5th

Not much sleep last night. Its hot, humid and noisy. We attempt to try and work out the bus service here in Rio, and it's a nightmare. The decision is made to catch a bus to the ferry terminal and take the ferry across Guanabara Bay to Centro. Guanabara Bay is very polluted, and would not think of swimming in the water, its brown.

The ferry ride is relaxing, and we make our way to the subway. The subway is easy to use as there are only 2 lines. North/south, east/west. We ride the subway till the end of the south line. This brings us out at Ipanema Beach. I have never seen a beach so packed. Nearly every square inch is covered by beach umbrellas. The surf looks pretty good.

We walk north and soon we are walking along the famous Copacabana Beach walkway. Just as packed as Ipanema. Its pretty hot so a stop to get ice cream brings a welcome relief. The beach is over 4k long, but we stop well before the end and find a subway station back to centro. A quick walk around centro finds closed shops everywhere. Not much else to do so we board the ferry for home.

6th

Not much planned today. I was reading a tourist book about Rio, and there was a story about the Carnivale. The article was interesting, and stated that they practice on some Sundays in December. The last practice is on tonight, and its free. Its pretty much a full version on the Carnivale with the floats. The way its worded is to come along and try out the different grandstands before you buy a ticket. Ok this sound like its worth seeing.

The Sambadrome is about 2 ks out of centro, so a 2 k walk from the ferry terminal should see us there by 8. Now the Sambadrome is a permanent fixture as well as the grandstands The practice starts at 8pm, so we leave home at 6.30pm thinking there wont be many people there. We don’t get to the Sambadrome till just after 8pm. I cannot believe how packed it is. There are people spilling onto the main road, the grandstands are nearly full. We manage to push and shove our way into the first grandstand. The view is great.

The huge band of around 400 people start playing their drums and the noise is so loud. The first Samba school passes, and the second school starts their dancing. There are some guys singing along with the band. Everybody in the grandstand is dancing to the music. The dancers sure know how to dance. Let me paint a picture of the dancers stamina. Its 36 degress and about 80% humidity. The concrete roadway (for the dancers) and the concrete grandstands are still very hot. Now I am just standing still with a puddle of sweat at my feet. These dancers are doing their thing for a good 15 to 20 minutes, and doing it with a smile. It must be hard work.

After an hour or so we have had enough. Ears are ringing, totally dehydrated. We decide to walk back to the ferry terminal. Not sure if it’s a smart idea. There are a lot of very shady characters, and a lot of homeless people everywhere, and not a policeman in sight. It’s a long and scary walk, but we make it without getting hassled.

So we have seen some of the Carnivale for free. I certainly would not pay the $65 to $2,000 admission ticket.

7th

Today we are going to see Christ the Redeemer at the top of Corcovada Mountain. We leave at 10am and don’t get to the base of Corcovada till 12.30pm. 2.5 hours to do 20ks. That how bad the traffic is here, shocking. Any there is a long queue to buy tickets. This take about half an hour. When we get to the ticket booth we find out that the train ride to the top is not leaving till 4pm. All earlier time slots are gone. Oh well lets get some lunch. As we are walking back to the entrance we are approached by a guy telling us we can get to the top now if we buy a ticket with him. This will save us waiting.

We manage to get a refund and give the guy his money. Half way up we stop at the entrance to the national park where we have to change transport. No big deal I thought, until we saw the queue for the next transport service to the top of the mountain. There must be 500 people waiting in line. This will take hours! We buy the National park ticket and decide to walk the 2.5 kilometres to the top. We are at 300 metres above sea level and the top is 720 metres above sea level. Must have rocks in my head to do this, as its is so hot. Anyway we get to the car park after about 30 minutes, only to be greeted by 200 steps to get to the very top. Its very crowded, and I do mean crowded. We ascend the 200 steps and are greeted by a packed platform to view the scenery and Christ The Reedmer. Its push and shove to get the the edge for a view. There is not shade and all the granite and concrete is so hot you cannot sit or lean on anything. We get our pictures and try and leave the top, only to find that there are escalators and lifts operating. Would have much rather found them on the way up rather than walking up 200 steps.

It only takes 3 hours to get home. Yeep 3 hours to do 20ks. Most of the roads are gridlocked. Cannot imagine what it will be like when they host the 2016 Olympics.

8th

A short distance from Niteroi is a Park perched high on a hill. A bus and taxi ride gets us there and the view is spectacular. There are many people paragliding and we are offered a fly for $50, and if we don’t like it its free. We both decline. The taxi that brought us up here decide not to wait so it’s a 2k walk downhill back into town. Don’t mind the downhill walk as it is through a nice rainforest.

We spend the rest of the day doing nothing. The legs need resting.