Meet You at The Copa...Copacabana

We checked out of the Mango Tree, and moved to the Copacabana side of town to check into our new hotel, and meeting place for our G adventure tour. After a chilly air conned wait in reception while our room was sorted out, we went into our room. We had our own bathroom which was a bit of a luxury, and we felt like holidayers again, not backbackers.

As the day was fairly nice, we decided to head down to the beach, as you can't go to Rio and say you didn't go on Copacabana. It was actually disappointingly underwhelming, as we really had been spoiled at Ipanema. The sky suddenly turned grey which probably didn't help, but the sea there was full of rubbish, so swimming was kept to a minimum. With that said, we noticed the iconic Copacabana Palace hotel was just a short walk from where we were sitting, so decided to take a look at that instead, and then head back to the hotel to prepare to meet our group.

Back at the hotel, an ambigious note was left from Guila, our tour guide telling us to meet in reception at 7. It followed with our names, and the other 5 members of our tour. Tom couldn't believe that another member of our crew was also called Thomas!

We nervously, but excidedly went down at 7, and sat in the lobby. There were a few people sitting around us but we wern't sure if they were waiting for Guila too. Suddenly, a tiny, bohemian, frizzy haired chick turned up, and introduced herself as Guila (said like Julia). She is a half Columbian, half Italian, and a pretty cool dude. After that we met everyone in the group. It's a real mix of people from differnt countries and walks of life. There is Irish Susan (30) and Norweigan Melissa (22) who are the really friendly and easy to talk too. Then there is retired Sun, a Chinese/ American gentleman, who lives in Miami and enjoys trekking. And finally we have Christina (38) who is German, who talks a lot to other Thomas from Switzerland who is a similar age. Thomas is hilarous, and every so often his accent reminds us of the Swiss man in Frozen (again, another Frozen resemblance). We may ask him to say "Yoo-hoo! Big Summer blowout!!"

We sat down in the lobby whilst Guila told us what was in store for us over the next month or so, and we quickly got incredibly excitable. Everything sounds like it's going to be mega fun and unforgettable.

After our meeting, Guila said she'd take us to a good restauraunt a few blocks away, so we freshened up and headed out. On the walk there, we spoke to Thomas further, to discover that his life goal is to collect a Hard Rock Cafe T shirt from every cafe in the world! So far he has 72 T shirts, and needs a further 90 to complete his collection. He hears there is one in Equador, so that is what brings him to this side of the world.

We arrived at a posh looking place, and went inside to a table Guila had reserved earlier. She told us it was an all you could eat meat restauraunt, and we quickly realised how hungry we were after just eating beach snacks all day. The waiters were constantly coming round and offering us large chunks of meat, served on the traditional long skewers. We tried SO many different meats, from all kinds of animals. Tom's favourite was the pork belly, and Steph enjoyed the shoulder of beef. We talked amongst ourselves again to find out more about each other, and learned we all have lots in common. Christina for example loves to snorkel, so her and Tom can talk for hours about fish. Melissa has also just come from Thailand, so is good to talk to when it comes to our plans for Asia later on in our trip.

Feeling incredibly full, we came back to the hotel, to be ready for a bus to come and get us at 11am, which would take us to the Paradise Island of Illha Grande.

Adios Mango Tree. Adios Ipenema

Today is the day we leave The Mango Tree Hostel, and therefore the Ipenema side of town. Tonight, we move to a hotel on the Copacabana side of Rio for one night, where we will meet up with our group who will be joining us on our tour for the next 6 weeks. We're really excited!!

Overall, our time at The Mango Tree has been a perfect introduction into the world of backpackers, rather than holidayers. The breakfast served every morning has been really tasty, and had lots of choice such as freshly made juices and fruit, typical Brazilian cake (we're not sure what it's called but it's a traditional Brazilian breakfast choice and we call it Sugarloaf as that seems apt), and coconut yogurts, which Steph has fallen madly in love with, and is looking into importing when she's home. There is also the option for cheese and ham rolls, but we've had to cut down on cheese, as they put it in everything here, and we realised we were eating cheese at least twice a day, everyday.

sooooooo tasty!!!

 The staff have been really helpful, suggesting places to go and things to do, and there is always an English Speaking person at the front desk throughout the day. There is always a cleaner in sight, cleaning rooms and the communal bathrooms, which has made the shared bathroom experience totally fine, and eased us in to what may be not so pleasant in the future.

Panoramic of the communal lounge area. Our room was upstairs, but down the left corridor are more rooms and bathrooms.

 As for Ipenema, we have grown quite fond of it here, especially the peaceful, beautiful beach. The vibe on this beach is a bit more family orientated, with kids playing football at the top in the evenings. The waves are really big here too, so perfect for surfers.

Last night, we decided to go for a late afternoon stroll on the beach, and it was a lovely time of day to go. It was still warm but the sun was setting, and we sat on the sand and watched some surfers go on the particularly large waves that evening.

 It was one of the nicest moments we have had here, and we're going to miss seeing the iconic twin peaks at the end of the beach.

We also got talking to another student, and remembered to take a picture this time! This guy is studying civil engineering at the uni, and again, spoke great English. He made a better effort with his body paint too. Smart Casual

Tomorrow we move onto the remote island (we hope we can still post from there!) of Illha Grande, which is meant to be paradise, with luxury beaches and great snorkeling opportunities. Let's hope the lovely weather stays for us!)

Sugarloaf Mountain: Great Views and New Shoes

Once again, the Rio weather had us on our toes on Wednesday, and we were starting to realise that with only a few days left in Rio, waiting for a day clear enough to visit Sugarloaf Mountain wasn't really an option, if we wanted to see it before we move on to our next location on Saturday. 

With forecasts of storms for our last few days in Rio, we decided to bite the bullet, and just go. Even if the views wern't great, it would have been worse to say we hadn't done it at all.

As language barriers with taxi drivers are evidently clear, and our new found confidence at navigating through Rio, we decided to walk the hour and a half journey from Ipenema (not everything is as close as it looks). Walking also enabled us to stroll along the infamous Copacabana beach which we hadn't yet done.

A rare blue sky from our time in Rio

At the Copa...Copacabana 

Walking along the seafront, we quickly realised that Copacabana has a younger vibe, and therefore people tried to interact with us more. We were offered Marajuana a couple of times, and heckled a bit more than Ipanema, but nothing too intimidating. We find if you keep walking and polietly decline, they don't further bother you.

We were also approached by two young gentlemen painted head to toe in different colours. We have seen a few people, both genders painted like this for the last few days now, and thought it was something to do with the football. They all seem to be holding empty cups too and asking for money, so we were interested at what they were doing.

As the two young guys approached us, one of them started to explain in perfect English, that the students of the local University paint themselves and take to the streets to ask for money for school supplies. As he was so polite, we gave him some change, and told him that we were happy to fund him at a school that was teaching such perfect English to their students. We wished we got a picture of them but we always forget!

As we furthered our stroll down the Copacabana, Steph remembered Mo telling us that the official Havaianas shop was nearby, and she was keen to get a pair. As a Brazilian brand flip flop, it would have been silly not to buy such a cool yet practical souvenir straight from the source.

After a little browse and purchase of her Flip Flops, Tom got immediate envy and snatched up a pair too. At home, Havainanas cost around £30.00 in Office, yet here we got them for a mere £12.00. Bargain!

Leaving the shop, we decided to get a taxi to Sugarloaf, as the last boarding up to the top is at 5:00pm and it was also starting to rain. Not good news for the crystal clear views we wanted at the top!

A plus side of the bad weather once again, was no queues, so we zoomed to the front of the queue at the ticket office, and paid $R62.00 each (£15.00). From there, we got into the first cable car, that took us to the smaller peak just below Sugarloaf itself. At the top, were a few unexpected shopping facilities and bars. We thought it would just be another hop onto the other cable car. With nice views here, we decided to stay for a beer, and to have a look around. We still had a couple of hours or so before the sun set. 

There were huge black vultures (Cinereous Vultures) flying at the height of this rock, with massive wing spans. As well those, aeroplanes flew right at our eye level, as they came into land at the Rio de Janerio airport we flew into.

You can pay to go on a helicopter ride from here, to get a view from above

This platform also offered great views of Sugarloaf itself, so of course, we took another opportunity for some creative posing.

We got onto the next cable car at about 5:30 so the sunset was nearing us. It sets at about 5:30-6 in Rio. At the top, the views went on for miles. There were still clouds in the sky but it almost made the sunset more dramatic, as it occasionally created big beams of light over certain parts of Rio, and the pink/purple colours shining through them made it look even better. We forgave the weather for the hazy views at Christ the Redeemer, because here, the view point, in our opinion, was actually breathtakingly better.

From here, I think it is safe to say it finally hit us we were in Rio, and Steph even got a bit emotional because she realised we were finally on our trip around the world! (She didn't actually cry, she's not that soppy).

Each minute that went by, the sun would set more, and the views were ever changing.

There isn't much to say apart from that the pictures do it no justice. It's going to get a little picture heavy now and we promise none of these have been photoshopped or retouched!

Christ The Redeemer

panoramic

Hazy red mountains in the distance

As if we hadn't been blessed enough with the amazing weather, the storm coming in from behind us created the largest, and most vivid rainbow we've ever seen. Suddenly everyone ran to the opposite side of the viewing platform for the amazing view of the rainbow.

Before leaving, we quickly made our mark on the large advertisement, that invites tourists to sign, and took in the last few moments of the sun going down behind the mountains. It was also nice to see Rio by dark, with all the houses lit up, and also Christ the Redeemer.

Top left is Corcivado

We had no real expectations of how good Sugarloaf would be. We thought Corcivado would provide the same, if not better views, but our day proved us wrong. We would actually go as far to say we preferred Sugarloaf, and seeing it at sunset is something everyone should add to their bucket lists. If you get the chance to go, maybe don't just hold out for a crystal clear day, because we got a great view, and you may get the added bonus of a Rainbow. Sugarloaf is a must do, and we're glad we gave it a whole day to itself. It really is spectacular and something that should be appreciated.

Well done Rio, you did it again.