Rio de Janeiro

The view from the first platform of Sugar Loaf Mountain
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September 17^th, 2007: Day 2

As the sun begins to set we could see the entire city turn from day into night.

We woke up early and were ready to hit the new day. We took a walk through the park and around some more of the town before hopping on the subway and heading over to the financial district of Sao Paulo. Once we arrived to our destination we watched the streets of a busy Monday with people heading to and from work in business suits ready to conquer the day. For lunch we hit a small café and had our very first ham and cheese sandwich (on every menu) and watched locals drink teeny tiny shots of espresso. After lunch we headed back to the hostel to pack up and hop on a bus to head to Rio de Janeiro. A million stops and 6 hours later we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. We finally arrived to our hostel in the neighborhood of Botofogo around 10pm. When we checked into the hostel we were informed that our room was given away and we had the opportunity to share a dorm room. Oh how romantic…. we made the best of it and it was kind of funny sharing a dorm room and sleeping in a twin bed. I haven’t done that since college. For dinner we ran to the local shopping mall to enjoy what turned out to be a very delicious dinner and a few Brazilian beers. This would be the official beginning of our taste testing that happened all over the country.

Christ the redeemer sits right under the sunset
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September 18^th, 2007: Day 3

Rio de Janeiro

We woke up early in the morning and hopped on the subway to head to Copacabana. We walked up and down the coast of Copa and all around the city before making our way to Ipanema. The beaches were peaceful and the sky was a perfect blue. The wind was moving that day; which didn’t allow us the sweaty feeling that would have driven us into the ocean. After walking the coast for a while we decided it was time for lunch. We hit a trendy café within the busy streets for sidewalk seating and lots of people watching. At this lunch we saw the sight that we would see many more times to come…. car moving. When someone needs a parking spot to be larger they push your car out of the way or may even go so far as to pick it up and move it. After lunch we headed to the local bicycle rental shop to head out for an afternoon ride. After picking out our bicycles we decided to ride along the trails of the lagoon and enjoyed the scenery all around. The area was lined with small restaurants and tiki type bars for you to enjoy a beverage or snack while enjoying the peacefulness of the water. After completing the loop around the water we headed out in search of the botanical garden, but we found ourselves going uphill and I found myself saying why didn’t I go to the gym more. We arrived at the back entrance of the botanical gardens and rode all the way around only to find that we had arrived around closing time. After this we headed out on the journey down the coast to return our bikes. After returning our bikes we walked around the city and decided that we should have dinner here before we headed back to our hostel. We stopped at a local pub and had a few beers while deciding where to eat. After that we ended up at a local café for dinner where we enjoyed our first couple of caparinhas the popular drink of Brazil. Our server spoke quickly and asked a lot of questions and Jeremy said “si” to every question. I was convinced he may have agreed to purchase the restaurant. Well we’ll see what his credit card statement says. Once we were done with dinner we hopped on the subway and headed back to the hostel for a couple of beers and a couple of games of Brazilian pool before calling it a night.

Overlook from Sugarloaf after the sunset
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September 19^th, 2007: Day 4

We woke up ready to see more of this beautiful city and that is exactly what we did. We began the day with a walk through Flamenco Park. It is along the bay and it was quite a walk. We saw the World War II memorial of Brazil and many old men in Speedos. We also passed the museum of modern art and many other beautiful sights before continuing on a full walking tour of Centro, cathedrals and Lapa. Once our walking tour came to an end we hopped on a train up to Santa Theresa an area that used to be beautiful mansions, but has lost all of it’s charm due to the area that has built up around it. In Santa Theresa we had lunch at a restaurant called Bar do Mineiro that served up very authentic Brazilian cuisine. After lunch we headed back to our hostel to prepare for the walk to Sugarloaf Mountain. We made our way to Sugarloaf and got the opportunity to see another neighborhood of the city and pasted the university of Brazil, which has a small and cute campus with old style buildings. We took the 2-platform tram to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain to arrive just before sunset. We could see the entire city from the top and made the picture clearer of how much ground we had seen. As the sun begins to set we could see the entire city turn from day into night. The lights of the city filled the streets and then we headed home to clean up for dinner. We headed to the area Leblon for dinner and ate a restaurant called the Diagonal. At the restaurant we ended up having what in Brazil is called “The Americana” and in the US is “The Trucker Meal”, which is a steak sandwich with an egg on it. After a few beers we decided to call it an evening.

Christ the redeemer
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September 20^th, 2007: Day 5

We were picked up bright and early to head out for a jeep tour. We started out by riding through the city before heading to our final destination, which was the bottom of Parque National da Tijuca before starting our hike. We hiked to the point of the jungle and had an overlook of Ipanema, Copacabana, and a view of Corcavado. After spending some time at the point we made our way back down the mountain and headed over to Corcavado (Christ the Redeemer). Corcavado is the giant statue of Christ of overlooks and protects the city of Rio de Janeiro. There were beautiful views of the entire city and once again had the opportunity to gage the amount of ground we had covered. With our stomachs empty and it nearing lunchtime we headed over to Santa Theresa for lunch. The funny thing about this trip is that our guide took us to the same location that we had lunch at the previous afternoon. It was delicious the second time as well. After lunch our jeep adventure came to an end and we decided to finally look more closely at the area around our hostel. The area was very cute and we found a nice outdoor location called 98 to have our trip favorite “32 oz beer in a coozie”. Once the day began to turn into night we headed to the hostel to get ready for our last night in town. We got dolled up and headed to the area of Lapa for dinner at a trendy restaurant where we enjoyed a delicious steak dinner for 2 for around $10 us how fabulous. After dinner we made our way to Democratacus for some samba beats. We had the opportunity to people watch and also get a feel for the style and the culture of the samba dance.