After 26 hours of travel including four flights, five airplane meals and about five hours of sleep, we arrived in Rio De Janeiro. We finally made it to our accommodation at 8.30pm. We're staying in a colonial style villa in the bohemian neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. Santa Teresa is on a hillside and is filled with cobblestones streets and old mansions and villas. Not your usual tourist stay, the area feels quite safe and has some fantastic bars and restaurants. Everyone eats dinner late so at about 9pm were eating dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant.
Our first day was spent wandering these streets to visit the Parque Das Ruins, remnants of an old mansion built in the 1800s and a great lookout of greater Rio. The grounds also held an art gallery which featured a collection of art including Rousseau and Picasso. From here we walked to the Escadaria Selarón, the famous tiled steps in Lapa which you may have seen in this Snoop Dogg video.
Not too many photos just yet as it's not safe to take the SLR cameras out. For now our phones will have to do. We also walked through some great organic markets which featured football sized avocados we headed back for some drinks and an early dinner. Seemingly the only thing cheap in Rio is its museums and alcohol. We visited a 95 year old bar where everyone stands on the street outside drinking and Mary had a Caipirinha (tastes like a margarita) which cost $5 and burned all the way down. After a late night we went to bed to get up to visit Christo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) the next day.
Day 1 Highlights:
Eating anchovy pizza
Drinking amazing wine from ChileSleeping in a bed
Day 2 Highlights:
Fresh fruit at breakfast
Wandering the cobblestone streets of Santa Teresa while Brazillian music plays from nearby residences
