We were on cloud watch all morning and with a blue sky we decided today was the day to head to Corcovado and Sugar Loaf.
Sophie put us in touch with a friend of a friend of hers who is travelling around Brazil by herself. The three of us spent the day seeing the sights. First stop, Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado. It's amazing there and hard to believe after seeing something in pictures all your life when you're actually standing next to it. Incredible!
Next stop Sugar Loaf. I apparently became my mother today, a little nervous of heights. We had to take two cable cars to the top of Sugar Loaf and for some reason this made me a little uneasy....skydiving no problem, but I'm scarred of cable cars? Who knew? Luckily the city views from the top are well worth the ride up!
We met up with Sophie again last night and she took us to Lapa a neighbourhood known for it's live music and Samba dancing. Being a Tuesday night it was pretty quiet in the streets but we had an incredible time. We first checked out the Escadaria Selaron. They are 215 mosaic steps that lead from Lapa up the the Favela in Santa Theresa. We didn't go to the top because it can be quite unsafe especially at night. The steps were started in 1990 and just finished in January of this year. We saw someone interesting sights while we were in Lapa, the best was a lady (we assume from the Favela) stop at the Shell gas station to be hosed off, she even took off her underwear to rinse them out, then carried on her way....we sat for the evening and drank caipirinhas and made some new friends!