Rio de Janeiro

After all the wildness and nature of the past couple of weeks we were ready for some pollution and traffic jams, so we hopped on another overnight bus and headed for Rio. We arrived into a very overcast city at around 11am the next morning and were very disappointed when all of the famous landmarks we were eagerly awaiting were shrouded in cloud. We headed for the famous beach suburbs of Rio and checked into 'The girl from Ipanema' hostel, mainly because I had been singing the song constantly for the past few days. After some very un-Rio like weather during our first afternoon, the sun came out and we got to see Ipanema and Copacabana in all their glory.

We spent a very hot afternoon sunning ourselves and playing in the waves; but mainly ogling the various sights to be seen strutting their stuff along the beach; young, beautiful, old, wrinkly, buffed or bloated you can see them all in Rio. In an attempt to avoid the wrinkled prune look which some of the older inhabitants of the city have adopted, we retired to the shade of a bar and sampled the national cocktail of Brazil, the Caipirinha.

The following day we headed for the top of Sugarloaf mountain, reached via 2 cable car journeys. At nearly 1300ft the top of the mountain affords spectacular views over the whole of Rio de Janeiro and we finally got to see the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking this amazing city.

Can you see Christ the redeemer over the other side of the bay?

Who are these two fools spoiling the view? Copacabana to the left.

After taking as many photos as humanly possible we left Sugarloaf and visited the neighbourhood beach where there was something sporty and exciting happening with canoes with stabilisers. We ogled the Rio locals some more while scoffing a very unsporty ice cream and then caught our bus back to Ipanema.

The next morning we walked to the Copacabana stretch of beach and we greeted by 10 men in Neoprene! The final of 'King of the Sea' was just about to start, which involved a 10k swim around the bay; we joined the crowds who were cheering for their Brazilian hero, who was unfortunately beaten by an Australian pretender. During our walk home we came across Santa, who was enjoying a pre-christmas break in Rio; thankfully no thong for him either.