaking after seeing it in many movies you appreciate the size of it once you get up close. To reach the top we caught a train, a elevator and an escalator!

The evening brought us to our samba experience with the Beija Flor school who are reigning carnival champions. The people are as passionate about their samba school as they are about their football! Imagine an outdoor arena with 1,000 people performing samba and just as many people dancing and spectating, plus another 1,000 on the street drinking beer and dancing! It was louco! The samba school was rehearsing for this year's carnivale and so we saw a sneak peek of their routine.

After only three hours sleep we jumped into an open top jeep to tour the largest favela (slum) in Rio. The close concrete quarters make a rabbit warren to navigate through fused with shops and raw sewerage flowing down the canal. The views however are amazing and in any other country would be the site of upmarket hotels and mansions but here the people have access to free running water and electricity, and if people squat in a dwelling for five years it becomes legally theirs.

For lunch we sat opposite the beach and ate a Brazilian barbeque that included chicken, beef, pork, sausage, rice and french fries. We ate so much we did not even bother with dinner!

Rio is a city like no other with the Zona Sul (south zone) providing tourists with everything they could desire while the Zona Norte is a thriving mass of people trying to make their way in the world, for example selling water in the middle of a four lane freeway!