We were staying in Copacabana, which is the Slough of Rio. Some nice places, but quite a lot of dodgy characters and somewhat rough around the edges, and the middle. The beach was huge and stretched for miles in either direction. We found a nice spot to sit and then got up and left because we realised that it was strewn with rubbish and smelt of something rather unsavoury. So we headed to the most famous beach of all, Ipanema, to say "ah" as the girl walked by, and to try and work on our tans so we come back looking like we've just spent a year in exotic climates.
The famous Ipanema beach
Rio is famous for beautiful babes in g-string bikinis and it's true, they are very popular, although no-one actually got topless. Kieran argued that as Christ was looking down upon the city, they were being modest, although El thinks that g-strings really don't support that argument. Or much else for that matter. However, as there were just as many sexy fit guys in Rio-style speedos she didn't spend much time caring about girls in bikinis. (And it's true that speedos can be sexy, but only if you're a 6 ft, brazilian black dude, with a big packet. Ahem.)
In any case, Monday bought rain. Real, English-style pissy, wet rain. Ah well, we got one afternoon of sun lounging in. We headed for the tourist office, which we couldn't find; some museum, which was closed; the fine art gallery, also closed. Hang on...are all museums closed on a Monday or something? (Yes.) Well after walking around in the rain for half the day, getting soaked, we just went back home and watched TV. Some days it's just not worth bothering. Later that day, though, as we looked out of our 10th floor window, Jesus appeared to us in the sky and we knew it was all going to be all right.
Tuesday bought cloud but no rain and we thought we'd head for the modern art gallery as they are usually not too big! There were an incredible amount of tiny schoolkids (5 year olds?) on an outing (I'm sorry but taking 5 year olds on a school trip to a modern art gallery?????) and the odd mid-week viewer. It was mainly crap actually, although there were some very interesting pieces by Yoko Ono (of John Lennon's wife fame) who El has always though was a rather good artist, including an interactive wish tree where you write a wish on a piece of paper and tie it to the tree (good old Yoko - keep it simple), which we duly did. Kieran wished for Santa to give him a nice xmas present, and El wished for better weather the next day - sod world peace!
While we were leaping around inside another interactive exhibit of polytsyrene balls for adults, there was a bit of a commotion. A tiny lady in shades and a trilby was being ushered around by a very tall man, and a crowd of paparazzi. We asked an invigilator what was going on. "It's Yoko" he said. Eh? "Yoko Ono". Talk about being in the right place at the right time. There she was, the minute artist herself writing a wish for her own wish tree, being photographed and filmed by all manner of newsfolk (including ourselves, of course). Kieran was nonplussed, but El was really quite in awe. What an excitement!!!
Well, there's not much that can top that so we left going up the cable car until the next day. Good job too as our good karma (and perhaps El's wish) gave us another stunning day. We took the cable car up the sugar loaf mountain and faithfully re-enacted Jaws biting the cable car cable from Moonraker, albeit without the metal teeth, and took our quota of fantastic pictures.
Looking down onto Copacobana Beach, with Christ top right
Rio is a vast city very much in sections which are exaggerated by being divided by physical divisions, such as beaches, mountains, rivers, lagoons. We only ever saw the tiny centre but the views from Sugar Loaf are truly stunning. To be honest we were a bit surprised how small Christ the Redeemer actually was, but I'm sure if you were seeing it from his mountain he'd be a much bigger man (we thought re-enacting James Bond was way more important than Christ, frankly).
For those James Bond fans among us
And now, on our last day but one in South America, sick to the back teeth of art, culture, museums, everything, we headed back to the beach. Time to sit back, drink a caipirinha (my God they are strong), and reflect on a year of travel....
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