Day 1
So we arrived in Rio! The best feeling is that there's no rush. We strolled through the airport and took our time getting on to the bus that our hostel website advised us to catch. I was shocked at what I saw. Young kids running around in poverty stricken places. Blocks of houses built with different types of brick, literally crumbling apart. The roads that the bus took were sooo bumpy! Didn't help that I was literally dying for a wee!! As we got more and more into the city and towards where we were staying it got less bumpy and the buildings nicer. The bus driver shouted something in Portuguese at us which we presumed meant it was our stop. We followed the instructions to our hostel in Ipanema which was about a 5 min walk and finally got here. Hostel Harmonia, our home for however long we wanted. It was lovely, down a side street with locked gates so we felt safe. It was small but somehow felt homely. We were greeted by a kind Dutch lady who made us a cup of tea and took our bags. Josh had mentioned a few times a big game between two of the biggest Brazilian teams that played on the day of our arrival but how he'd heard it was quite expensive around £80 each. As it was thunderstorms outside and our plans of a relaxing beach day was out the window we thought we may as well enquire. Our Dutch receptionist was quick to inform us that it was only £30 each which included transport to and from the stadium. Josh's face lit up and I was quick to say we were in.
So we made out way to out room which was a small with 3 sets of bunk beds. Josh and I decided to choose as set between us, I was to sleep top and him bottom. I didn't mention to josh I was slightly nervous about this as I'd never slept in bunks and with no walls on the side it looked quite easy to roll out! We took a cold shower then quickly got ready to make our way to the pick up spot for the game. On route was saw 2 Austrian boys with a guy from Colombia shouting football at any coach that passed by. Bless them their hostel manager had told the 1.30pm rather then 2pm so they thought they'd been left which was why they were frantically shouting at any dingy bus that drove past. We grabbed a bite to eat (croissant with cold ham and cheese) then joined the boys for a chat. The Austrian boys spoke perfect English, however I noticed the Colombian boy staring at me puzzled. He asked me if I spoke Spanish which I obviously responded no then he continued to look puzzled. He then muttered to his Austrian friends that he understansd Josh but not me, must be my twang of brummie occasionally! The Austrians responded that British English is different! Ha.
The big air conditioned coach finally turned up and we sat down to brace the 2 hour journey plus added hour for stops to the stadium in Volta Redonda Stadium. Josh popped out on one stop and grabbed some chilled beers which went down great. When we arrived it was mental. People running around everywhere shouting; singing; waving flags! Police were on every corner ensuring there was no trouble. Our group stayed together and we made our way into the ground. We were sat in the Fluminense away section which made the atmosphere amazing. They were so passionate for their team and also their hate for the Flamengo fans! The Flamengo fans only had to clap and the Fluminense fans would go mental. Singing at the top of their voices, raising their middle finger and doing certain moves for each chant. The game was fun to watch and ended up 3-1 to Flamengo. However even when Fluminense were 3-0 down they kept up their passionate chants and supported their team. Definitely admired this, I can't stand football fans who leave when their teams loosing. My Dad has always stayed till the whistle has been blown loose or win. We all made our way through the crowds and back to the coach. Josh and I literally passed out. We hasn't slept in a bed since Friday night so even the thought of a hard bunk bed excited us! We made the short walk through Ipanema back to our hostel. It was around 11.30pm so the bars were all in full swing. Finally we made it back to our bunk beds and fell into a deep well deserved sleep.
Day 2
Today we woke up to hot but cloudy weather. However it didn't stop us making the most of the free breakfast and sitting on the open terrace looking in to the Rio streets. The breakfast is so yummy! Cheese, ham, soft bread rolls, eggs and lots of fruit. Perfect!! After filling up we enquired what to do as again out lying on the beach all day plan didn't seem worth while considering all the cloud. The receptionist quickly advised us to take a walk alongside Rodrigo De Freitas Lake to the largest Botanical gardens in South America. He's advice was was perfect! The walk was beautiful with a view of Christ the Redeemer the whole way. Josh and I strolled at our leisure stopping along the way to take everything in. We even tried out one of the outdoors exercise parks just because we could! We eventually got the the gardens after a bit of a struggle with getting money out at the cash point. It was beautiful, just stretches of tropical plants and all sorts of trees. It felt healthy to take in the jungle like air. We strolled around for a couple of hours and eventually saw what I'd been wanting to see, little wild monkeys!!! They were so cute just running along swinging from each tree. They had the smallest faces, I just wanted to take one home!! Eventually after walking for miles we left and headed towards Parque Henrique Lage which was where snoop dog filmed one of his videos. It has the perfect view of Christ the Redeemer, made me excited to go up and see it!!! The sun had started to come out so we quickly jumped in a taxi to Leblon Beach. The waves were massive and it was just perfect to walk along. We walked all the way to Ipanema beach where our hostel was just 3 blocks away. After such a big breakfast the hunger had only just started to kick in. We walked to a near by pizza fast food place, Josh had a meat and onion pizza and I went for mushroom. After a couple of beers we headed back to the hostel and again passed out!
Day 3
Today has been my favourite day in Rio! We both woke up around 7am and as breakfast was at 9 decided to take an early morning stroll. The Swedish guy who owns the hostel advised us to take a look at the fruit and veg market up the road. The weather was perfect and a morning stroll was lovely. Although we didn't buy anything we took in all the different smells. A quick trip to the bank and it was already 9 and time for breakfast. Seeing that the weather was gorgeous we'd booked the 'city tour'. It was the tour we'd been most looking forward to and literally ticked off most of the main attractions in Rio. But first it was a 3 hour trip to the beach. As we had the tour at 1pm we decided to go to Ipanema beach. It was bliss! Gorgeous sand and the sound of crashing waves whilst I sunbathed in the scorching hot sun. I only put sun creme on my top half for some reason. Big mistake! As a typical Britain who sees a bit of sun I am now a lobster tummy down. Currently 3 layers of after sun down and praying it disappears for tomorrow.
After our quick beach visit we got picked up from our hostel by a Usher look a like called Fernando. He was great and provided us with interesting facts along the way. Firstly he took is to 'Christ the Redeemer'. Having seen the statue from many parts of the city already I was curious to actually see it up close. It didn't disappoint, it's just huge and you can literally feel the monuments presence staring over the city of Rio de Janeiro. Apparently the arms are stretched out to protect the people of the city. I think it's a fabulous structure and certainly impressive up close and from below the mountains. Everywhere you go you can see it watching over you. We were then taken to Santa Teresa a small town high up which originated around the Santa Teresa Convent. It used to be quite an upper class borough however now it's more of an arty place to live. There used to be a popular famous tram line, however Fernando informed us this had been stopped since 2011 due to an accident where the tram steered straight into a wall. It was sad walking through as there is now a massive memorial painting with Nelson the popular tram driver who died in the accident driving the tram past the point where the accident occurred. We then moved on to Lapa to visit the famous Lapa Steps. I think they could possibly be my favourite part of Rio! So cool, the artist Jorge Selarón collected tiles from all over the world and transformed a miserable looking stairway to something bright that attracts people from all over. Each country has a little contribution, we managed to find Princess Diana, a map of London and a red phone box. I guess that's what sums up England for the rest of the world! We were sad to hear he had been murdered 4 months previous, apparently he'd been threatened by someone who worked in his workshop. We then moved on to Rio De Janeiro Cathedral. It wasn't like any cathedral I'd seen before. It was tall and big from the outside but with no signs of what religious things were held inside. The inside was beautiful with massive stain glass walls leading to the top of the cathedral. Finally we were heading to Sugar Loaf. The sun was already nearly down so it dawned on us we wouldn't make sunset however we'd been told its more about seeing the lights of Rio at night. We made our way to the first cable cart. I felt sick, I hate heights anyway so the feeling of being brought up so high on a cable cart which to me looks like it could snap any second just was sickening. I sat next to a lady from our tour and pretended it wasn't happening. We finally got to the first mountain after what seemed like forever! The views were already insane and it wasn't even Sugarloaf yet! We took the second cable cart, I held tightly on to Josh. We made it to the top of Sugarloaf! The views of the city were literally amazing. It was all lit up beautifully and I felt like you could really take in the beauty. Our guide told us some interesting stories as to why Sugarloaf got its name and that Rio de Janeiro actually means River of January which was when it was discovered. Josh and I wondered around the mountain taking in each part of the city that we'd fallen in love with. Of course I could see Christ the Redeemer glowing and still watching over the people. He's a constant presence in the city! We eventually made our way down the mountains again in the dreaded cable carts.
Our tour guide dropped us back at the hostel but Josh and I decided to grab something to eat. We'd walked past a restaurant a few times which had cheap prices so decided to check it out. For 10 pounds each we got garlic bread a beer and a pasta dish. I asked for small but couldn't finish it, josh went large and gave it his best try! The portions were ridiculous but hit the spot as we hadn't eaten since morning. We walked back to our hostel ready to plan where our trip would take us next..
Day 4
Our final day in Rio! Will definitely be very sad to leave. I've literally fallen in love with this place. The people are so friendly and whole place has a fun living attitude. We got up early to have breakfast and plan how we will make the most of our time. We'd been advised by a few people to do the Favela tour, I wasn't really sure either way and decided to leave the decision to Josh. Josh was pretty eager so arranged the trip with the Swedish hostel owner to pick us up at 2pm. First of all it was time to see Copacabana beach. We walked along in the sunshine from Ipanema beach to Copacabana taking in the different parts of the beach. One part that partially stood out was the 'gay' section. Rainbow flags towered above the beach and lots of men in tiny speedos or more or less speedos trunks. The whole beach is full of activity, people playing football, volley ball, BBQ's, lucky lucky men and more. We eventually got to Copacabana and it was exactly as I'd seen it on TV, stunning! It's curved into a C shape and gorgeous white sand with big waves. We went and bought some coconut water from a near by beach bar. It's the yummiest drink I've ever tasted! It's literally a green coloured coconut with a hole at the top. The water has the nicest sweet taste and so refreshing. We sat looking on to Copacabana beach drinking our tropical coconuts. We eventually said goodbye to Copacabana and made our way back to the hostel for the Favela tour. Our guide picked us up just before 2pm, it was only us and a German on the the tour. We got taken to a police controlled Favela called Racinha. Definitely felt unsafe on arrival, just a massive street that has kind of fell together. One word to describe a favela is organised chaos! Our tour guide took us into the cobbled unorganised streets where it was was easy to trip and there was definitely sewage water gathered in puddles. I'd worn sandals so was trying not to think about it! After making our way through the narrow streets we were taken to the roof of a school building. The view was mental, just thousands of shanti like houses pushed to together and built up so high they they looked like they could fall at any second. Our guide told is around 300,000 people loved in the over crowded space. Houses were built up against the cliffs, literally any space was filled with these unstructured houses. None of the houses have planning permission nor do they pay any taxes. After taking in the view, we made our way to a small art gallery to look at a favela citizens paintings. He was obviously hoping we'd invest and buy one of his paintings however the German guy wasn't interested and we were on a budget. We again got taken through the favela streets. A few things that I seen on our walk: a rat, chickens, stray dogs, poo (hopefully the stray dogs) , young kids shouting 'money money' at me and millions of flys. I can honestly say it was an eye opener and a totally different world to what I was brought up in. One thing I will stress is that I no longer felt unsafe, the people were friendly and waved as we walked pass their homes. One old man took my hand and planted a kiss on it. The only off putting bit was the young kids shouting money at us, one young lad got a bit in my face at one point. Our guide took us to a nearby nursery where we learnt that part of what we paid for the tour was donated towards. We passed lots of different rooms of young kids of a range of ages. One little kid probably around 3 just stared at Josh and I evilly then went on to get down on his hands and knees and roar. We named him evil baby. We made our way to the top of the nursery and took in a view from the bottom of the favela. I was shocked to see how far we had walked from our first view point. After a visit to a bakery where josh bought a home made doughnut we made our way out of the favela and on to the bridge dedicated to the carnivals. It was shaped as a thong! Only in Rio! Our tour guide dropped us back near our hostel. I surprisingly enjoyed the tour, it was so different to what I was used to and a culture shock. So interesting and definitely a good choice by Josh! So we've planned the next part of our adventure, we booked a 5 hour coach to Parati which is in between Rio and São Paulo on the coast. It's known as a small tourist beach town. Before we left for our 8pm bus we grabbed some food a near by restaurant recommended as proper Brazilian food by the Dutch lady at our hostel. It was soooo yummy! You pick what meat you want then. You get rice, beans, salad, chips and powered spice thing which I still don't understand what it was! Perfect meal to fill us up before our long trip! We grabbed our bags from the hostel said out goodbyes then jumped in a taxi to the bus station. We felt a bit rushed as there was so much traffic but we needn't of worried as our bus was around half an hour late anyway. The bus was nice with seats that went down quite a bit allowing us to sleep comfortably. I got my wooly socks on and a blanket we'd stolen from our flight and fell into a deep sleep. Only woken when we thought were in Parati but were actually 2 hours away! Finally we arrived in Parati and jumped in a taxi to our hostel which was right on the beach! Yay! Two guys awaited us looking a bit nervous. They'd messed up our room however compensated by provided us with our own room which had 6 bunk beds and a bathroom, also they knocked money off the price. They also promised wed get our proper room the next night. Josh and I could care less all we wanted was a bed and if we were to save a little money that was even better! So now we are in Parati and I'm excited to explore :)