RIO - one of 7 wonders of the world! Christ the Redeemer!
FRI NOV 7 – DAY 29 - RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
Rio has a population of 6.2M but 13.6M with metropolitan area. It houses 5400 people per square km.
Jado had super long flights and arrived in RIO at 8am. He dropped his bags at our AirBNB and went for a bite to eat. At 1pm he checked in, went down to Cococabana Beach and went for a 9km run! Came back and crashed, slept for 4 hours.
We arrived in RIO at 6:35pm. So good to all be together. Jado fully knew his way around so he took us down to the beach where we had an incredible dinner at a very cool restaurant with live music. Then home to bed! Our AirBNB really worked out well, it was right be the beach and had 3 beds and rooms so we each got our own space.. and 2 washrooms.
Was a great first night in Rio.
SAT NOV 8 – DAY 30 – RIO
Today was a 9 hour tour! We walked down to our pick up spot on the beach for 8am. Our first stop was Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado Mountain. One of the 7 wonders of the world. It was quite moving. This famous statue was extraordinary. It stands 26 98 feet tall on top of a 26 foot pedestal – and reaches 92 feet wide. We took photos, we said a prayer, we were amazed at the beauty of it. It is visible from all over the city.
We stopped at Maracana Stadium where the Flamengo play. We went to the incredible Metropolitan Cathedral. We went to the tiled stairs in Santa Teresa, the wealthy neighbourhood.
We went for a buffet lunch, it was great! Then we took a cable car up to Sugarloaf Mountain. The wind was so strong, it was an interesting ride down the mountain. The tiny monkeys were something none of us had seen before.
We stopped at a supermarket on the way home and bought groceries for dinner. The price was the same really but we went home, cooked then went down to the beach market to buy a few things. Caught a sunset and a few pics. We were drained from a long hot day.
SUN NOV 9 – DAY 31 – RIO
Jado & Jorg went for a run.. Jorg couldn’t keep up and turned back while Jado went 9km again. Then we went to Ipenema Beach – the famous most incredible beach that screamed Rio to me. We did laundry, hung it to dry. Bought a few more groceries, cooked and ate.
Then headed to a Flamengo match. Tickets were sold out but our AirBNB girl found 3 tickets for us. The stadium holds 78K people! It was SOLD OUT and almost every person wearing a Flamengo jersey. What a feeling that was. We got right into it and had a night to remember forever. We won the game 3-2. We hired a private driver there and back, that traffic was not for believing. We got home, had raman noodles and went to sleep.
RECAP OF RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL
Rio feels more like a beach town rather than a concrete jungle city. It is lush, and beaches line the winding coastlines all around the various areas. I don’t think I’ve seen a large city like that before where there are beaches in every direction. Also mountains and favelas in every direction.
We felt safe in Rio, and later learned that we should feel very safe there. We learned that the drug dealers sort of protect the people there so we were actually fine to walk anywhere day or night.
The food was better here than anywhere else I have traveled to on this trip – outside of Paraguay.
I absolutely love the way they planned the infrastructure and have wide paths, and even an open lane on the road for bikes, scooters, bikes, roller bladers, etc… it is an extremely active city.
Most of the people we met were pretty rude. Not all of them but many. Some were super sweet. Very frustrating that this one country out of all the others speaks Portuguese instead of Spanish.
I rate Rio 7.5 out of 10. I personally like Buenos Aires as a city more than I do Rio but the beaches are so incredible, I have to keep the rating pretty high.
