The city by the bay...

Rio de Janeiro translated to English means January River, because some old sailor who found the place thought that it was the mouth of a river (he should have paid more attention to his geography teacher). It´s not. It´s a bay. Actually it´s a settlement on a stretch of land containing several bays, headlands and beaches. There are mountains covered in lush green tropical rainforest, granite peaks and lots of little islands. It´s pretty damn spectacular. Especially when viewed from a height.

So that´s what I have been doing. Viewing things from a height.

Yesterday later afternoon I headed up to Pao de Açucar (the Sugar Loaf) with two Canadian guys who are staying at the hostel. It´s about a half an hour walk to the bottom and then you have to get two cable cars to the summit. The view up is pretty impressive (and your ears pop- it´s 396m asl!) and you can see all the different landmarks of Rio. Watching the sunset (behind Cristo Redentor) and then all the lights come on was amazing and the breeze really helped with the temperature. We then went back down and decided to go to a little beach we had spotted and seemed nice. It was a nice little beach with a Samba band playing (with singing, percussion and those really big drums) who were really, really good. So we sat and listened to them for a bit with the beach and the palm trees and I danced with a lady who was selling coconuts for a bit too.

This morning I went up to Corcovado (meaning hunchback) where Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) with some other people from the hostel. For a group it was cheaper to book a taxi to take us all rather than trying to battle the buses and wait in line for the trains. Corcovado is a peak to the west of the coast so gives you a totally different perspective on the city and beaches. Cristo Redentor is a really, really big granite statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched as if he is blessing the city. It´s pretty impressive (not as impressive as the Big Buddha in Hong Kong though- that was covered in gold and had a vegetarian restaurant) and there were lots of different birds flying around too. The statue is lit up at night and because most of Corcovado is dense, lush rainforest it appears as though the statue is floating over the city.

I have used almost an entire roll of film on Rio and the pictures are never going to do it justice.

In other less peak related things I went out to Ipanema yesterday during the day. From a beach perspective it seems to be a better place to swim in/lay on, but most of the surrounding area is housing (it´s a very ritzy suburb and about as densely populated as Copacabana), places to eat and the shopping is a bit more upper class. Still good for a sorbet and a wander though.

I also made it out to the bus station to book my bus ticket to Florinapolis tomorrow. The bus ride appears to be over 24hours. I am not looking forward to it. The bus station is in a somewhat dodgey area. It is interesting here, unlike lots of other places I have been to, the difference between the have´s and have not´s seems more extreme because you can see it directly contrasted. You can see people begging in the streets and fancy clothing shops within a mere 5 minute walk. From the Sugar Loaf you can see the favelas (slums) and the ritzy apartments of Ipanema it makes it a interesting thing to note. I am currently reading Hope´s Edge (the 30 year follow up to Diet For A Small Planet which you should all read) and found out that one of the cities in Brazil makes food a right of citzenship (in the same way we have free education, they have government subsided places to eat, all local grown and all healthy) so that noone goes hungry and apparently it only cost about 1% of the city budget- how cool is that?

Oh and it got to over 40°C today. You should try mango sushi. And for those who want to get in contact with me I have a local number, email me and I´ll let you know.

IVU in a few days! *bounce*