Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America

I had a good day today, and got to see a little more of the city. I had a good night’s sleep, and thank god for the A/C because it gets really hot here, even at night. When I got up at about 9am, Janine was already gone, so I had the washing machine all to myself. This is the first time in ages I’ve been able to do laundry for free, which is fantastic! I spent most of the morning doing a couple of loads of laundry, and then headed out to get some lunch.

I went to the metro station Catagalo for about 3pm, and that’s where the free walking tour for today started. Our tour guide Gina took us around Copacabana beach, through parts of Ipanema and the beach there, and then to Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. It was a pretty interesting tour, and much better than the one in Sao Paulo. I couldn’t believe how big Copacabana Beach was, and I couldn’t believe how beautiful Ipanema Beach was. They are incredibly nice beaches to have right in the middle of a city. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The tour lasted about three hours and we finished at the lake in the center of the city, which is beautiful! It was from here that I got the first view of Christ the Redeemer, and you can tell just how massive it is from far away. I’m hopefully going to check that out in person tomorrow, if the weather agrees.

I met a nice English girl named Becky during the tour, and she is just starting her six month South American journey today, which is pretty exciting. I’m hoping that we can both check out Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer tomorrow, but it will depend on if there are clouds or not. Because both monuments are pretty high, if there are any clouds, you won’t be able to see anything from the top. But the forecast is calling for a couple of clear days, so hopefully they are right. It’ll be nice to have someone to check out the sights with too. It’s not always easy figuring out how to get to places like this, so between the two of us we should be able to figure it out.

I came back to the apartment after the tour to drop off my camera and have a shower. It’s so nice to have my own shower so I can have one whenever I want after walking around a hot and humid city all day. I went out for dinner at a place nearby called Gambino’s, and had a huge calabresa pizza, which is with sausage and onions. Even though I got the smaller of the two sizes, it was still so big that I could only eat half, so I have the other half of that to eat for dinner tomorrow. I did stop on the way home to get an acai and granola cup though. It’s a really delicious fruit dessert that’s a bit like a soft sorbet, and it’s supposed to be quite healthy. Definitely healthier than an ice cream anyway!

It was a good day in the city, and I’m really glad I got to see the two beaches and more of the city. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to cross a couple of other attractions off my list too if I can make it up to Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer. Fingers crossed there aren’t any clouds when I wake up tomorrow.