Goodbye Salvador, Hello Rio de Janeiro

We chilled out for a couple of days before we left Salvador, generally lying around the apartment and nipping out for a bite to eat. On our last night in town we were invited out by our friend ’Pedro’, who took us to a local club to watch a sort of Salvador ‘super-group’, made up of musicians and singers from a number of other groups from the area. I still don’t remember their name, but it was their opportunity to get together and play some songs that they enjoyed outside their normal genre, and they were really good, tight & talented. It was one of those nights that only the locals knew about and I swear that every person in the place sang along to every song, and even though we didn’t know the words to most of the songs, we still had a blast. The band played half their set and then invited a few other musicians up on stage to join in, and proceeded to belt another few well-known Brazilian songs and crowd favourites. When the original band kicked off the second half of the set, they dedicated a song to us and thanked us for coming to Brazil, which was pretty cool. At the end of the night we were invited in to the VIP area and introduced to the band members and had a good chat with one of the singers that had spent some time in the USA. It was a very memorable night out and we were very grateful to Pedro for inviting us.

The downside of our night out was that we didn’t get to bed until after 3am, and we had to be up and out of the apartment at 10am for out flight to Rio de Janeiro, but we managed it somehow. We had a bleary eyed but uneventful flight, followed by a straightforward taxi trip to our hotel in Arpoador, neatly positioned between Ipanema & Copacabana beaches. We took some time for a short afternoon nap and agreed to meet at the rooftop swimming pool at around 5pm to watch the sun go down over the impressive Rio skyline. The colour of the sky as it set over Ipanema’s mountain backdrop was stunning and it was hard to drag ourselves away even once the sun had fully set, but we wanted to go and walk along the world-famous Copacabana

beach before it got totally dark. We walked along the promenade for quite some while, watching the street hawkers and beach goers, and enjoying the marginally cooler temperatures. After a while we were getting a bit peckish so we turned-around and headed back towards our hotel as we had see a cool place to eat, called TT Burgers. We were not disappointed, the burger was one of the best I have had in a while, all washed down with a nice crafty pilsner... yay...!!

As we only had 3 days in Rio we wanted to make the most of our time, so we made plans to spend the next day on a bus tour of the highlights of the city. The weather forecast was for a warm cloudless day and it was shaping up nicely when the tour bus picked us up early and did the usual round up of other passengers, before heading off towards our first stop on the tour, Christ the Redeemer. We were soon on the scenic railway heading up the Corcovado, then onto the lift and then the escalators to the feet of the iconic statue. The awesome experience of seeing both the Christ the Redeemer statue and the stunning views over the rest of the city was sort of balanced out by the virtual rugby scrum of people all trying to do the same thing. At first I was disappointed that we only had 35 minutes at the top, but to be honest that was as much of the seething mass of humanity that I could take, we admired the impressive views and took our photo and then retreated back to the train. The train ride itself was half the fun of visiting the place and we made sure to grab some good seats for the trip back down.

From there we took a trip past the Maracana football stadium, the site of the World Cup final only 4 days previous, and we got to stroll around outside and take some photo’s. After that we saw the Sambadrome, where the annual Rio carnival takes place, and then the obligatory stop at a gift shop to buy souvenirs. By this time it was lunchtime and we went to a Churascaria, (Brazilian BBQ) just off of Copacabana, where we had a great meal and a chance for some more Caiprahinia’s.

Yates & I decided that it was time to test out our theory about Cachaça, the distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice, which is the main alcoholic ingredient in our Caiprahinia’s. We thought that the brain-damaging shots we had had at the ‘Rabbit Hole’ bar in Sao Paulo were Cachaça, and trying them out again was going to be the only way to put this question to bed. So we ordered up a couple of Cachaça shots from the most enormous bottle I have ever seen, and guess what....? Yes, they were the same thing we had tried all that time ago, and so we took photos of each other shooting the stuff with hilarious results.

The rest of the tour was a visit to ’ Sugarloaf Mountain’, a very distinctive looking mountain overlooking the city and Guanabara Bay. To get to the summit involved one cable car trip to the top of Morro da Urca, taking us up to 220 meters high, and then second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar, (Sugarloaf Mountain), bringing us to the top at 396 meters. Once again, the 360 degree views over the whole of city were simply amazing, and it was easy to spot the landmarks we had seen earlier in the day and many more of the famous beaches around the city. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and everywhere you looked there was something fascinating to see, and we even got to see some elusive monkeys...! You would think that having seen the city from one elevated vantage point, you would have seen it all, but no, this city

is astonishing, and I am certain that anyone that travels to Rio will know what I mean when I say it is easy to run out of superlatives for the beauty & splendour of this, the ‘Marvellous City’. We could not have asked for a better day or a better tour to see so much of the city, and we all enjoyed it immensely. After arriving back at our hotel we did a quick trip to buy some beers and once again headed up onto the roof for a couple of hours to watch the sun go down over Ipanema.  I’m not sure I have enjoyed a sundown as much as I did that day, with a stunning backdrop, a glowing sunset, some close friends and a bottle of a fine Belgian beer in my hand. Later we wandered along the Ipanema beach for a while before heading inland to find something to eat at an Italian Pizzaria, and after eating far too much it was back to the hotel for some well-earned sleep.

The following day we decided we would take it very easy, and therefore after breakfast we walked down to the Copacabana to chill-out for the day. After securing 3 chairs, an umbrella and a choice spot on the sand, I proceeded to have my first Caiprahinia of the day while Fiona & Yates went for a swim. We whiled the hours away with a combination of swimming, watching the beach-goers, tanning, fending off the hawkers, and ordering beach Caiprahinia’s & beer. By about 4pm I was quite drunk and a little bit sunburned, so we moved off the beach to one of the many beachside food kiosks and proceed to mow through some meaty snacks and a few more beers. We returned to the hotel for a short nap before our now traditional sunset beers next to the roof-top swimming pool, where I enjoyed another couple of Belgian beers and the sun slowly set over the mountains. Awesome day.

We awoke on our last day in Rio de Janeiro to unfamiliar low clouds and a slight drizzle, but that was not going to put us off our stride. After ploughing our way through the hotel buffet breakfast, we saddled up and took a walk to the very conveniently located Copacabana Fort, which was originally built by the Portuguese invaders in the 16^th Century as defence against the French, Dutch, British and occasional pirates. It was surprisingly fascinating and full of interesting little nooks & crannies

containing all sorts of exhibits, and perfect for a rainy morning. In the grounds of the fort was what I took to be the most popular Saturday morning restaurant/cafe in the area, popular with all the local good-looking and wealthy people, great views over the whole of the Copacabana beach with views to Sugarloaf, and a queue of at least 20 groups of people waiting to get in. Yates was adamant that he wanted to go for a swim at some point and the weather Gods must have been on his side and the slight drizzle dissipated and patches of blue sky started appearing. We first looked at swimming at Ipanema, but with the wind coming directly onshore, the waves were enormous and pounding. I think Yates gave it some

consideration but when we pointed out that no-one else on the beach was anywhere near the water, we changed our minds and headed back to the Copacabana. The waves on the ‘Copa’ looked very tame in comparison, and Yates duly rented his beach chair & umbrella and proceeded in to the ocean, while Fiona and I sat at the bar watching. Fiona finally decided to join Yates in the waves while continued to drink my beer, and they looked like they we having fun until a set of bigger waves set about them, and I watched as Yates disappeared into the base of a particularly big wave, as Fiona turned her back on it and tried to make her way out of water as quick as she could. They both got bowled over by the power of the waves, Fiona escaping with just a mouth full of seawater, while Yates got tumbled about a bit and got a nasty looking graze on his knees for his trouble. Ah, all the fun of the beach.....

Playtime was over at the beach so we went back to the hotel for a while, to rest up and to start packing for a very early flight to Manaus in the Amazon the next morning. In fact the flight was so early we were going to have to leave the hotel at 5am, so we decided to have an early dinner and get an early night. On the Thursday night, we had gone past a very high recommended restaurant in Ipanema called, ‘Zara’s Bistro Tropical’, but it was full at the time and we didn’t feel like waiting, so we thought we would give it another shot, albeit, at a much earlier time. We were in luck and got a table right away and started ordering our cocktails and looking through the menu. It was a great little place with a real bohemian feel about it, the service was great and the food was an eclectic French/Brazilian fusion, very rich and very delicious. We even had dessert....! By the end of it we finally managed to rack up a bill that was higher than the one we had on the very first night in Sao Paulo, and we paid up and proceeded to roll back to the hotel, stuffed, slightly drunk, but extremely happy.

Next stop: Manaus in the heart of the Amazon.....