Wednesday 6 May 2009

Rio de Janeiro (Part 1)



Rio is another truly iconic city with its mountainous skyline and Christ the Redeemer statue watching over everything. This is the home of caipirinhas, samba, and the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The French apparently invented the bikini, but boy, have the brasileiros made it their own. Even grannies wear bikinis on the beach! The city also has several favelas, made famous by the 2004 'Cidade de Deus' (City of God) film.



Rio has delivered on all fronts, well above our expectations. Where we're staying, it's mellow with a lovely vibe and a thousand things to keep you occupied. We've found a great corner café/bar that does strong Brasilian espresso, fresh orange juice and buttered, toasted bread. The evening meal is a steak with rice and beans. This is a meat-loving country, and chicken is included under the veggie options.



The Brasilian nation is sports crazy, and last night, the Flamengo football team beat its neighbour Botafogo to become the champions. Cars were beeping their horns, there were spontaneous samba parties and people waved flags in the streets.



Last Saturday we headed up the cable car to Sugarloaf mountain. Andy had flashbacks, thinking such a spectacular setting must been used as a film location. Indeed, silver-toothed Jaws tried to kill James Bond on this very cable car in the film 'Moonraker'. It was also possible to catch a helicopter from the top and visit Christ the Redeemer.

Continue to part 2

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you are enjoying Rio - it looks lovely.

Only nine more days to go!

Love Mum & Dad xx

auntie Liz said...

The cable car looked good fun! and I'm glad JAWS wasn't around.

Like the hair cut Jen.

Only eight days to go!

Love auntie Liz and uncle John :-)
x x