Round The World: Rio

Maria and I made it to the bus!

The trip back to Rio de Janeiro was an interesting trip. Maria and I ended up on the same bus. The way back to the bus station was far more uphill than down and as the hostel telephone was out of action we couldn’t call a taxi. So, we took up the adventure of panting and puffing upwards for about 30min with backpacks on. I have to mention that my backpack is between 16 – 18kg at the moment with hand luggage of at least 5kg if not more. So I’m now fit! It’s official. I made it to the bus station with breath left! I would not have been able to do this at the beginning of the trip.

Bot gardens

It was a daylight bus back so we got to enjoy the scenery. I sat next an older German man who was really interesting to chat to and had been travelling everywhere in the world. That is to say it was fascinating for about the first 15 minutes until I discovered that this was not so much a conversation as a monologue. It was an 8 hr bus trip back to Rio... lol.

So after an hour, I have to admit I was not a very good audience - I had taken some travel sickness tablets and promptly fell asleep on his rambles. So the portion of rambles that I heard included how he’d been stuck in Pakistan or some such when the country was over thrown and there was gun fire on the streets. Instead of flying out of the country with the other expatriates (for some reason he couldn’t) he got stuck on a farm in the middle of the country and had to hide away in a barn for two weeks. Anyways, the bus trip went really fast after my medicated sleep.

Arriving in Rio, my hostel was in the Santa Teresa area of Rio. This area is a big party scene each weekend, but is not exactly the safest area of Rio. I’ve been taking more taxi’s in Rio than anywhere else for safety sake. So, we found our way to the hostel which had stunning views of down-town Rio from various balconies (which had hammocks).

As I walked into my dorm I found that Rachel had already arrived. She had just come back from the jungle and was really happy but full of red welts! It looked like the mosquitoes had gone to war on her and won! But she said it was still the highlight of her South American trip. So we toured a bit more of Rio together again while Maria headed off to Ilha Grande.

We visited the Botanical Gardens of Rio, spotted monkeys in the trees, tried to find humming birds in the humming bird garden (I’m still on my mission to find a humming bird!) and just generally wondered around chatting.

We then moved on to swimming on Ipanema Beach, obviously making sure that we had beer and coconuts on the beach. Yum. Then it was back to the hostel for an evening of cooking dinner and chatting with a beer in hand.

Coconuts and beer on Ipanema beach

Lapa steps re-visited

The next day was bright sunshine and warm weather. A stunning day that we took a little easier, lying in the hostel hammocks admiring the view, taking the tram over the aqueduct in the Santa Teresa area, posting postcards home and re-visiting the Lapa steps where we met the actual artist that made (and is still making) the steps. Very cool!

Rio the second time was great. There were still areas where I didn’t feel all that safe, but people in the city were great and helped us out of potential situations before we knew about them. A quiet word by a local to move on and not dawdle looking at scenery when we were making the homeless a little restless. But now I knew how to get around and a bit more of the lie of the land, it was a lot better. Of course touring with Rachel was lots of fun again. Thanks Rach! You made Rio for me!