The Rio Tourist Trail

One of the nice things about hanging around with Nigel, Sandy and Kat is that we have the excuse to be real tourists for a bit, something we usually try and avoid. Believe me, there are plenty of things to do as a tourist in Rio. The statue "O Cristo Redentor" or "Christ the Redeemer" or, "the Jesus Statue" as I've come to term it is one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. It's so iconic in fact that if you go looking for it on Google maps you'll find a lovely 3D rendered version of it that you can fly around. This, of course doesn't compare to the real thing. You reach it by a rack-and-pinion railway which climbs the Corcovado mountain through the lush and green looking Tijuca Forest Park and the views are already getting spectacular as you head up. At the top it's stunning. You can see right round the city including the domestic airport, something I found most interesting as the runway juts right out in the water so a mis-calculation on someone's part could potentially result in the all-too-famous lifejackets finally finding a use. The statue itself is art deco, built in the 1920s and finally opened in 1931. It looks over the city with arms outstreched protecting all the murderers, theives and con-artists that (we're told) reside within. It was an opportunity for us to have an EYG bag moment. In case you dont know what I'm talking about, Charlotte has been carrying around one of the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin cloth bags and the aim is to have a photo taken in each country with it in front of an obvious monument. This is our Brazil shot. Our argentina one was in from of the Argentinian congress building a and you can see them, along with all our other photos on our Flickr page. Back on the ground we spent the afternoon chilling out at K, N and S's hotel before heading to the park we'd seen the day before with the guinea-squirrels (capybaras according to the well travelled Lucy), cats, peacocks and other miscellaneous birds. I think this one wins the award for the most random cats in one are. At one point Nigel was chatted up by an interesting looking lady under the watchful eye of (we think) her 'sales representative'. She eventually figures she was barking up the wrong tree.

In the evening Kat, Charlotte and myself decided to try and get a feel for the Rio nightlife and were thus advised to head to the district of Lapa, famous for nighclubs, Samba bars and generally the venue for anyone looking for a wild night out. We got there far too early and not a lot was going on so we found an open-air bar to take a dring in, a beer and a couple of the now famous caipirinhas. Behind us was a bit table of folk who had a guitar and a ukelele and seemed to be breaking into songs occasionally but we let them be for the moment. We took a wander round the block looking for a place we'd found on-line which looked good but when we couldn't find it we headed back to the bar where we starteed, agreeing that it was quite a reasonable place to spend the evening. When we got back, the a guy at the big table invited us over to come and hear some Brazillain music. We were only to happy to do so - it turned out that they were a load of Ethnomusicology students on a night out with their lecturers for one of the older lecturers birthday. One of the lecturers had spent some time in Scotland and shouted "bonnie lass" at Kat and Charlotte and "braw lad" at me. He knew quite a few people invloved in musical acoustics at the University of Edinburgh, most notably Murray Campbell who lectured me in 2nd year and sand in the Church choir from time-to-time (he lived in Carlops, about 4-5 miles from Penicuik. a bizarre coincidence. The lecturer who's birthday it was knew of a couple of folk in the School of Scottish Studies as well. We taught them the cup percussion routine (we'll show you sometime if you ask) and sang them the Kelty Clippie accompanied by one of the students on the guitar. It was a sort of Brazillain Clippie by the end - he picked it up pretty quickly. We left agreeing that we'd had the perfect evening really without trying to find it.

Today we went to do the other Rio tourist activity, the Sugar Loaf Mountain cable car ride. It was the third cable car in the world, and started service in 1912 before a period out of service and an upgrade to the current "bubble" style cars in the 1970s. More spectacular views of the city abounded - it really is a city best seen from above.

Kat and Sandy were wiped out with heat by the end of that so they headed back to the hotel which Nigel, Charlotte and I headed to the famous Ipanema Beach, famous from the song "The Girl from Ipanema". We'd had a swimming experience already on Flamengo beach but I really fancied a go in the waves and the small pool which we'd seen on Ipanema a couple of days before (Ipanema is an oceanic beach so the waves are much higher than on the beaches in the bays). It was completely worth it, C and I played in the waves for ages even swimming to the point that we couldn't reach the bottom, a new experience for both of us.

Dinner was at another pay-by-weight place (the best one yet it was agreed) and even desserts were taken this time. It's becoming a game in which the winner is the person with the lowest priced plate. Kat won this evening with Sandy declared the loser. As yet I have never one but neither have I lost. We decided to take the risk of an evening stroll and a drink on Copacabana beach, previously the site of the toothpaste incident (I must wash my boot...) and it passed without drama. It seems that the worst of our Rio troubles was the toothpase incident so all-in-all after everyone's warnings we've probably done pretty well. There was also a bus driver who tried to seriously short-change us but given that he was writing down how much he was short-changing everone by we found him out. Tomorrow it's off to Salvador then Kat and Bruno's place in Camaçari. We haven't seen Bruno yet since we got here so we're all looking forward to a yarn with him.

Love to all.

P.S. Time-shift back to our first Couchsurfers in Buenos Aires, Marina took a video of part of the amazing evening fo food and music we had at their place which you can take a look at. Good memories - C's getting pretty good at teaching the dance now!