After saying goodbye to our parents at Heathrow and shedding some tears we started our 12 hour plane journey to Rio. Rachel thought it went quickly as she slept for most of the flight, but for J the journey dragged. We arrived in Rio, there was some confusion about our transfer from the airport but mainly due to the language barrier it was sorted fairly quickly. In the taxi we saw Christ Redeemer lit up on the mountain and arrived at our hostel, Choice Hostel, it was nice and clean and the staff were friendly although no one could speak English so we couldn't really talk to anyone.

On Sunday because of our jetlag we were wide awake at 6.10am and after an early breakfast at the hostel we went for a walk along Copacabana beach. It was surprising how many people were running along the beach at 8am! We then walked round to Ipenema beach and sunbathed as the sun came out. As we were close we decided to walk around Logoa Rodrigo de Freitas (a large salt water lake in the middle of the city) There was a large rowing club on the lake and several play grounds for children which was filled with families enjoying the sun. Like Copacabana this was also a popular spot for jogging. Everybody would treat themselves to a coconut for a drink at some point. There were several viewing points along the lake, it seems everywhere in Rio there is a pretty view.

After walking around the lake which was a lot bigger than we thought we started to walk back to Copacabana. We looked in a couple of supermarkets for inspiration on what to eat for dinner and settled on salami rolls and crisps! LIVING THE DREAM! We were settling in to the backpacking budget well! We then got back to the hostel and nursed our blisters from our long walk and tried not to fall asleep so we wouldn't wake so early in the morning. It didn't work.

We moved hostels on Tuesday to Che Lagarto as they have organised tours. We chose to do the city tour, which took us to the main city sites. Our first stop was Christ Redeemer. Our mini bus drove us 710m to the top on a bumpy road through the Tijuca Forest, which surrounds Christ Redeemer. It is the largest urban forest in the world. There were lots of mansions on the route up to Christ Redeemer and also favelas, without mentioning the rather steep drops either side of the road!! When we reached Christ Redeemer, it was a lot bigger than we both imagined. It was cloudy but we managed to still have an impressive view from the top, on one side at least. After lots of photos we then went on to the Santa Teresa district which is the 'arty' district of the city, with lots of colonial looking buildings painted different colours. There is a tram that runs through the district, this was the main tourist attraction but there was an accident last month so it has been closed. We then briefly stopped at the stadium where the carnival is held, before moving on to Lapa to visit the Escadaria Selarón (the lapa steps). These were created by the artist Jorge Selaron who started decorating the steps outside his home without the government's permission. They have since become a big tourist attraction with over 2000 tiles from lots of different countries decorating 200 steps. People may recognise them from the Snoop Dog and Pharrell music video of 'Beautiful'. Our final destination was Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch the sunset. Unfortunately we didn't see the sunset because of the clouds, but the view from the top was still amazing! So amazing that there was a jewellery shop at the top of the mountain just in case a man thought of a spare of the moment proposal! After our long day we went back to the hostel and went out for some food, our intention was to find a nice restaurant but after walking for a while we settled on Bob's Burgers (Brazilian McDonalds). We are really experiencing local cuisine at its best!