At the Copa, Copacabana...

Anyway, Rio is a naturally beautiful city with its mountains and beaches, but there´s been some fairly unsympathetic urban planning over the past 100 years or so, so the urban sprawl does detract a bit from the natural beauty in a way that it doesn´t in Cape Town, a similarly-sited city. Admittedly Rio´s population is much bigger than Cape Town´s. And Copacabana, where we´re staying, may have the reputation but as with Bondi in Australia, that doesn´t necessarily make it the best area. It´s choked with traffic, the beach is really crowded and it has a bit of a seedy feel to it. Ipanema, the next beach along is a much nicer area.

But anyway, Copacabana is where it all goes down on New Year´s Eve, so that´s where we headed, along with a couple of Caroline´s friends who are also out here on holiday. And it was a great night. There were about a million people down there, and all along the beach front there were street vendors selling all types of food and drink, including copious quantites of caipirinha, a drink that´s more likely to cause you to collapse through sugar OD rather than alcohol! And there was some great Latino live music going on too. The fireworks display at midnight was incredible, made even more spectacular by the presence of 7 ocean liners lined up off the coast, all lit up themselves.

In spite of the jet lag, we pushed through until 3am, then called it a night. Needless to say the following day was activity-free, though in the few days I´ve been here I´ve managed to get up the Sugar Loaf, and Corcovado which is home to the statue of Christ, and more importantly, affords a great view over the city. But perhaps the greatest thing about Rio is the juice bars which are all over Copacabana and Ipanema. They sell all manner of freshly made juices and smoothies for not much more than a pound each. I´ve come to the conclusion that a freshly squeezed mango juice with ice on a muggy afternoon in the tropics is an even better rehydrator than a cold beer, or dare I say it, a cup of English Breakfast tea!

Next stop is Paraty, a coastal resort about 250km south of Rio. Although now that it´s Brazilian holiday time, it might resemble the Costa del Sol in mid-August. Just without the fried egg and chips, or copies of the Mirror.

written by  phileasdogg on January 3, 2009 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
from the travel blog: Planes, Trains & Taxiwallahs
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