Undies, undies, togs

Our first impressions of Rio were somewhat clouded. We arrived in Rio on the only grey sky day of our trip so far. From the airport you pass through favellas which are the slums of Rio. We learnt later that apparently there are 200 favellas in Rio and the biggest has 400,000 inhabitants. They pretty much govern themselves as they are run by drug lords and it is too dangerous for the police to go in there on a day to day basis.

The next day we woke to blue skies and got to see Rio at

its best. We stayed 2 days in Copacabana where the beaches are overrun with speedo wearing Brazilian males

and scantily clad females. Speedos are considered to be

appropriate attire for walking through town as long as they

are combined with running shoes. They are also apparently the ideal workout clothes for beachside exercise.

We did a tour of Rio, which was amazing we could see why people say it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Rio is surrounded by steep green sugar loaf hills which drop down to beautiful white sand, blue water beaches. Our best views of Rio were from Sugar loaf and Christ the Redeemer.

From Copacabana we moved a few beaches down to the quieter spot of Leblon. We stayed in this place called the White house which was amazing. It overlooked a beautiful little beach but also had a favella behind it. It seemed crazy to us that the favellas occupy some of Rio’s prime real estate and are separated from the wealthy suburbs by nothing but a road.

We spent a few relaxing at the beach in Leblon, but met some really cool people at our hostel. The last night we were there we had a bbq with the people from the hostel and their friends. Don’t think we ever had seen so much meat, which was really tasty and we got to meet some great people. There were a group of people from the Cape Verde island who were the most amazing musicians and singers.

Had a night out in Lappa after drinking a few cappriahanas in Leblon. Lappa was madness, the streets were alive with samba and drums. There were more people partying on the streets, than were in the bars.

We had a great time in Rio, it is definitely a place you want to spend some time in. The place is beautiful and the variety of people and the energy it has is addictive. We could see why so many travellers get ‘stuck’ in Rio.