Rio de Janeiro – Corcovada, Copacabana and Ipanema
A bit of a disappointment on the organisation front as in reality we only had two whole days in Rio de Janeiro with the other two being wasted on flights. Our hotel was nice though, near the ocean with great views over Rio.
On our 1st day we travelled to Corcovada. On the drive we past Copacabana and Ipanema beaches and we drove through the rich part of town and then 2km through the Corcovada Mountain.
The van we were in struggled to make it up the hill so we walked a little way and then drove the rest. We stopped at a car park and got a different van up to another car park. We then got an elevator to the base of Christ the Redeemer. Another disappointment as Christ the Redeemer was completely covered in scaffolding, but the views from up there are amazing.
On the way back we stopped at the football stadium. It is huge and seats 200,000 people. All the famous players have a plaque there and a cast of their feet.
We then stopped at the road the Carnival goes through in February. There are seats one side and boxes the other which sell for £2500 per person. They had a shop with costumes and posters and a samba school where the children were learning the steps and routines for next year’s Carnival.
Our last stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral which is an enormous cone shaped building and has the most beautiful stained glass windows, that stretch from floor to ceiling.
On day 2 we got the subway to Ipanema …
The subway was clean, efficient and easy to use.
Ipanema beach was packed with people sunbathing and surfing. We walked the whole stretch to a hill at the end, which has been covered in graffiti but people were sunbathing all over it. There where great views over Sugarloaf and the other mountains.
We walked the back roads to Copacabana as you couldn’t walk along the front between the two beaches.
Copacabana is a much bigger beach, with beautiful sand and lots of people playing all types of beach sports. Some people had built amazing sand castles, but the beach was mostly filled with older people topping up their tan.
It was a really sunny day, nice and hot and really enjoyable. Luckily, or unluckily depending on your viewpoint, not as many small bikinis as we expected, mostly Speedos!
Rio de Janeiro is big and busy, with fantastic views and a really happy, joyful atmosphere. We definitely need to get back here around Carnival time, just need that £5000 for those two ringside seats … All contributions greatly appreciated!!
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