Rio Window

We decided to do some of the more obvious tourist things during our first stint in Rio before the city got really busy.

Ipanema 

So, we took a stroll down Copacabana beach and then around to Ipanema .

The beaches and the road along them were teeming with joggers and walkers and people playing volleyball or beach football.  And this is all before 8.00 am.

Now these are amazing beache,s but I was disappointed not to run into Lola or the Girl From...


The other must-do in Rio, is to get the view from the high vantage points from where the city's amazing layout can be seen.  Apart from having to battle all the zany people imitating crucifixion poses, the view is spectacular.

Ipanema

View out to Sugar Loaf Mountain

Cristo Redentor

It's easy to see why the harbour was named as one of the natural wonders of the world.

Apparently the statue was the biggest art deco monument in the world until 2010 when some pesky Poles built an even bigger Jesus...


















That's the good in Rio.  The bad?  They all speak Portuguese.  Very quickly.  The ugly?  Our attempts at it.  Just recharging a phone card was some task!  I'm pointing at a poster and saying "Recarga" and they're asking me what sounds like "Chim?" which I'm thinking is a number or a question, so I'm saying "Vinte" (Twenty).  Well, it turns out that "Chim" is how you pronounce Tim, which is one of the telcos here.  So basically, they were shouting the equivalent of "Telstra or Optus" at me and I was enthusiastically shouting "Twenty" back to them.  You can see that this conversation didn't go anywhere fast.  But it is all good natured.

Rio was surprisingly quiet but I suspect most people are just hunkering down before the month-long festivities start.  It will be interesting to see how different it is on our return but for now, it's off to Costa Rica.