Rubbish Rain in Rio!

Following a 5hr bus trip from Paraty we arrived in Rio and caught a taxi to our posada. We decided to stay away from the more touristy areas of Ipanema and Copacabana and headed to the hills of Santa Theresa – a bohemian neighbourhood, full of old mansions, artists shops, groovy restaurants and a great ancient tram system. The view from our place was worth 10 times what we were paying with stunning views of both Sugar Loaf and Christo Redentor.

Transport in the the area consists of a 100+ year old tram system, madly driven VW combi vans and even more madly driven 30 seater buses which made for interesting trips around the cobblestoned hills. We spent the first evening in a fantastic seafood restaurant with live Samba in the background!

The following day we went to Sugar Loaf mountian which many people should remember from the famous scene in James Bond’s Moonraker when James has a big fight with Jaws in the cable car. We experienced the stunning if not slightly misty views of Rio. We then headed to Ipanema for a very late lunch, declining a dip in the ocean and headed home in a cab via Copacabana. As you can probably tell weather played rather a large part in our Rio experience.

To cap it all we visited Christ the Redeemer but we couldn’t see him from 10 yards away! We took the 100+ year old train up the mountain and waited in vain for a few hours for the clouds to clear but to no avail – divine intervention was sadly missing. We consoled ourselves with the view from our posada. That evening we headed to a pizza place full of football watching locals which was quite entertaining.
As Rio is very much an outdoor place Mum’s final day was unfortunately a bit of a washout. We caught up on the domestics (including 3 weeks of blog) and headed out in the evening for a top notch dinner at a famous Rio churrasceria (thanks Mum). At a churrasceria you help yourself to buffet salad, seafood, bread etc, hot accompaniments are brought to your table and then numerous as much as you can eat skewers of BBQ’d beef, lamb, chicken, fish etc.

The next day we headed to the airport en masse and waved bye bye to Mum and Brazil. Shame about the airport. Panama here we come!!!