Santa Teresa, Cristo Redentor, and Pao de Acucar

Thida here, writing on behalf of Jack as he gaurds our hostel´s TV to watch Man U. So we moved from our cramped hostel in Copacabana to Catete, across the street from the former presidential palace of Brazil (now the museum of the Republic) and nearby the neighborhood of Santa Teresa which we headed for first. After getting lost in the empty street ( A contrast to what we´ve experienced so far in Rio) we reached the center of Santa Teresa, admiring its views over the city and colourful colonial buildings.

We later headed down to Lapa and Centro Rio, to stumble upon Rio Cathedral, which we had mistaken for a replica of a Mayan temple..

Tuesday, without a cload in the sky, we decided to go to Cristo Redentor and Pao de Acucar. We took a 20 minute train ride up the 700 meters high to the top of Morro do Corcovado through the rainforest. With a view hovering over Rio and the iconic 30 ft tall statue of Cristo, it was hard to decide which was more impressive...

We later headed for the Sugar Loafs to ride the cable cars to the top, a couple of hours too early for the sunset. Needing to kill time we walked over to the ocean thinking we would find nothing out of the ordinary. To our suprised we stumbled upon a fantastic bay right below the sugar loafs. We later went up the cable cars, passing by climbers getting closer to the top, and were once again greeted with some fantastic views of Rio.

More pictures of our time in Brazil so far can be viewed on my facebook album

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547219238333.39162.223200117&l=62282f6ae4&type=1

Nese. Nese.

So after a few days of rest we decided that it was time to get spending and start seeing some more of Rio. So we packed up and moved all of 5 roads down to a hostel which had more people, less space, but more importantly it organised tours to lots of Rio`s most popular sights.

On Sunday, Brazil stops as it`s Citizens go to Worship. Apologies for the cheesy line, I pressed enter before Thida could stop me!

We decided to take advantage straight away and went to take part in something everyone in Brazil enjys, football. The game was on of Rio`s 4 teams Fluminese who were to take on Corinthians (Junior has told me to say) Sao Paulo`s second best team - City if you will.

Before the game, and because there is no alcohol allowed in the stadium, we went to a street near to the stadium to soak up the atmosphere. It wasn`t too dissimilar to what you woud expect in England, the street was a seam of the red, white and green of fluminese, the fans all chanting and eating and drinking courtesy of stalls lining the road to the stadium. We were told that Flumines usually play at theMaracana
stadium - a Cathedral of football built to host the 1950 world cup final (which Brazil lost to neigbouring Urugauy), but as it is closed to be upgraded for the 2014 World Cup finals the game was held at the stadium of one of Fluminese`s local Rivals, I can`t remember which though.


Once inside though, the fans went crazy, smoke grenades, inflatable banners and no concept of seat numbers. The chorus of chants (the only one we could make out was a shortening of the clubs name, hence the post`s title) and abused directed towards the away supporters - and the match officials` decisions - was non-stop. I made the mistake of trying to beat the half-time toilet queue, a mistake for 2 reasons. Firstly the isle was non existant, instead hundreds of fans had decided to stand there for the whole game making it imposible for me, or anyone to get through for the 90 mins, and secondly because I`m not sure if it was a rouge smoke greneade or the (soft)drinks vendors trying to create customers but it was pretty much impossible to breath in the toilet.

I could see the relief on the many a Policeman`s face when the game ended 1-0 to Flumines (OK I may be exadurating a little bit.), all in all though it was great fun and a brilliant way to cap our first weekend on the continent, We will definatly be going to some more games soon!

At the Copa. Copacabana

Having got to our hostel at about 10:30pm while everyone there was drinking, dancing (presumably) and having fun, social party animals that we are, we took a beer to our room then went to sleep.* So having woken up early, to early, and refeshed we went out for a bit of an expore.

It turn`s out that our hostel is next to a Favela, which isn`t really much of a surprise as most places seem to be. We are equidistant (10-5 mins) from Copacobana and Ipanema Beaches, so headed out to Ipanema to catch the baking hot Rio sun. Thankfuly at 11am at the tail end of winter the sun isn`t that bad although I did manage to get sunburnt on my foot.


To be honest that`s all we have done for the first few days, just chill and wander through the very nice surroundings, that and find an English bar so I could watch United hammer 5 past Bolton, and accidently pay for an all you can eat Pizza place in Brazils answer to Frankie & Bennies.

*The next day the hostel was empty, and for the rest of the time we were there...

Finally* off to Brazil.

So with our bags packed, goodbyes said and a little bit of a hangover (see previous) we headed to heathrow. There isn`t much to be said for the journey, and Thida, seasoned traveller that she is, wasn`t sure it waranted a post, but as it was my first long-haul flight I was quite excited....

Excited as I was, I think we were both expecting a bit of a nightmare which thankfully, didn`t materialise. The train was easy, the terminal was empty, the plane food actually tasted OK and watching 5 films in a row is probably what I would have done with my day anyway. Aside from some horrifically fast driving from our taxi on the Rio end, it was all very easy and comfortable. Plus Heathrow T5 didn`t even loose our bags, which must make us some kind of QM fluke.(Crack!)

J

* The fact that I had to google the correct spelling of this doesn`t really bode well for the writing on this blog, consider this and apology for any and all future offence caused by my awful English.

Goodbye!!!

After 2 years of saving up enough money to go on our trip, we decided to spend our last night at the salisbury to spend as much money as we could, saying goodbye to (some of) our lovely friends.

Not really much more to say except that we are going to miss you all a lot! - as well as green lanes, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of... how rio will compare, we have no idea!

(Below - just a small selection of photos/people from that night. Goodbye dance video pending...)

J&T