On arrival at the airport my priorities were as they always seemed to be these days, to get money and get food. Thankfully the banks at Rio were kind to me and gave me the money I needed and so I ate well at the airport.
Having been organised and written the name of my hostel down, I got into a taxi and just showed it to him and he gave me a fixed price of 40 reals which seemed pretty standard I remembered from last time and so agreed and off we went.
The last time I had arrived in Rio it was night time so I couldn't take in the greatness of the place so I was pleased now to be able to see the same route in the day time and see the city properly. On arrival at the hostel I realised that it really was central located on a very busy street near the big lake in the centre of the city pretty much at the foot of the mountain atop which christ the redeemer stood which was pretty cool. The guy at reception spoke great English which was a great relief to me having really struggled to speak to and understand people since I had been back in Brazil. He was very welcoming and had a warm smile which made me feel at home. Once he'd showed me to my room (I decided dorms were certainly more cost effective even though the rooms were very basic and the matresses were about 10 cm thick) I was pleased just to have somewhere to finally drop my bags and lay my head!
My arrival was almost prefect timing, Brazil were playing North Korea that day and the friendly wife of the hostel owner at the reception told me a couple of recommendations as to where to go to watch it one being Copacabana Beach on a big screen and the other an Irish bar in Ipanema. I decided that I'd certainly go to the beach and perhaps even check the bar out afterwards. I also decided that I was going to try and do all the things that I hadn't done last time in Rio this time although I wasn't so sure about the favela party and couldn't afford the handgliding over the city but I'd try and fit most other stuff in in the 3 days I had here. Firstly I was going to head to Ipanema beach as I hadn't seen that last time for some reason so I decided since it was a nice morning and I was up for a walk and some exploring and photo taking in this great city that I'd walk there. The guy told me it would take about half an hour which was fine and with my pace I'd probably do it quicker. I still had a good few hours til the game so I was in no rush. I donned my Brazil shirt and strolled round the beautiful lake in glorious sunshine taking snaps and feeling happy. The whole palava of Boa Vista seemed a long way off now and the whole city seemed in a cheery and excited mood with Brazil's first world cup game nearly upon us. I even had a few beeps and cheers as I walked as I had the shirt on and I felt part of the whole excited ambiance.
After about 25 minutes I reached the beautiful sight of Ipanema beach and walked it's full length and took some nice snaps of this world famous place with that unmistakable geology at each end. A splendid sight!
By this time I had about an hour to get to the big screen at the neighbouring beach of Copacabana so I decided to head there. I got to the beach and noticed that the big screen was right at the other end of the beach so I'd have to walk the length of this one too, I wasn't complaining, it's not often you can say that you walked the lenth of Ipanema and Copacabana beach in one day!
It must've taken me about 45 minutes to walk the length of the beach which demonstrates the length of it and at the proximity of the big screen the vibe was getting better and better, it was almost like I was on the way to a game at a stadium with everyone wearing the shirts, blowing the horns, waving flags and cheering. On arrival at the big screen inside a purpose built official event stadium with a huge screen and stage, I found I was too late to get in there as it was full which I was gutted about but I folowed the rest of the crowd round to the back of the stadium to find another huge screen behind it which you didn't have to queue for and so went down to the beach to watch it.
It was a great atmosphere despite the fact fairly poor performance and at half time with it still being 0-0 people weren't too impressed since it was North Korea which should for the greatest footballing nation in the world should be a formailty. I decided to go and check the Irish pub called Shenanigans out so I could perhaps get a seat and a drink and on so got a cab there.
On entry here, I walked up the stairs to the bar to find the place absolutely packed as one would expect I suppose. I turned to look at the big screen and pretty much immediately Maicon went on a run and scored from a really tight angle!
The place erupted and people were jumping and hugging me almost as if I'd brought the a goal as I'd just arrived! It was a great atmosphere! Being in an Irish bar I thought I'd go for a pint of guiness, something I hadn't had for quite some time and after a little while Brazil had scored again and everyone was even happier and relieved although just before full time North Korea got one back making it a tense last few minutes for everyone. It had been a great day and I had seen alot and now I was rather tired and a little typsy so I decided to head back to the hostel.
Back at the hostel everyone was in a good mood after the victory and I was told that I hadn't yet had my free welcome Caiprinha drink which I gladly accepted! What a nice touch I thought! Whislt enjoying my free drink in the coutryard I was introduced to another English guy staying in the hostel who too was travelling alone called Martin who at first I thought was a little geeky and weird but soon grew to quite like. It turned out he was just starting his trip, literally this was his first day so almost complete opposte to me being almost my last and he was sleeping in the bunk above me. Unfortunately I really was feeling quite worse for wear for some reason, I was feeling weak, tired, aching and very cold even though it was still about 20 degrees. I had acquired some very bad bites in Canaima national park which had really swollen up and so I was a little worried I may have acquired some terrible tropical disease or Malaria or dengue fever or something but just decided to see if a good sleep would help. I needed to eat though so Martin and I went to place recommended to us by the guys at the hostel where you could get a kilo of food for a set price or as much pizza and pancakes you could eat which sounded good to me!
On arrival we found it was quite pricey but we were hungry so we went for it. I opted for the pizza/pancake deal, Martin went for the kilo. The pizza came thick and fast almost annoyingly so as you'd barely get a minute to begin eating one slice when someone would be back over trying to give you more! Martin wasn't too impressed with what he got either but at least we'd eaten. The prices were high but I knew full well that Brazil was an expensive country so I wasn;t going to start complaining. After this I went straight to sleep as I was feeling wretched and extrmemly exhausted!
The next day I woke up without much idea about what I wanted to do although I noticed that we were pretty close to Jardim Botanial (an area named after the botanical gardens) so I decided to go and check those out. Martin decided to head off to do all the toursity bits that I had already done so again it would appear I was going it alone.
After checking my couchsuring inbox however I noticed that I had had a message from someone I had written to saying that she was keen to meet up and had a couch but she had an exam that day but was happy to meet me afterwards. So straight away I told her to meet me at the botanical gardens at 2pm.
She quickly got back to me and since she was coming past my hostel from Botafogo, we agreed that she'd stop in first and we'd walk down to the gardens together.
She was an interesting girl, originallly from Guatamala now living in Rio for work and studies for a couple of years and she was certainly not lacking brain cells! She was doing a Phd in molecular biology and fluently spoke English, Spanish (native to Guatemala) and Portuguese! Unfortunately I was still feeling pretty sick so I was wandering around in my warmest jumper feeling cold the whole time as was she as she was full of a cold. I think having been so long at the caribbean in the warm sun, I was feeling the full effect of the winter in Rio and actually felt cold even though it was nearly 30 degrees but she assured me that it was actually cold! She told me she had been studying the effects of tropical diseases caused by insects such as chagas disease and malaria so I asked about my bites and symptoms and she was concerned for me but insisted I wouldn't have been able to been walking around if I had malaria or chagas diesease. which was reassuring. It was just that it was actually killing me to walk around as my right leg was so swollen and throbbing and it was like it was on fire it was stinging so much!
This didn't take away from my appreciation of the gardens however as it was an amazing place with some amazing speices, beautifully laid out with huge palm laden paths and monuments and fountains at the end of almost every path! These weren't just any palm trees either, these were by far the tallest palm trees I had ever seen! An amazing set of trees and plants and many amazing orchids and bromeliads in their respective houses.
This was certainly a cool place and I was pleased I came and was certianly in good company too with an interesting girl I was enjoying spending this time with. The only annoying this was that In addition to my bites on my legs that were extremely painful, something in the gardens had bitten or stung me on my wrist so now my hand was swelling up too and was really itchy!
Unfortunatley the gardens were shutting so we had to leave and got the bus back where we chatted abit more and then said our goodbyes knowing we'd shared some nice moments but would probably never see each other again in our lives! The good thing was we were both on facebook and couchsurfing should we ever wish to meet again, should we be in each others neckof the woods again at any point in our lives!
On return to the hostel, I discovered Martin and I had a new roommate, another Englisn guy (it was quite nice as the hostel was totally dominated by English people not that I don't like foreigners but it just made them easier to communciate and get on with) who was also travelling alone called Matthew. He was a big strapping guy, former policeman and reminded me alot of a guy who plays up front for my saturday league team. Matthew turned out to be a nice guy and I managed to persuade him since it was my last night in South America to come out for a couple of drinks with me to Lapa (the place to go in Rio for nightlife apparently), unfortunately Martin was being lame and said he was too tired and since it was only a wednesday it seemed like my last night in this great continent was going to be rather a low key one.
So Matthew and I headed out to Lapa not really knowing what to expect. In the taxi we could see it was a pretty cool looking place with a really old aquaduct, some nice buildings and cathedrals/churches and a few bars around.
We went to the road that looked busiest although being a wednesday night it was all rather quiet and not much was going on so we just had a couple, I got some food and then we headed back as it was already about 2am and evrything was shutting although there was one place still open but neither of us fancied it as we were both keen to get up relatively early to see more things the next day (we both actually wanted to come back and do Lapa during the day) and since it was my last day of travelling I wanted to make it a good one.
Waking up at around 10am to Martin packing, I jumped up and found out he was moving to a quieter hostel which I thought was strange as it wasn't exactly a party hostel but he wanted to be in Santa Teresa, a place to the north of the city which was quite a high up and old part. It is also very close to Lapa and myself and Matthew wanted to go to there so we agreed that we'd all share a taxi, go with Martin to drop his stuff at his new hostel and walk from Santa Teresa to Lapa and then into the city centre. So off we went in a taxi. The tazidriver clearly had no idea where he was going as on numerous occasions he had to ask directions and took us completely the wrong way up towards cocovado (christ statue) which was consequently a very steep and narrow road where we witnessed a man badly crash his motorbike, go flying and tumbling down the hiil and then simply getting up dusting himself down, picking the bike up and heading back in the opposite direction to where he was going! This was quite surprising since we all thought he was as good as dead and the cab driver actually stopped and was about to get out and help before he sprung to his feet. The next thing an angry man behind us was beeping at us and shouting abuse in portuguese that we weren't moving when we simply trying to see if this guy was alive! It was all quite comical really! Finally the driver realised we were going completely the wrong way after being told by quite a few people that it was indeed the other way and eventually we got on the right street. By the time we finally got there, the metre was rather high and the cheeky bugger tried to claim the full amount even though he had got us lost! We got him down in the end and whilst watching him attempt a 3 point turn in the road which ended up being about 7 points, Martin checked into his new hostel. It was indeed rather a lovely location although quite far out from all the major tourist attractions and a little pricier (only 5 reals). From here it was certainly a fanstastic view of the city.
Martin's new hostel was right opposite a museum of ruins which apparently had a cafe in it and since we were all hungry decided to try and check it out. We found no cafe but we did find a magnificent old builidng (presumably the ruins) which had been rebuilt with a new glass and metal building in place of the parts which had crumbled and no longer existed.
Inside this building were about 4 flights of stairs leading up to a viewpoint terrace at the top ofthe builidng. As we climbed we were able to get a better and better view of the city and at the top there was an unrestricted 360 degree view of the entire city which was certainly worth a snap or two!
Directly below to the south we could see Lapa with it's impressive aquaduct beyond this we could see the unique pyramidal cathedral and beyond this the central business district and skyscrapers and beyond that the ocean. To our west we could see the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema spanning out to the distance with sugar loaf mountain at one end and christ the redeemer perched at the top of cocovado at the otherand in the foreground lay some barrios spreading right across a hill and beyond.
It certainly was an amazing view and this must be one of the best places to come and see the city without being on sugarloaf or at the christ statue. Also this view was from the north so it was from the back of the city looking across almost the whole thing making it even better.
After admiring the city from this wonderful mirador, we decided it was time to head down and find something to eat and drink since we were all getting hungrier by the minute. We headed down to the right of the road we had arrived as this seemed to be leading down towards Lapa where we wanted to go. Santa Teresa was a quite beautiful area and I could see why Martin wanted to move here and why people spoke so highly of it. Anyone who has been to Montmatre in Paris will understand my comparison with that place. It was a picturesque area with many branches, leaves and flowers hanging and springing from the ground and trees, it was an area of cobbled narrow and steep roads and lovely views of the city below and the buildings and houses were of old classic architecture giving the place a real artistic feel.
On the way down we saw some fantastic street art (I won't call it graffiti as it was of a different class),
some amazing monkeys playing around just above our heads in the trees and along telephone lines
and the classic old tram going along the only remaining tram line running in the city. We then came to the Lapa aquaduct from which a great view could be seen of the CBD and cathedral as well as the top of the aquaduct across which the tram still runs.
In Lapa we decided to get a bite to eat so we stopped at one of the little cafes and got ourselves some tasty pastries which the Brazilians seem to love and do so well. It brought me back to when I was here last and Steve and I used to enjoy a good empanada and pastry. We continued to walk and came to some amazing old architecture which drew us to take photos and in doing so we were approached by a man asking why we were interested in this old builidng in particular and when we told him it was becuase it was old and different he was impressed as we weren't just snapping all the toursity things. He told us he was making a film about the Rio that noone knows, the old historic part of the city to raise awareness of the old and not just the new and more famous parts.
After a little more walking we reached a square which looked like quite an important main square with the terrific edifice that is the teatro municipal with gold all over it, it certainly looked very impressive. All the buildings facing this square were impressive and worth a photo or two!
Walking a little further we came to the CBD where we saw some rather impressive modern glistening buildings
pretty much everywhere you looked were large high rise business blocks and then walking on we came to the cathedral with it's almost modern chitchen itza look about it. Having already been here and inside I decided not too many photos were necessary here but I found myslef drawn again in awe of the place as it was an amazing cathedral and one not to be missed if in Rio. Even more impressive I feel were the stained glass windows running down each side of the church.
After this we continued to walk and see the important sites marked on the map including a very old catherdral which was an amazing piece of architecture,
some fantastic old naval buildings
and an impressive old monastery and church the inside of which was one of the most impressive ornate gold alters I had ever seen!
The fact is that seeing these things here would not make you think Rio and would not be the main tourirst attractions yet I was extremely glad I came to these places and it wasnt just a city all about beaches and sugar loaf and christ the redeemer statue, there are many, many other sites to see, you just need to know where to look!
I still felt like I'd barely touched the surface in terms of things to see here in this amazing city and the same could be said for this amazing and massive country I mean I still hadn't even been on the amazon river which has always been an ambition of mine! One day I'll come back and do it properly I thought but that's what I say about so many places and whether I actaully do remains to be seen!
On heading back to the hostel just as it was getting dark I was beginning to get sad, sad that I was leaving this great continent. All the great people, places and times would soon be just a memory and I was off back to reality but the trip had been immense and I'd enjoyed every minute (well almost) and it had been worth every penny even though I was left with nothing money can't buy the experiences I had had.
On return to the hostel I quickly packed my bags and after a brief farewell to all the nice people I had met at the hostel it was time to go catch my flight. This was it, the end of my trip and what a trip it had been! From the southern most point to the northern most I had travelled pretty much this entire continent spanning Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and back to Brazil. During this time I had seen sights such as the Perito Moreno glacier, the Fitzroy Peaks, the southernmost city in the world, Iguazu Falls, the Uyuni Salt Plains, Lake Titcaca, Machu Piccu, Cartagena and Caniama National Park and Angel Falls just to name a few of the awesome things I saw. This had been a trip of a lifetime and I'm so pleased to have been in the timeandspaceofadam to do it.
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