We're at the Copa, Copacabana

The view of Copacabana Beach from our Balcony.
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Day 27 - Wednesday 30 May 2007 ( 634 hours down 254 to go)

New York to Rio De Janeiro

It is our last morning in New York and whilst we are sad to be leaving this fantastic city we feel that we have done and seen all that we wanted to and had a great time in doing so. Some of our reflections of New York are:

• Black folk are friendlier than the rest.
• New Yorkers are not fat, due to all the walking they do, the out of towners are.
• Black women have big bums, or booty.
• Tipping is a big con, they expect it without doing a bloody thing.
• Shopping is great.
• The subway system is great and makes its easy to explore all of New York.
• Food portions are huge.
• Stay in Jersey City not in Manhattan.
• New York is melting pot of many races with no direct descendants of the Mayflower to be seen anywhere.
• Americans are living the American dream and the immigrants are striving to achieve it.
• By looking at television adverts, Americans must be hypochondriacs, every second advert relates to a possible medical condition that can be fixed with an over the counter product. Each advert is followed by a 20 second disclaimer or reason why you should not use it.

Christ the redeemer & imitator
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As we still have a Metrocard with $20 value on it we head on up to Times Square for one last look around, much to Julie’s delight she drags me into a Florsheim shop to buy a new pair of shoes for me to replace the most comfortable pair of shoes that I have ever owned and have served me well through 14 countries. Ok they are looking a bit tired.

Back to the Hotel with $2.00 credit left on our Metrocard, pack and off to Newark Airport in Hotel Limo. Easy check in, eventually find American Airlines lounge and settle down to wait for flight. I go to the bar to get a drink and they charge me $4.00 for a beer, after I pay another traveller tells me that I can get drink vouchers at the Lounge check-in. So I go and see them and they give me vouchers but no money back, bloody yanks. Our flight is delayed by 15 minutes and when we get on board and ready to take off we get the announcement that we have been advised that as Airforce One is about to take off we have been instructed to park and turn engines off, bloody George W. So we see Airforce One take off, we wave to George without a reply, then join the long queue of planes waiting to take off.

View from Christ the Redeemer lookout
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The three hour flight to Miami is nothing special, an old Boeing 757, no entertainment, but they do serve a meal and a couple of drinks and I manage a quick nap afterwards, actually Julie had to wake me up after we landed. Quick transfer of planes to a new Boeing 767 and we take off at 11.30pm to Rio. On this flight we get the cocoon seats again so after a quick meal it is lights out, seat down, tuck the duvet in and off to sleep for the remainder of the eight hour flight. We are awoken an hour before landing and served an omelet and fruit.

Cable car to Sugar Loaf Mountain
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Easy passage through immigration and then the fun stops when we get our bags. We wait for over an hour for our bags watching in anticipation as everyone else gets theirs then at last they come. No worries with customs so we grab a taxi and head off into Rio with the sounds of Peter Allen singing “when my baby goes to Rio” followed by Barry Manalow singing “ Copa Copacabana”. We leave the airport and all we see are shanty towns, slums, poxy buildings covered in graffiti all the way and both Peter and Barry stop singing. We look at each other and think what a shithole.

Us at the top of Sugar Loaf
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The traffic is gridlocked and so we spend another hour getting to the Hotel. Eventually we see a road sign “Copacabana” and as we turn the corner onto the Esplanade Barry finds his voice again and the beach is magnificent. Our Hotel is half way along the esplanade is looks good, they welcome us with a glass of champagne as we check in and take us up to our room which is just perfect with a balcony overlooking the beach.

After a quick check of the neighbourhood we take a taxi up to one of the main tourist spots, Corcovado, or Christ the Redeemer. This is a 30 metre statue perched on top of the highest point, 710 metres, looking over the city of Rio and the beaches. We take a train up to the top which provides a magnificent view over the city and the 30 metre statue of Corcovado is an Amazing sight and is certainly the main focal point of Rio.

The girl on Ipamena Beach
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For dinner we go to a little local BBQ place just around the corner and sit at the counter for a dinner of BBQ chicken, pork sausage, salad and fries which was very nice and most people thought we were a novelty. After dinner and a couple of drinks I started to wilt and was looking for a bed so it was home and an early night only to be woken at 8.30pm by the turndown service, too late, and a phonecall at 12.06am from Peter Gazzard who was in Beijing on his way to the Great Wall and just wanted to say hello. Sorry forgot about the time difference. Just get back to sleep and another call from someone looking for Denise, sorry wrong number.

View of Copacabana Beach from Sugar Loaf
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Pedometer reading 22870 ( two days)

Day 29 - Friday 1 June 2007 ( 682 hours down 206 to go)

We wake up to a brilliant day of sunshine in Rio, estimated max 25C, not many bronzed Brazilian Babes on the beach yet, so we opt for a bit of sightseeing before hitting the beach. We take a taxi up to Rio’s second main tourist attraction, Sugar Loaf Mountain, a huge granite hill about 1000 metres high that overlooks all the harbours and beaches of Rio. You take two cable cars up to the top and the view is just magnificent and we are lucky that the weather is perfect. After looking around for an hour we have a drink while waiting for the next cable car to return. I try one of the Brazilian specialities called Carioca, which is a lime crushed up with three tablespoons of sugar and mixed with a white spirit( Cachara) and ice, very refreshing. Julie took one look at it and decided on a frozen fruit frappe, but it was great just sitting in the sun looking out over Rio.

Upon returning to the bottom we take a taxi up to the beach area to walk along Lebon Beach, Ipamena Beach where most of the beautiful people were hanging out and made our way down Copacabana which is not as popular but is just as good with huge surf pounding in on a pure sandy beach 3km long. We make our way back to Hotel and go up to bar on roof to watch the sunset, 4.45pm, and have a drink. For dinner we try out a Brazilian BBQ buffet just around the corner and are blown away with the amount of food they offer. As you sit down they deliver a plate of crumbed and garlic prawns, then usher you to the salad and seafood & sushi bar, then waiters walk around with all types of barbequed meats on long skewers and either carve on to your plate or drag a large portion off. Just when you can’t eat anymore they tempt you with deserts. We rolled home and said goodnight to Rio.

Pedometer reading 13601