Week 9.... Rio is Hot and Sunny

This week’s post is unfortunately not coming from Vicky as she is suffering from a mix between Malaria and the common cold (her words not mine). So I will try my very best to keep up to the standards you all expect.
 
I would like to apologise for the lateness of the post, lack of internet access and an abundance of traveling has meant that today is the earliest I am able to do it. So without further stalling, here is what happened in our previous week.
 
Day 1 (Monday) - Today was undoubtedly the most exciting experience yet! We were still on the bus......
 
The bus taking us from Foz do Iguaçu to Rio de Janeiro should have only taken a mere 22 hours (I know! what am I complaining about) BUT due to traffic and an incompetent driver we were on that dreaded bus for an extra 2 hours. To make matters worse the chairs "reclining system" moved back by no more than 20 degrees, apart from the chair of the gentlemen sitting directly in front of me who managed to reach an angle somehow greater than that of my bed at home.
When we arrived in Rio, we ran for the street and paid a London priced taxi to take us to iPanema which is where the lovely Isabel (friend of my mother’s) lives. She was very welcoming and even invited us out for dinner that same night. We went to a restaurant with a system new to me and Vicky, you pick and choose from a buffet filled with different random foods, then have your plate weighed and pay an amount representative to the weight, and we came to find this system very popular in Brazil.
 
Day 2 (Tuesday) - The beach

We woke up nice and early to get a jump start on the famous Rio Beaches that we have been longing for since we planned our trip. Ipanema was on the agenda today, this was decided because the beach is only 2 blocks from Isabel's house. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was hot! We had breakfast, gathered our things for the beach and headed out. We found the beach and now had to make the decision on where to set up camp, we had to be careful with this decision, on the left was the "gay section" in the middle was the "beautiful area" and finally to the right was the "family zone". We opted to find the family zone but I’m still sure we didn't walk far enough and ended up sitting on the border of the gay and beautiful beach, the abundance of banana hammocks and thongs referred to as bikinis made me think otherwise.
 

The beach was amazing! The water was tepid (Vicky would describe as freezing), sand was...well sand and the waves were HUGE. There were many people walking around selling all kinds of rubbish, including hats, authentic "Ray Ben" sunglasses, Biscoittos (strange but delicious donut shaped biscuits) and even a few people walking around with BBQ's under their arms. We stayed here for the majority of the day which didn't work out so great. Unbeknown to us the sun was much stronger than we initially thought, the combination of only factor 15 sunscreen and malaria tablets that cause you to have incredibly sensitive skin meant that both Vicky and I were bright red. Me on my stomach and poor Vicky on her behind. So after a bath of aloe vera we went to bed with the air con on and the fan at max power!!!

Day 3 (Wednesday) - The Beach part 2

You would think that 3rd degree sunburn would be enough to stop the pasty Brits from stepping out into the sun again, but no it wasn't! The desire to tan outweighed the common sense we had, so we had our sights on another round with Ipanema beach, only this time we would hire those umbrellas we saw everyone using the first time round.
We left the Ipanema beach early today, we wanted to venture over to Copacabana beach and see what Barry Manilow had been singing about. On the way Vicky and I got to talking about the choice of clothing worn by the natives, discussions went back and forth; "we don't want to stand out", "but isn't it a bit revealing?" and "wont I look stupid?". We found a swimsuit shop and both bought the traditional attire, Vicky with a bum bearing bikini and myself sporting a dashing Speedo.

Copacabana proved to be an amazing sight, we both agreed that tomorrow would be a day for Copacabana. While there, we bought some snacks from the vendors along the path, sweet corn covered in butter, and a mixture of sweet and salty popcorn. It was approaching dinner time so we searched for a restaurant and luckily found a tiny place that specialised in Mexican food, It was here that I had one of the best Burritos in my life and Vicky ordered a burrito with pineapple and turned out that she didn't like cooked pineapple..... We headed home and after a quick chat with Isabel she convinced us that we should try and head to Buzios for at least a couple of days, the plan was made!

Day 4 (Thursday) - The Beach.......part 3 (yawn)

YES, again we decided to go to the Beach! it’s what you do in Rio when it’s hot. Today was the best day out of the 3 in terms of weather, 33 degrees and a cool breeze as well. Vicky Preferred Copacabana purely because she didn't feel like the whitest person on the beach anymore, we heard a lot more languages instead of just Portuguese which felt more reassuring. One of the sales people that stroll up and down the beach sells drinks out of 2 large metal canisters, one contained lemonade and the other contained a drink that should never be sold.... apparently it’s called Moche, basically tasted like coffee that had been left out in the sun for a week, needless to say that drink "accidently" got knocked into the sand.

Not much more to report for this day, went home at the usual time of about 6pm, watched TV and made a dinner of salad, pasta and fruit for pudding. The Fruit in Brazil is out of this world, I think we managed to have watermelon every day.

Day 5 (Friday) - Something different.

Today we went to the beach............ only joking, the sun wasn't shining so we felt it was time to explore Rio further than the coast line (for the record, if the sun had been shining we would have been on the beach again). We strolled about 3 blocks to the Lagoa, a huge salt water lagoon that is behind the accommodation and shops in iPanema, from here you could just about make out Christo Redentor in the distance keeping watch over Rio. We walked about halfway around the Lagoon then turned off into Leblon. Leblon is basically the same as Ipanema, lots of high class shops, restaurants and big multistory housing with sea views. In Leblon we searched for a Sushi restaurant that our travel book recommended, it was delicious! I enjoyed their famous salmon skin wrap, and Vicky ate Philadelphia salmon rolls which to my surprise she enjoyed! After that we headed back to the house but not before I bought a tub of frozen yogurt covered in chocolate for the journey home.

A quick recharge in the flat and we were out again, only this time we wanted to visit Santa Teresa, the old part of Rio. To get there we had to take the metro, wasn't difficult got there without any trouble. We were told that Santa Teresa was on a hill and there were 2 options to get to the top, car or by walking. We walked because the staircase was a must see attraction, it’s called Escaria de Selaron, " the most famous staircase in Rio, a lengthy work in progress by an eccentric Chilean artist who since 1990, has been covering some 215 steps with over 2000 tiles from around the world", not my words, that was taken out of my travel book. We walked up this staircase admiring all the different tiles and then up a very steep hill to finally reach Santa Teresa, old houses, cobbled streets, very nice but unfortunately it did feel almost unsafe to be there. We took out photos and headed for home, on the way back Vicky and I tried Tapioca wraps, Vicky went for Banana and Chocolate and I chose the cheese and beef option.

Day 6 (Saturday) - Christo Redentor

Our last day in Rio before heading to Buzios, so to avoid ridicule from both our families, we thought it wise to go see the famous Statue of Christ today. We got up from bed very early so that we could get a head start on the day of sightseeing. Isabel kindly offered to take us to the tram that you take to see the statue. But to our surprise she took us on her own personal tour of Rio, we were able to see the sugar loaf mountain, several other beautiful beaches and some amazing old buildings etc. When we arrived at the tram, we immediately noticed a huge amount of tourists waiting in line; it seems a sunny Saturday wasn't the best time to choose. No matter, we got straight in the queue and booked our ticket to the statue at 3pm, only a 3 hour wait!! We filled this time with a quick lunch followed by sitting doing nothing. It was all worth it.

When we finally got on the tram we saw some amazing sights, including monkeys, fruits, and some jaw dropping views, but none were as outstanding as the views from the top. We saw Christ himself up close and personnel, taking many photos (which was difficult with the shear amount of people around), spent an hour admiring the views, then took the tram to the bottom and jumped in a bus to go home. We had to pack our bags for our bus ride in the morning to Buzios, which both myself and Vicky were very excited about. Before the day was done I took a trip with Vicky to the Havaiana shop just down the street and bought 12 pairs of the famous flip flops (not all for me though). I managed to persuade Vicky to get herself a pair, she is very happy with her choice.



Day 7 (Sunday) - Buzios Beaches part 1

We arrived in Buzios after what felt like a 10 minute bus journey due to the fact both Vicky and I were able to sleep the whole way. It was overcast :( but also hot, so the day could be promising. We had no idea where our hotel was so we had no choice but to get a taxi to our destination, turned out it was 2 minutes up the road...oops.

Greeted by Gabriel at the front desk of our hotel, he assured us that the weather always changes, and he was right! The sun came out by midday so Vicky and I wasted no time in getting to the beach, however there were 26 different ones to choose from, we wanted to visit a secluded natural beach called Azeda which was only a 10 minute walk away. This was by far the best beach we came to discover in Buzios, the water was warm and calm, sand was yellow and red, drinks being served by friendly locals. We loved it here.....
This is how I remember the week, I hope you enjoyed reading it. Vicky should be back next Sunday to do the next post.

Sorry for no photos! they will be coming soon, just having some technical difficulties.

Lots of love to you all!

John & Vicky
Xxx
P.S Hi Jack, Fergus, and Hamish