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We take a six hour bus journey through to Rio. We have seats at the very back of the bus (the last two together). We feel every bump in the road as we are sitting above the back wheels so reading, typing the blog or sleeping is all a challenge. As we come into Rio we enter in the industrial zone, that is a real eye-sore. The houses dotted around are in total disrepair and don't look fit to live in, although you can see that people are. Closer to the centre it doesn't get much better until you get to the real heart of the city. Our hotel is in the business district and is another IBIS, but we had little choice. The room is basic and bland, but at least this time it's spacious. Accommodation in Rio is expensive and more so because of the World Cup. It's £120 per night, which is way above our usual expenditure on hotel rooms during this trip.
As it's the weekend this area is pretty dead and we catch a taxi to Copacabana Beach to watch the Brazil game. It's here on the beach where the Fan Fest area is set up. It's a gorgeous sunny day and people are everywhere. There are drag queen's, Brazilian bag-pipers and lots of flesh on show. As usual the noise is deafening and there is so much colour around and gives us a real awakening of the senses. We walk onto the beach to join the queue to get in to the Fan Fest area, but it is already full inside. The rear area of the Fan Fest is a long way from the screen and we wonder how much of the game we would see as from this far back it looks miniscule. We retrace our steps to find a bar and sit in a small local bar with a mixture of nationalities watching the game. The Singaporean-British and Asian-American sitting opposite us live in Shanghai and about to go and live in Dubai, so we share a few stories.
Brazil won against Chile on penalties and after the celebrations there was a mass exodus of people from the bars and also from the beach. We were lucky to catch a taxi to take us to Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). Once there it was a 15 minute ride on a funicular train that slowly chugged up to the top. After a short walk up lots of steps we reached the statue and we could see two men working on one of the Jesus's hands. This helped put into perspective just how huge this statue is. As we expected, it was full of tourists all jostling for the space to get the ultimate shot. The view over the city gave us an overview of the different areas, the football stadium, favelas and and the mountains jutting out of the sea. We had planned to come here in the morning but it was foggy. As the sun set and the sky took on red, orange and violet hues the view took on a different character and we were glad we were here to experience it at this time of day. The statue was lit with the colours of the Brazilian flag and that also looked impressive against the darkening sky.
We may have mentioned before that it is noisy here and the bar/restaurant we went to in the evening was full of locals screeching and shouting. We finished our day tasting a few local dishes and some 'knock your head off' strong Caipirinha's (the local tipple).
The following day we go to Ipanema to watch another football game in a bar. This time it's Mexico vs Holland, with Holland sneaking a last goal in extra time. There is a big artisan market in the main square that we browse around and luckily find some t-shirts for Steve. It is cheaper to buy new clothes than get the laundry done in Brazil.
We then walk down to the beach to ogle at the beautiful Brazilian bodies that we imagine the beach is going to be full of. However, the ogle-fest was not to be. We struggled to find a single decent body and at best we saw a girl who looked like Barbapappa (a large animated character from the '70's) wearing dental floss for a bikini and was not a pretty sight. We sat for a while until the constant stream of people selling things drove us mad and we moved on.
We walked up to the lake and passed Michael Jackson on roller blades. Steve was tempted to give him a run for his money in the moonwalk stakes, as he thought doing it on roller blades is cheating. We were also asked to do another TV interview, but as Steve declined and suggested Suzanne do it, the guy just huffed and moved on. Charming!
The lake and park area are full of families and we walk towards the sounds of a live band. Unfortunately, once we get there it stops as the next football game appears on the big screen.
We have only booked three nights here as it is so expensive, but we are already wishing we were able to stay longer. Rio is a loud, vibrant city with some good beaches where we could have relaxed our travel fatigued bodies for a week or so, and partied long into the night, however, it's not to be.
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