Today really got going at 1 o'clock when we began our tour of 'Rio in a day' with our lovely guide Andrea. Met a girl, Tasha from the UK who was good fun, despite being a Maths teacher! We headed up the steep roads of Cochina (Camel Hump) towards Christ the Redeemer. I had Karl Pilkington whinging about how rubbish it was in the back of my mind. We had 35 minutes which was a good amount of time to cram a LOT of photos in. The statue was so impressive (awe inspiring, some might say!) it was so incredible to be standing in front of something you have seen in films and pictures and a place I have wanted to go to for as long as I can remember. The views over Rio were also amazing and we were lucky to have gone on such a nice day.
Next stop was the historic town of Santa Teresa, Andrea pointed out where, and I quote, 'Amy Winehouse flashed her t***!' I thought that Nan was doing the tour for a second! Santa Teresa was a nice area, a bit run down or rustic if you were selling a house there, good art and graffiti everywhere.
We went to the samba street where carnival is held and James and I wore traditional carnival dress and performed a Samba for the group which was similar to Katya and Robin from Strictly. We got back on the bus, minus our costumes I am sad to say, and went to the Lapa steps. The guy who made them was sitting on the steps outside his house so we got a photo with him, he seemed a bit crazy and was obsessed with drawing black pregnant women, sometimes with his face. The steps were pretty and good fun to look at, with tiles from all around the world.
Our final destination was Sugar loaf mountain where we got a cable car up in the light and came down after sunset. Again it had great views and was especially nice just as the sun was setting and all the lights of Rio came on.
We were also kept entertained by a Norwegian and American who became best friends over the course of the day. I will never introduce him to Mum, Gail or Nan all he talked about was his many stories about where the best place to get mugged or kidnapped, he really should work for the tourist board-what a fool!
We didn't meet up with the guys from the football but found our own Brazilian BBQ near the hostel. Tasha came with us which was fun and helpful as she speaks a bit of Portuguese. The meat was really good and we definitely got our money worth.