Rio

Rio.....where to start....it is a beautiful city. It really reminded me of Capetown. Built up, but with a beautiful coastline and mountains and hills surrounding it. It was lush to be able to hop onto the metro and travel round easily. I felt way more independent. As my Portuguese is very basic, metros are much easier than buses (less conversations required and maps everywhere!), and I realised why I found it easier to sightsee and zip around in Madrid!  In São Paulo, there is a metro but there isn't a stop near me yet......it will be there they hope in time for the World Cup......along with many others. It will be very interesting to see the changes to the city this year. Right now, it is completely unready. The levels of English alone are shocking, besides the public transport in an already very busy and full city. It is an interesting topic of conversation to hear everyone's views. They will pull it off, of course they will, but it is funny hearing people stress in the meantime!

Graffiti in Santa Teresa

Visiting the Christ is awesome. It was a winding bus ride through a forest and then a few hundred steps up. We were there just after midday and the sun was intense, it was quite difficult to gaze up at Him at times! The views down over the city and of Sugar loaf were beautiful. 

We went to see the cathedral which was completely different to any other I've seen. A cylinder structure, with floor to ceiling stained glass windows. The way the sun came through was amazing, and from the inside it is truly beautiful. 

Cathedral to the left, The Christ in the distance

Santa Teresa was a sweet neighbourhood which we kept venturing back to because it was so chilled and filled with gorgeous cafes and shops. It may well be a place to escape the craziness of carnival if it all gets too much....that and the beaches! 

Love this shot!

View down the hill from Santa Teresa

Late afternoon we went to the Lapa steps. I was really excited about seeing them.....mainly because of Snoop Dogg and Pharrell! I counted three Welsh tiles which made me feel very proud....and there could well have been more but there are hundreds and hundreds of tiles to search! It was amazing to see all the different places that had sent their tiles to be added to Selaron's collection, as a tribute to the Brazilian people. It was awesome to get another song into my head as Copacabana has driven me crazy...probably because I only know a line or two so it just loops around! 

Just in case you wanna check out the vid......... (for the record, people in Rio do not look like this. I was a bit disappointed)

At dusk we went up Sugar Loaf mountain. It is two cable car rides up. It is simply stunning. We watched the sun set and tried to work out where everything was. Rio is much easier than São Paulo to get a feel of! 

Christ the Redeemer in the distance

Copacabana

The next day we did a walking tour. It's was actually a good thing but probably for the wrong reasons. It really put me off Rio! I was feeling quite sad and sorry for São Paulo after our first day so the walking tour made me realise that São Paulo is awesome and I'm not so sad about going back! We did however, see some beautiful buildings, the theatre in particular is very impressive. 

City Hall.....just a few protesters today

Munincipal Theatre. Cost less to build than City Hall apparently! So beautiful.

We did get 10% off in the Haivanas store (world famous Brazilian flip flops) which lifted my spirits a little! I do need all your shoe sizes btw and colour/design requests (children included!)...have got some ready mules who will take them back to the uk for me! There were some gorgeous Little Mermaid ones! The variety here is amazing. 

Rio ended with some awful bites. If ever you feel jealous, now is the time to feel perfectly content with not travelling and putting up with certain things. I've been bitten badly before, but not like this. Over ten on my face! Loads everywhere else too.... I looked like the elephant man (slight, but not crazy exaggeration). It involved a 4am run to the pharmacy and a change of rooms then a rather tearful conversation in the morning to get money back from the manager. It was so so gross....I could actually see these bugs crawling round when I was switching rooms. My left eye was bitten badly on the eyelid so wearing sunglasses worked pretty well....but when night came it was rather embarrassing! All ok now, and after a few days the swelling went down and the make up returned. All good! No photos on here I'm afraid!