We had a day and a half to spend in Rio and lots to cram in. On first impressions it wasn't quite how I thought it would be. It wasn't hot and sunny and it also stank of rubbish and port a loos outside on the streets! I spent the first afternoon at the beaches of Copacapana and Ipanema because people watching there is classed as a “must do”. Copacapana was an impressive 4.5km long but it if you removed Sugarloaf mountain at the end of it we could have been in Spain with high rise hotels and cafes lining the front. Ipanema was slightly cleaner and had huge waves which made great viewing. Either way I wouldn't be doing any sun bathing or swimming on the beach as there was a huge amount of litter filling the sand. Didn't stop the locals though!
We had another cool and cloudy day two with most of us taking a tour of the Rocinha flavella (slum). It was very interesting to see the flavella and everyone was friendly along the way. The flavella houses between 69,000 and 72,000 people and is sprawled up the mountain side. Housing at the top of the mountain is more desirable due to cleaner air and the fact that everything drains down hill and when it really rains in Rio the houses nearer the coast flood. It was amazing to walk down the alleyways, watching where you put your feet (really shouldn't have worn my flip flops) and also minding your head on drain pipes and very dodgy low lying electric cables! The flavella is completely self contained and it's only necessary to leave in order to find work. There are shops, hospitals, schools, and daycare within the area and also a police presence in order to keep gangs under control. With samba being Brazil's national dance some of the young kids showed us their moves whilst a couple of older ones made a great racket with an empty plastic bucket and a tin box
Next stop was Christ the Redeemer, another “must do” in Rio and something else which it really would have been nice to have the sun out for. We got to the top but Jesus very much had his head in the clouds and we couldn't see an single bit of the view over Rio. Thankfully there is a viewing platform on the way down to the city so you can get a view below the clouds which was great. The statue has been seen in glimpse from sea level but the statue which is 38m high and sits at a height of 710m looks tiny! The statue was built in 1922 to mark 100 years since the independence from Portugal and Christ faces the sea to bless any visitors from the air or by ship
We also visited Santa Teresa and the Lapa steps. The 250 tiled steps were created on the street outside the Chilean artist Seleron's house. He spent 10 years covering the run down steps in tiles the colours of Brazil's flag- yellow, green and blue. When he had finished he created his steps into a changing work of art by asking people to send him decorative tiles from all over the world that he could include in the steps. As a result there are lots of odd tiles and it makes great viewing. Sadly Seleron was found dead 2 weeks ago on the Lapa steps. We also had a quick visit to the ugliest cathedral I'd ever seen. A concrete mess on the outside stands at nearly 100m, but on the inside it was beautiful. There were 4 huge panels of modern stained glass and some lovely statues. I'm glad I bothered to go through the door!
Our final stop of the day was Sugarloaf Mountain which we were going to go to for sunset (we hadn't seen the sun all day so everyone knew we wouldn't be seeing it set) and to get amazing views down the coast and inland towards Christ if he had his head out the cloud. You have to get 2 cable cars to Sugarloaf and despite being clear-ish when we queued for tickets it most definitely wasn't clear by the time we got to the car changeover and by the time we got to the top we were inside a rain cloud and couldn't see a single thing!! For me the saving grace of sugar loaf was the fact that we saw a tiny little monkey up close. It's a shame that we haven't seen Rio in all its glory but it's certainly an interesting city and a great stop to visit.
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