Rio de Janeiro

Wow well to start...... so much to do in Rio and so little time..

Getting to Rio in itself was an adventure.. 8 became 3 (Terry, me and Jordan). Jordan now moneyless and without bank card!! We took a bus to the Brazilian border to get our flights from Foz.
Our flights went smoothly until baggage reclaim when we waited for Jordan's bag for 30mins longer than our own. The taxi driver imitated Michael Shumaker who swerved in and out of cars on the motorway, at at a least 120Kph. However once we reached Cocopabana he soon slowed down as he was completely lost. We did eventually arrive at the correct hostel but it was touch there and go for a while!!

The hostel was pretty cool, had a kitchen and BBQ which we made good use of and the location was 2 blocks from the beech. The rooms were a little like how i imagine prison to be - and the bunk beds (yes another dorm) were hard as bricks.

So first up we decided to do the tourist thing and see a few sights of the city.
Favelas
We took a bus with the tour guide to the bottom of the Favela's, where we each were designated a mototaxi driver and sped to the top of the Favelas on motorbikes!! Pretty Cool!!

The Favelas were not as poor as what we expected - they werent really shanty houses - more just like lots of houses built upon each other up the hillside.

There are no building restrictions so the houses are practically on top of each other.

The government have recently intervened and the favelas are controlled and patrolled by police rather that the dangerous drug gangs. There are new schools and a hospital. The people still steel electricity and water and the goverment have not yet managed to clean up - so there was rubbish everywhere leaving a lingering smell and lots of rats in the sewers!

Despite the recent impovements you still wouldnt want to leave here, Terry's words "was a dump and it smelt and i was suprised by the amount of litter and rubbish everywhere". However the people were much friendler that we expected and you didnt feel unsafe at all.

Christ
Of course you can not come to Rio without visiting the statue of Christ. Its about 750meters aboove sea level and the statue itself is about 40meters tall. We took a minivan to the top. There were so many tourists it was difficult to get a good picture - choas - everyone trying to get that perfect snap, bloody tourists!!

Christ up close... he hasnt aged!

Which one's God??

there were some amazing views of the city too.. you could really see how the city has been built around the forest.

Lapa Steps
Mostly known for appearing in the Snoop Dog and Pharrell video "Beautiful"
The guy responsible for the Lapa Steps was actually there in person - still working and adding to the collection of tiles!
We found Rio..

Terry with our boy Jordan...

Tiles from every city in the world...

We found London and Terry reckos he can see his house!!!

Cathedral
Next up was the ugliest Cathedral in the world..... appatrently its "Modern"

but the inside had pretty amazing stain glass windows...

Sugar Loaf
Is a famous mountain in Rio next to the beautiful lake in the rich part of the city

We took 2 cable cars to the top...

The view at the top was something...

We stayed there to see the sunset over Rio..

In the distance we could see Christ

We did a couple of different things at night time to try and really get into the Brazilian way of live. We went to a live Jazz show, which turned into a club once when band had finished. We went to Lapa and joined in the street parties - weird, random but amazing experience - just thousands of people drinking in the streets with bars and clubs at both sides. And then there was the Brazilian Show........

Not sure what to expect - but this was not it...
opening the show a footballer doing kick-ups!!!

Then lots of half naked women wearing jewels, wierd and over the top costumes,

a band...

and something between marshall arts and acrobatics...

And very over-priced drinks. Needless to say Terry was not impressed!!

We also spent a few days chilling out on the magnificant golden sandy beeches..

And Terry still cant catch a sun tan!!

So 6 days in Rio was a bit of a whistle stop tour, its such a big place we could have stayed another week and not seen everything but we saw the main things and needed to get back on track with the rest of south america.

So how to get the Benuos Aries??? 44 hours on a bus or 3 hours on a plane...... Emirates here we come!!