What a city! When we passed through the first time we stayed in a hostel in Copacabana. Not the safest of areas, and up an incredibly steep cobbled hill
that few taxi drivers would attempt. In fact when we arrived, our driver, who had been prepaid at the airport, refused. So I refused to get out of the taxi until he agreed to carry both packs, 15kg each, to the top. When we finally reached Casa Carioka our kooky Australian host, Alegra, scared us into not taking watches, cameras, anything outside with us.
But this time we stayed in Ipanema, almost a whole different city, clean, safe, busy. Gorgeous beach covered in buff, bronzed, beautiful boys in speedos, and that was just the straight ones. Organised for a great Brasilian guy, Orlando, to drive us around in a combi van listening to samba music all afternoon. Met Christ the Redeemer, as impressive as you imagine. Drove through the elegant but decrepit suburbs of Santa Teresa and Lapa, climbed the crazily tiled Lapa Stairs. Caught the cable car up Sugarloaf, so high we were in the clouds, gave us the heebie geebies just thinking how precariously we were perched with clouds whizzing by our heads. And to top off the day we sat on Ipanema beach and watched the sunset.
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| The Lapa Stairs |
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| Sugarloaf |
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