Arriving into Rio meant the end of our travels so we both arrived feeling a little down but still hoping to make the most of our 2 days left. Rio is huge, a massive city spread over miles with mountains, forest and the sea all around it – its in an amazing setting to be fair even though it does have that big city feel to it. First night we were in town we’d manage to sort out tickets to the Maracana – once the world’s biggest football stadiums which was built for the 1950 world cup final where Brazil were meant to lift the trophy on home soil – problem was it went wrong and they lost the final to Uruguay in front of 200,000 mainly Brazilian fans! Today it only holds 100,000 (only!) because it’s been converted to all seating but it is still an impressively huge stadium. We were here to see the Flamengos play and to soak up the atmosphere of a Brazilian football game with its loud samba music and fanatical fans – it was another great football match and I think shona is now hooked (well to South American football anyway). The following morning we woke up with the intention of getting as much done as possible, one full manic day of charging around town – we started off with a quick walk to Sugar Loaf mountain but having got there and seen the price for the cable car ride up to the top we decided not to worry! Especially as we also wanted to go up to see the Redeemer statue and a local we got chatting to said the view was better from there so we thought it was pointless doing both and went straight over to the Christ Redeemer statue. It is the symbol of Rio perched high on a hill top in the middle of the city giving you a fantastic view of it from wherever you are in town however being at the top of the hill and seeing the 38 meter high statue close up is cool, as is the view of the city from the top – although I’m not 100% sure about its new title as one of the new 7 wonders of the world! From the statue we headed down to Copacabana beach, just as we did at the other Copacabana in Bolivia we arrived with Barry Manilow whizzing around our heads but once again I can’t help but think he had somewhere else in mind – or did they take out the line about it just looking like Benidorm!! Honestly Benidorm, high-rises, busy main road and a beach side by side – not that it seemed to stop the crowds going, it was mobbed with people from every walk of life you could find in a big metropolitan city. The next day was a metro ride over to the central area then a tram ride up to Santa Teresa, all a bit more chilled and a lot more melon-collie knowing that that evening we were flying away from South America and back home… no offence anyone! Celebrated our last evening with a few beers by the beach 🙂
Wanderlust for Life
Adventure travel around the world