Rio de Janeiro - January 09

I got on the bus (without a day saver) at midnight from the Rodoviaria de Santos, heading to the Rodoviaria Novo of Rio de Janeiro. I didn't sleep all night for three reasons. The first is that the bus was zooming around the mountains at too much of a high speed for it to be considered safe, leaving me on the edge of my seat for the first 3 hours trying to get used to the idea that my life could end any second. Second, because I was extracted from the homely feeling of Santos and had to take a moment to digest the fact that I am in Brazil and heading to Rio de Janeiro. I thought a lot of my family and friends, and yes - I miss them all! I wish everyone that I have had to say good bye to could be with me, sharing these experiences of life threatening bus journeys! And finally, I couldn't sleep because they put the air con on SO high that I was literally frozen the whole way through - and no, I hadn't packed a blanket nor a sleeping bag. I finally had told the driver after we had stopped on a motorway station and finally for the rest of the journey I managed to sleep - which is the equivalent of one hour. 

Daylight began to break at around 6am as we drove into the city of Rio. It feels more industrial than Santos, and larger - but my mind could not assimilate much more than that in the state that I was in. I was met by Paulo, Nathalie's friends' father, who drove me to his daughter's house in the neighbourhood of Botafago. By 7.10am I was in Isabela's house. She left to University and I passed out on the couch in a very deep (and much needed) sleep. I was woken up and hour later by Nathalie and we began with breakfast and planning our travels. We decided to visit the whole of Rio (obviously), go to the beaches of Buzios, rock climbing in Teresopolis, surf in Itacare in the region of Bahia, the sub-Amazon region of Pantanal to the town of Bonito and to Foz de Iguazu - all within 3 weeks. Tight squeeze! 

Isabela returned from University and took us around town. Her apartment is a 10 minute walk to the beach, where we could see the famous Pao de Azucar. (Right, we are not very lucky with photos - I tried uploading one now and it is not working). We went to the neighbourhood of Copacobana to buy some flip flops for Nathalie - a must in Brazil! An easy 80 percent of the people here wear them, and they are so famous that there are many more models that they created, all colours and all forms of straps. We got a bit lost in there and I came out with some semi-lady like ones for the night. We ate in a restaurant "per kilo", which is a buffet and the price is calculated according to how much is on your plate - which is quite an effective way to watch your weight (watch the wallet first!). We then went shopping in a mall, as I have no decent clothes. There are some very nice things here and I got two tops and a dress for 40 euros. The shops stay open till 10pm, so we went home as they closed and slept early. 

Today for our first day we went to the Pao de Azucar, the view from there was incredible. The coast is dotted with little mountains, connected by gorgeous beaches. I wish I could post a picture because there is just no way of describing how beautiful it is up there. We took a bus from Botafogo to Urca and from there took two cable cars to the top. Spectacular, awesome and breathtaking thats all I can say. From up there you can see the whole of Rio with all its beaches and far out into the horizon. Funnily, there is a thin layer of misty fast moving clouds on the top of the Pao. This gave it a real tropical touch. We spent about 3 hours there admiring the views and the beautiful plants, vegetation and monkeys! Going there is an absolute must and everyone ought to come to Rio de Janeiro just for that! 

We then went down to the Copacobana beach and later, we went out in Leblon - a young lively neighbourhood. Tomorrow we will be going up the Cristo and visiting the Botanical Garden and the Lagoon. We are planning to be out by 9am and as it is 4am now... I am going to bed!