As we flew over Rio de Janeiro we began to realise what all the fuss was about. It has some of the most exciting landscape, harsh green mountains dropping into white sand beaches.
We arrived into Rio and were greeted with a stinking hot 37o. We were getting by with our spanish everywhere else, but of coarse Spanish was useless there and we knew it would be an interesting week not knowing a word of Portuguese. While our Spanish is so basic, we felt like experts in comparison. Anyway we went through the most relaxed customs yet, then managed to get on a bus towards Copacabana. With no hostel booked we took to the streets with our big bags in search of a place to stay. We found a place a block back from the beach and decided that would do us just fine. Once we were settled in we went for a wonder around the streets of Copacabana then spent the evening having a few drinks.
The following day we got up bright and early to get some of the sites ticked off. We started with the Christ statue, but being a Saturday a Cruise ship spoilt the party with a million mindless tourists being led around like sheep. We decided to check the city out and return later on. We navigated the city looking for all the colonial buildings, museums, cathedrals etc along with the markets and anything else we could find. The heat didn't make it easy but we managed to walk around and see everything including an amazing theatre and the most intricate, over the top interior at the monastery. We then returned to take the tram up to see the iconic Jesus statue that looks down over Rio. While the statue was mildly disappointing (as all the cool postcard photos are from a helicopter) it had an amazing panoramic view over the city with all the islands, beaches, mountains, skyscrapers and slums all in one view. Pretty exhilarating. After getting some shots we returned to Copacabana and went straight to the beach. We had never seen a beach so packed. The whole stretch was covered in people just as we had imagined. We did manage to find a nice spot to enjoy some afternoon sun and a swim. That evening we had a few drinks at the hostel before heading to Lapa. Lapa is where a lot of the bars and clubs are, but better known for the world famous street party. The streets are closed off and swarming with thousands of people, street vendors selling drinks, loud music, street performers and lots of people dancing Samba. We started our night off with a Caiprhina, a delicious Brazilian drink from one of the street vendors. We were with a local girl so she was showing us around and took us to see "the most beautiful steps in the world". Necane was overly excited when she realised this was where Snoop dogg and Pharell filmed a videoclip, and insisted we returned during the day because we didn't have cameras on us.
We wondered back towards the main party stopping along the way to watch a bit of Samba. We ran into some Argentinians and Brazilians staying at our hostel and ended up parting on until the early hours getting back at 5.
The following morning we had a bit of an expected late start to the day. After a feed we headed to Sugar loaf mountain, the other iconic site of Rio. We met another kiwi on the bus so caught the gondola up with him. The view from to the top was even more spectacular than from the Christ.
After our site seeing, once again we spent the afternoon on Copacabana beach relaxing and enjoying the buzz of Rio de Jeneiro.
The following day we booked a favela tour as 20% of rio's population live in slums. We were expecting the tour to be a drive through the slums so we were quite surprised when we were told we ride up on the back of motorbikes an descend down through the slum on foot.
We each hopped on the back of a bike and before we knew our driver was hooning up the windy, dodgy road. Each holding on for our dear lives as the crazy drivers went for smallest gaps overtaking trucks and racing each other. After the first 30seconds of completely shitting ourselves, the rest of the ride was extremely exhilarating. Once we got to the top our perception of what a slum looks like changed, as we realised there is a lot more order to their neighbourhood than we previously thought with corner stores, internet cafes, ATMs etc, despite not officially owning the land. We started to decend down through the favela as our guide turned and said if we see anyone with machine guns they're the drug cartels, and to put down our camera. That put us on edge but as we started walking through the thin, footpath sized streets we realised we were in good hands as almost every person we walked past was friends with our guide. As expected, it was dirty and smelt even worse, some parts much worse than others. The residents would add to houses the only way they could by building up which made us wonder about the quality of their workmanship and probably the lack of foundations underneath it being on a hill. Apparently slips have greatly been reduced since they built an aqueduct down the clip face. It was extremely eye opening to see the conditions people live in, yet we were quite surprised in the order and efficiency they live their lives. It really just seemed like a big poor neighbourhood, mind
you, we didn't get to see the influence and control of the drug cartels, which is probably a good thing.
After the tour we returned to see the famous steps we had seen a couple of nights before. They are an ongoing project so the artist is always making additions. We met the, of coarse extravert artist and he showed us a couple of tiles from New Zealand, starring some korus, a kiwi fruit and a tiki. We then indulged in an delicious lunch before exploring a bit more of central Rio. Once again we spent the afternoon on the beach after a full day of exploring before heading around to Ipanema beach to watch the sun set behind the iconic Rio de Janeiro landscape. A great way to end an unforgettable few days in Rio.
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