Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

17th October – 22nd October 2017

Getting on the truck to leave Paraty, I was quite tired, but everyone decided to sit together to have a ‘party’ on the last truck ride. This obviously didn’t happen and we all were probably the most unsociable we have been: people either put their headphones in to listen to music or watch something on their phones, or they fell asleep. I tried to get some sleep but it probably lasted about five minutes before I was woken up. We had one short toilet stop, before reaching the lunch stop around 12.

It should have only been a short drive day, but these don’t exist when you’re a passenger on Yana. We stopped for lunch at a service station with an empty shop. The only lunch option was McDonald’s, which I really don’t enjoy at the best of times, so I wasn’t overly impressed. After lunch, we had our last full group photo, in front of Yana, before we carried on towards Rio – luckily it wasn’t a particularly sunny day, so the truck was relatively cool inside.

We finally hit the outskirts of Rio at around 2.15. We drove straight into traffic jams, so it took us a while to get through the city, to our hotel. Eventually, we reached the hotel just after 3. The hotel was on a tiny side road, so we had lots of angry, beeping drivers when Sara stopped in the middle of the road for us to unload – it wasn’t her fault, there was nowhere else for her to go.

Once we were checked in, we went to our rooms and I began to sort my bag out. As much as I wanted to go and explore the city, I knew I had a few days there, so I didn’t need to rush, plus I thought it would be better to try and sort my things out while it was just me and Sabrina in the room, instead of when we moved to the hostel. We did have a wander out at one point, but that was just to the launderette to clean our clothes. I couldn’t believe how quick the afternoon flew by and I was beginning to get fed up that my things were still spread all over the room, not fitting in my bag when I needed to get ready to go out – I don’t know where the afternoon disappeared too!

I managed to squeeze in a quick shower – which was lovely and powerful and hot – before getting ready for the final group dinner. We met in the hotel reception at 7.45, so that we could walk to the restaurant for our 8 o’clock reservations. The restaurant where we ate was a buffet restaurant, where you pay based on the weight of your plate – a dangerous place to eat when you can eat as much as I do, and love dessert, like I do. I got one plate of food and one plate of dessert, as well as a very cheap but strong caipirinha.

Once everyone had finished dinner, we paid up and walked to find another bar for a drink. As it was the last night that we were all going to be together, we all went, but I didn’t have another drink, as they were nearly triple the price of the restaurant we were just in.

After just one drink, most people were tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel. It was later than I realised when we got back, which was slightly disappointing because I still had things to pack away and we had to be up early for a tour that we had booked on to. I finally got in bed just after midnight; it was one of the comfiest beds of South America, so I was even more gutted that we had to be up so early.

When my alarm went off the next morning, I did not want to move – it was too much of an early start, for such a comfy bed. We went down for breakfast just after 8 but I wasn’t particularly hungry at the time. It was a good breakfast spread, there were lots of options, including bacon and eggs, fruit and cake – I managed to avoid the cake again though.

At 8.40, we were collected from the hotel by the tour group leader we had booked our day with. Most of us went on the tour, as most people only had one or two days in Rio and we wanted to see as much as we could – we also thought it would be the safest option to see all of the main sights. Joe and Char stayed behind as they wanted to do their own thing for the day and Sara and Lars had work to do, so they didn’t come either. When we got on the bus, we didn’t realise it was already full of other tourists; the guide had to say everything in Portuguese, Spanish and English, so that everyone could understand her.

The first stop of the day was Christ the Redeemer. We drove up the hill, over the bumpy roads, into the urban forest of Rio de Janeiro. Christ the Redeemer was first opened on 12^th October 1931, nine years after it was started. The statue was created and built by two French men, but it was paid for by the locals, as they raised money in order to put the monument on top of the mountain. The statues is a symbol of peace, looking over the city of Rio de Janeiro. As I was sat at the back of the bus, and we were driving over the bumps, I couldn’t hear everything that the guide said, so I didn’t hear all of the facts about Christ the Redeemer.

Walking to the end of the platform, we had a perfect view over Sugar Loaf Mountain and Rio de Janeiro bay. The views were stunning!

 

On the way to the next stop, we drove through Santa Teresa, a colonial area of Rio. If anyone buys a house in Santa Teresa, they are only allowed to change the inside of it, the outside much remain the same. In 1850, there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Rio, so a statue of Saint Teresa was put on top of the hill to protect everyone from the illness – we didn’t see this though.

We then drove through Lapa, which is a very traditional area and the place to be at the weekends apparently, on the way to the Selaron steps. The Selaron steps were created in 1990 by a Chilean man Jorge Selaron, who was an artist who began decorating the steps that ran in front of his house. The local people did not like this at first, but his project soon spread until 215 steps were decorated. The tiles were originally the colours of the Brazilian flag but then he began to sell his artwork to fund his project more. Eventually, visitors from all over the world brought tiles to him to help decorate and very few of the tiles were tiles that he had painted himself. Sadly, Selaron was found dead on the steps in 2013, which is when the project stopped.

The next stop from the Selaron steps, was the San Sebastian cathedral. It was very strange looking cathedral and looking at it from the outside, I would have never have guessed that it was a cathedral. The pyramid shape and windows at a slant, are designed to keep the cathedral cool inside. The stained-glass windows that ran down the sides of the cathedral helped to let light in. The cathedral could hold 20,000 people.

Even though it was midday and we were getting hungry, we still had a couple more stops until lunch. The next place on the agenda was the stadium where carnival takes place. It was built in 1984 and can hold 100,000 people, who party there all day in their costumes. Carnival is based around the moon and next year it will fall on 8^th February. There is no tourism during carnival, as everyone focuses on the event for the few days, although tourists do go to carnival. As well as the 100,000 people in the stadium, there are 80,000 parties around the rest of the city, during this time.

Next, we stopped at the Maracanã stadium, which is the main stadium in the city. It was completed in 1950 and held the World Cup that year – an important World Cup, as it was the first one since World War II. The stadium then held the World Cup again in 2014 and was where the opening ceremony was held for the Olympics in 2016. The name for the stadium comes from the river which runs nearby and because the original tribesmen would be in that area playing maracas. We couldn’t actually see the stadium itself from where we were stood because we were at the main entrance.

From the stadium, we drove towards Copacabana and had lunch in a restaurant in the area. It was a buffet style lunch again, but the price was included in the ticket, so it was all we could eat – which wasn’t very much in the heat. After we had eaten, we drove along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, towards Sugar Loaf Mountain.

For our final stop, we arrived in the area called Urca, to see Sugar Loaf Mountain. Urca is a military area, making it a completely safe area; there is just one entrance and exit and all of the buildings are military buildings, there are no favelas. When the Portuguese first arrived in the area, they came round and saw Sugar Loaf Mountain, thinking it was an island; they could see the bay behind the mountain and thought it was a river and called it the river of January: Rio de Janeiro – hence the name of the city.

We got the cable car up to Sugar Loaf mountain, via Urca Mountain (named after the area).

On the way up, we could see the water on both sides of the mountain: the left of Sugar Loaf is the bay and to the right is the ocean. At the top of the mountain, we could see beautiful views all around: views of Copacabana, Christ the Redeemer and the bay.

Sugar Loaf Mountain is 600 million years old and got its name because of the production of the sugar cane in Brazil. The sugar cane is used to make cachaçe (the spirit used in caipirihnas), which is then mixed with lots of sugar; the lumps of sugar reflected the mountain shape, so it got its name Sugar Loaf.

Once we had all finished taking our photos at the top, we got the cable cars back down into Urca, where the bus was waiting for us. We drove back and we were the first group to be dropped off, which was nice.

Back at the hotel, I collected my bags from William’s room – he wasn’t leaving for a few more days and was staying in the hotel, so it was easier to leave my bags there while we were out. We sat in the hotel lobby for a little while, waiting to see Joe and Char so that we could say goodbye, as they were flying home that night. A lot earlier than planned, they arrived back (which worked out better for us, so we didn’t have to wait around) and ordered their taxi to the airport. Jessie was going with them too because her flight was an hour later than theirs, so they shared a taxi – it was very early for her though.

After Joe, Char and Jessie left, me and Sabrina left the hotel to find our new hostel. It was a very hot day and we had to carry all of our bags for about 15 minutes, so we were very sweaty when we got there. Luckily, we found the hostel without getting lost – surprisingly. We checked in and dropped off our bags in our room before deciding what to do next. As much as we just wanted to chill out, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the supermarket and get some food for dinner – we were both in the same mind-set that we need to cook for ourselves now that we aren’t on the truck. We were in the shop a lot longer than we expected to be but we did manage to buy dinners for the rest of the week and our lunches (which worked out less than what we have been paying for one meal, so that was good).

The rest of the group, who hadn’t gone home yet, decided to meet up and go for dinner again, but me and Sabrina shared pizza and garlic bread instead. After the others has finished their dinner, they text us to tell us where they were, so we went out to meet them. We met them for a drink and said our goodbyes (again), as some more people were flying out the next day and we wouldn’t see them.

After we had finished our drinks, we walked back to the hostel. Sabrina was staying with William but they walked me back and made sure that I got home safely first. When I got back, I chatted to one of the other people in the dorm who was asking me about my trip and then I went straight to bed, after a busy and long day.

Staying in a dorm is difficult when you want to try and get a good sleep, but it’s what you pay for. I woke up quite early the next day but couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed for a while. I had arranged to meet up with some of the others around 9.30 so that we could go to the botanical gardens, but I just didn’t have the energy. I eventually got myself up, showered and dressed before going down to breakfast around 8.45. I made sure that I was ready to go before I went down for breakfast, as I had to leave around 9 to pick up Sabrina and Aaron on the way to meet Katie and Jack. Breakfast was basic, but enough; they had lay some trays out with two pieces of bread, some melon and butter and jam on it – we could then toast it and choose our own drink if we chose to.

When I went back to the room after breakfast, I thought that my bag had moved but then didn’t think much of it because I was that tired, I thought that I must have subconsciously put it in the position that it was. I left the hostel just after 9 and walked to Hotel Argentina (where we stayed the first night) to meet Sabrina and Aaron. From there, we walked to meet Katie and Jack, as we thought that their hostel was on the way to the botanical gardens. We got to the meeting point and waited a while because Katie misunderstood my messaged, but we found them eventually. We started walking in the direction of where we thought the gardens were, but when we came across a map, I decided to check, just in case. It’s a good job I did, because we were walking in completely the wrong direction. Everyone’s miserable faces made me think it was my fault but I googled botanical gardens and followed the map I got, plus no one else thought to check.

After I tried to cheer everyone up, we walked to Flamengo (where Hotel Argentina was) to get a bus down to the gardens instead. As we stepped onto the bus and I got my purse out I then realised why my bag had moved – all my cash had been taken. I was very frustrated at this point because my bag was on my bed and I must have been gone for ten minutes maximum and I knew which low life had done it. I was fortunate that it was only cash and not cards or cameras etc, but it’s just another inconvenience I didn’t need. I borrowed some money and got on the bus anyway.

About thirty minutes later, we arrived at the Botanical Gardens, which were very pretty and very peaceful. As we walked through the gardens, if we looked up at certain points, we had views of the back of Christ the Redeemer. As much as I tried to not let it get to me, I couldn’t fully enjoy myself because I was annoyed about the money – especially as I was 99% sure I knew who it was at this point. I walked around though and still enjoyed the views, I just didn’t enjoy the mood I was in.

Once we felt like we had seen enough of the gardens, we went to a café where the others got a drink and lunch. Even though Sabrina offered to pay, I decided not to have anything, as I didn’t want to spend the money because I didn’t physically have it, plus I had lunch at the hostel and I knew I was going back there after they had eaten.

We got the bus back to Flamengo, I said bye to Aaron as his flight was that evening and I walked straight back to the hostel. I explained to them what had happened but there was obviously nothing that they could do about it, it’s normal in hostels I guess. They did say there was one man who checked in for one night only and had already left – the man that I was now 100% sure about; he probably lives his life staying one night at a time in different hostels, stealing what he can to get by. The hostel staff just told me to be careful but couldn’t believe how quickly it had happened to me. As I went up and sat on my bed, another girl in the room came and sat with me and told me that she had had money stolen too, at the same time – very frustrating.

I chilled on my bed for a little bit and sorted some things out for when I left Rio. It was nice to be inside during the early afternoon because it was so hot outside – too hot to enjoy anything.

At around 5 o’clock, those of us that were left (me, Sabrina, Katie, Jack and William), met up again near mine and Sabrina’s hostel and got a bus to Copacabana. We were meeting Sabrina’s friend from near home at the beach, so when we got there, we had a little bit to wait until he arrived. When he found us, we walked down the front of the beach, towards the night markets; it was too late in the day to sit on the beach and all of the drink and food stands on the beach were packing up, so the walk was all we needed. We looked around the market stalls but the boys were overly impressed, so it was slightly rushed.

After the markets, we wandered back down the beach front to find a beach bar. Me and Katie had seen a caipirinha deal on the way up, but we couldn’t remember where it was and we didn’t realise how far we had actually walked, so it took us a little while to find it. When we did find it though, everyone was impressed and we all had one – or two in some cases. Even though me and Sabrina had dinner at the hostel, we weren’t going to be back until late and knew we could have it another time, so we decided to eat dinner there. I had a cheeseburger with bacon pieces and fries. After dinner, we paid up and walked to find a different bar off the beach front. We walked into one place which looked nice, we sat down and looked at the menu, before getting back up and leaving – it was very expensive.

Walking back to the bus stop, we found another bar where the drinks were slightly cheaper. Instead of a caipirinha, I ordered a mojito and I really don’t think the waiter even knew what it was, even though it was on the menu. After a half an hour wait, the mojitos arrived – the boys had had two beers in the time it took for the cocktails to come, we obviously should have stuck to the traditional drink. After the drink, we carried on walking and decided to get the metro instead of the bus back and it was so much quicker.

When we were back in Flamengo, Sabrina and William walked me back again, before they went back to the hotel. I got in and went straight to bed.

Waking up on the third day in Rio with no real plans was lovely. I knew that I wouldn’t get a lie in, but I didn’t have to get out of bed straight away, so it wasn’t all bad. I lay in bed until about 10, when I got up and went to breakfast. Breakfast was the same again, except it was pineapple instead of melon and I made sure all my things were locked up before I left the room this time.

After breakfast, I went for a wander towards the centre of Botafogo. I went to the shopping centre to have a look round and got some cash out to repay my debts.

Back at the hostel, I organised my things and packed – again. I had a lot of patches to sew because I hadn’t sewn any on for a while, so I did that first before trying to rearrange my bag. When I was sewing, I accidentally pierced my vacuum bag which was an inconvenience because it was keeping all of my winter clothes contained. While I was packing, Sabrina arrived back at around 12.30, after saying bye to William. I finished my packing (mostly) before we went down to make our lunch.

For lunch, we made an omelette with cheese, tomato and onion in. It was nice but ended up more like scrambled eggs because the pan wasn’t a non-stick one and it wasn’t working as an omelette. As lunch was a little later than planned, we ended up leaving the hostel later than planned, but left just after 3 to head towards Ipanema beach.

Even though we had researched which bus to take, we weren’t entirely sure where to get it from. We stood at one stop for a while before we started asking bus drivers if they were going to Ipanema. When one driver told us he was, we got on and hoped that we would know where to get off. As we got closer, we realised that we probably should have asked if he was going to Ipanema beach, instead of just Ipanema, as that is the name of the place around the beach. We passed over a canal and checked a map, realising we had driven passed the whole beach, on the other side of Ipanema – typical us. We got off the bus and had to walk back down the beach front – to the other end of the beach – to meet Katie and Jack.

When we eventually arrived, about thirty minutes later, we found Katie and Jack and sat on the beach for a while. The beach was a lot dirtier than I imagined it to be and I didn’t really see the massive attraction, despite Lars telling us that most tourists prefer Ipanema to Copacabana. We sat on the beach for about an hour but the sun was setting and there was a cold mist coming from the sea, so we decided to walk to Copacabana instead.

On the way to Copacabana, we walked the wrong way – of course – because we thought we would just be able to walk along the beaches and they would meet, but they didn’t, so we had to backtrack slightly.

At Copacabana beach, we bought a chocolate churro from a food stand, before me and Sabrina bought a caipirinha on the beach. Our original plan was to buy it and walk with it, but we got given seats to sit on the beach with it, so we did. Katie and Jack didn’t want one, so they just stood and watched us, which was a little uncomfortable.

After our caipirinha, we went back to the night markets, where I treated myself to a new bikini. Both times I’ve had things stolen on this trip, I’ve ended up treating myself to make myself feel better, therefore spending lots more money – oops. Once we had finished at the night markets, we got the bus back to our hostels. Our bus dropped us off in Botafogo centre, so we wandered in a few shops on our way back to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we cooked dinner: ravioli with a tomato sauce – it was really nice. While we were eating, we were discussing whether to go back out, as we had originally said we would meet Katie and Jack for a drink but we didn’t know if we had the effort. One of the hostel workers mentioned going out in Lapa on Friday nights (which it was) – it’s apparently the place to be on a Friday, so we couldn’t resist! We soon changed our minds and arranged with Katie and Jack to meet them there.

When we arrived in Lapa, Katie and Jack weren’t there yet, so me and Sabrina went to get a drink. The big attraction with Lapa is street drinking, apparently; there are lots of stalls on the streets which sell food and drinks for very cheap prices. We went and bought a 500ml caipirinha from one of the stalls underneath the famous Lapa archways, for $5 reais (the equivalent of about £1.25). Once we had our drinks, we walked back to meet Katie and Jack outside the bar that had been recommended to us. Katie and Jack got a drink and we stood outside the club for a while. We enquired about how much it was to go in, but it was very expensive considering the drinks outside were so cheap, so we stayed where we were, as we could hear the music anyway. We had a dance on the street and a few more caipirinhas, before going for a wander. Ideally we wanted to find somewhere where we could go in and dance, but everywhere was expensive, so we went back to our spot and danced there some more.

At around 2am, we shared a taxi back to our hostels – the whole night, including both taxis and three caipirinhas cost me $25 reais, which is less than £6! When we got back we got lots of evils from one of our roommates but I don’t know what he expects when he books to stay in a twelve-bed dorm! We sat and ate some snacks and had a little chat – probably the reason we got the huffs and puffs and tuts from the other guy, but oh well – before we went to sleep. The one and a half litres of caipirinha didn’t go down too well for Sabrina, but I was surprisingly fine!

Considering I had absolutely no plans on my last full day in Rio, I was awake far too early: I drifted in and out of sleep from about 7.30 until 10, when I finally decided to give in and get up. I had breakfast which cleared up the tiny hangover I had developing.

After breakfast, I decided to wander up to find another vacuum bag, as I couldn’t fit everything in my bag without one. I wanted to get out while I felt okay, just in case the hangover really kicked in later in the day.

When I got back, we decided to go out to a local beach because we hadn’t really done a daytime beach trip yet. On the way to the beach, we decided it was too cloudy to sit on the beach, so didn’t quite make it there and went to the havaiana shop instead. I was undecided if I wanted any because I didn’t really need them, except I caved because they were so cheap and Brazilian, so while I was in Brazil I bought some!

After our guilty, impulse buys, we walked back to the hostel and decided we would wait and see if the clouds cleared in the afternoon, once we had eaten lunch. At the hostel, I packed, for the third time in a week, using my new vacuum bag.

Packing took longer than I thought, and the afternoon soon disappeared. It was 3 o’clock before we realised we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we made ourselves scrambled eggs again, before deciding to give the beach a miss, as the clouds still hadn’t cleared. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out, which was very nice and well needed, especially as I had a few long days ahead of us.

Time passed quickly again, and it was time for dinner before we knew it. We started dinner quite late – at about 7.45 – and it took ages to cook. For my last South America meal, I had sausage, mash, broccoli and a sauce – not quite South American but it was very good!

We ate just after 9 and after clean-up we went out to meet Katie and Jack. We met them halfway and went for a drink – non-alcoholic because the other girls had been feeling rough all day – before saying our last goodbyes. It didn’t feel real saying bye to Katie and Jack because I’ve said bye to them a lot in the evenings and seen them again the next day, so it felt like it would be the same again, plus I hope I’ll be seeing them again in Australia in February.

Me and Sabrina walked back to the hostel, which didn’t take very long. When we got back, we made the popcorn that we had bought when we did our food shop – we wanted to treat ourselves but we hadn’t had time to eat it, until the last night. After the popcorn, we went straight to bed. I knew I wouldn’t have a very long sleep but I didn’t really make the most of it either, as I sat messing on my laptop for a while before going to sleep.

When my alarm went off at 7.30, I was not impressed and I really did not want to get up. I lay there for a while, before getting up and dressed. My original plan was to leave the hostel just after 8 for the airport but I was nowhere near ready at this point, and I didn’t feel the need to rush as I wasn’t flying until 12.30 and I didn’t realise how close the airport was. I went down for breakfast just after 8; we had an addition of chocolate cake with breakfast this time.

After I had eaten my breakfast, I went up to the room to collect my things, before requesting my uber. I had a problem with the payment on my uber account at first, so began to panic a little as time was ticking by and my request kept getting declined. I eventually sorted it and the driver arrived really quickly. I said my emotional goodbye to Sabrina and got in the taxi, on my way to the airport.

Despite having things stolen, again, Rio de Janeiro is my favourite place in South America, without any doubt. I loved the tourist aspect with Christ the Redeemer, the Selaron steps and Sugar Loaf mountain. I loved the beautiful beaches and bays, such as Copacabana, and I loved the fact that we had some spare time to chill out and enjoy ourselves. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what makes Rio stand out the most, but I just love it and will definitely return one day!

To travel is to live, Katie x