Having heard many horror stories about people being mugged in Rio, we were paranoid about carrying around our expensive cameras which unfortunately, means that we don’t have as many photos as we would have liked.
Food
On our first night in Rio we were taken to a Rodizio, a very popular style of restaurant in Brazil. This is where you pay a set price and you get a salad buffet while the waiters walk around with skewers of various grilled meats which they carve onto your plate. They keep coming around until you can’t eat any more. We had been to one in Spain and another in London and as you can imagine, this is Ross’ favourite type of restaurant so he was very excited to go to this one. The restaurant didn’t disappoint. The salad bar was delicious and the meat cooked to perfection.
Another type of restaurant popular in Brazil is a buffet where you pay for your food by weight. These restaurants varied in quality but we did go to a really nice one serving grilled meats, salads, fish and even sushi.
Our guide also introduced us to Açaí. A berry which is mixed with ice to make a refreshing drink. It is usually mixed with another fruit like banana or strawberry and granola. We had this for lunch every day. They also have something called guarana which is a natural energy source. It is one of the ingredients in Red Bull but in Brazil you have it alone with no chemical additives. This is very popular in Brazil and you can find varieties of it everywhere. It tastes way better than Red Bull.
The Beaches
While in Rio we stayed in Ipanema which is supposedly safer than other places in Rio and it has a really nice beach. Our hotel was only two blocks away which was very convenient. It was so hot while we were there, the temperatures were over 30 degrees every day and very humid so going to the beach was a nice way to cool down. There were people on the beach every day but it wasn’t too crowded. A lot of them seemed to be locals. The water was nice but in some areas, there was lots of rubbish either floating around or washed up on the beach which was a shame.
Football Match
Football is obviously the most popular sport in Brazil so we couldn’t leave without going to a match. We got tickets for what we were told was the equivalent of the Championship League in England where the top teams from South America play each other. The game was between Flamengo (a local team from Rio) and Universidad Catholica de Chile (a Chilean team). The tour group supported the local team but our guide, being from Chile, supported the Chileans. We kept this pretty quiet as we were sitting in the home team seats. This was one of the first games of the season and the stadium was mostly empty apart from the section that we sat in. We arrived about half an hour early for the game and shortly after we found our seats, the crowd stood up and started singing songs to the beat of a few drummers in the crowd. Despite it being 30 degrees and humid with no wind, they jumped up and down, clapping and waving their arms around in unison while cheering for their team. The enthusiasm was amazing! The team hadn’t even come out yet.
As the game grew nearer, the seats around us filled up and people started waving around massive red and black flags (the team colours). When the players finally came out onto the pitch, the crowd let off red fireworks creating lots of smoke and all you could see were people cheering in the red haze. They actually had fireworks that were shooting out like the ones you normally put in the ground. We were glad not to be too close to those sections with the fireworks.
The cheering and drumming continued for the entire game. Not a single person sat down until half time. The Flamengo team scored near the beginning of the match and the cheers were so loud that it hurt my ears. There weren’t even that many people at the game but it sounded louder than I’ve heard at a sold out football match in England. The Flamengo team ended up winning 2 to 0. The actual game was a bit sloppy. A lot of mistakes were made and there were very few shots on net. Ross and I were surprised to hear that these were actually top teams but we guessed that all of the really good players get drafted by the European teams. The crowd was definitely more interesting than the game itself. They put English football fans to shame.
The Sites
The quickest and easiest way to see the sights in Rio is to join a tour so this is what we did. Our first stop was the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro located at the centre of the city. The building is shaped like a cone and doesn’t look like a cathedral at all from the outside but inside there are beautiful floor to ceiling stained glass windows. The crucifix hanging from the ceiling almost looks like it’s floating.
From the cathedral, we drove to the famous Escadaria Selarón. These are some steps that were covered in tiles by a local artist in the 90’s because he didn’t like the look of them. He eventually covered all of the steps in colourful tiles, some representing various countries. The steps have since become a tourist attraction.
The next stop was the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer. The statue is on a hill overlooking the city and it’s the most popular tourist attraction in Rio so it was very busy. We struggled to get a photo with no one in it.
The final stop was the Sugarloaf, a mountain named after the shape of traditional refined loaf sugar. Two cable cars take you to the top and it is the only place where you can safely watch the sunset over Rio which was spectacular.
Rio was our final stop on our 9-month trip around the world. It was a great ending to a trip of a lifetime that neither of us will ever forget. We are already planning our next adventure… Stay tuned!
