Daily Archives: September 12, 2023

In the afternoon of our first day, we’d arranged to do an additional City Tour. This seemed a great idea by way of introducing us to the city. So Rachel and Raphael took us all around various parts of the city showing us some of the sites.

It turned out to be a great tour and included lots of the places I’d read about when researching our trip. How we’d ever have got to see all this on our own I don’t know. But Jane and I both agreed this was a brilliant decision,

Again the city surprised me…there are some really beautiful parts like Flamenco Park..reclaimed from the sea and now an exclusive district with green parks, an exclusive yacht harbour and fabulous views to SugarLoaf Mountain. Then there are some areas which had definitely seen better days…the so called ‘Cultural Corridor’ for example. An old commercial district where now all the shops have closed, the buildings are preserved because of their historical nature but now they’re left standing empty. Hm. But here also some buildings had been repurposed…the huge old Branco da Brazil is now a full on cultural centre. V impressive.

There were so many highlights on this trip and Rachel was an excellent guide judging well what we’d be most interested in (the huge pieces of record-breaking graffiti representing the 5 continents and produced by ‘ Kobra’ for the 2016 Olympics. ) and where our ears had stopped listening…

Amongst the highlights were the Sao Bento Monastery…home to the most ridiculous amount of baroque curly gold leaf and wood carving , the modern cathedral with its 4 stunning stained glass ‘windows’. The Sambadrome where the 12 best Samba schools get to parade at Carnival, the Cafe Colombo where we bought lunch, the Real Gabinete library and finally the crazy Selaron steps where in the 1990’s this dude decided to decorate the streets with ceramic tiles from all over the world. Now a big hit in Instagram!

By the end of the day we were loving this City and v v tired! Tomorrow we’re off to explore SugarLoaf Mountain. Can’t wait!

That sounds bad doesn’t it? But that’s not what I mean. I think some of you lovely people will know that I’ve been a little nervous about our time in Rio. Especially the days when we were due to be on our own. It’s a big old city and there is a huge amount of poverty. There are plenty of warnings for tourists about how to stay safe. Lots of them say it’s good if you can blend in as a local. This seemed highly unachievable in my case so I’ve been nervous. Cameras and phones are particularly attractive to the locals and there was no way we were coming all this way and not taking photos.

Anyway……the good news is that after a fantastic first day here (yes the 11 hour flight went without hitch) I can report that I’ve felt perfectly comfortable all day!

We were met at the airport last night by our guide for the week Rachel and our driver Raphael. They were great and suggested that, on top of the trips we already had planned, that we start with a Rio city tour. This seemed a great idea as the thought of trying to do this by ourselves was too daunting. So this afternoon that’s exactly what we’ve done!

However, let’s rewind a bit…….our hotel is The Miramar by Windsor and it’s right on Copacabana Beach. The views from our 12th floor room are awesome and we were up early enough to catch the sunrise and then after a fabulous breakfast , we went up to the 16th floor to check out the rooftop pool and bar. Wow…the views from there are something else! Even the favela , rising just behind the hotel and clinging to the granite mountainside, looks stunning.

We were awake early due to the 4 hours time difference so after this we decided to brave it and blend in with the locals on Copacabana Beach. The colour and activity down there is a sensory overload from the blues of the sea to the reds and oranges of the deckchairs and umbrellas. The sand is a kind of pinky peach colour. The activity changes throughout the day with a few people doing yoga and light exercise as well as lots of paddleboarders early on. But later it gets busier with joggers, dog walkers, cyclists, sun worshippers, surfers, volleyballers and all sorts of beach vendors…my favourites being the man with a hand held BBQ selling corn on the cob, the lady offering hair braids and the man with a plate of fresh (maybe…) oysters and Tabasco sauce!!

So what I hadn’t expected was to feel quite so safe and at ease. Everyone was friendly, smiley and enjoying beach life. At the end of our little walk we returned to find a couple of our hotels deck chairs and sat and admired the waves. Wow what an introduction.