26&27.07 - Day 37&38 - Rio de Janeiro, BRA




Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Monday 26th July 2010


Surprisingly good nights sleep in the middle tier of the triple bunk bed – but not enough from the hostel to make us want to stay longer than intended – besides, Copacabana calls. 

Lugging the Rollerpigs on the Metro we presently check in at the top rated Cabana Copa hostel with super friendly and helpful (in stark contrast to some other receptionists ) Kevin from San Francisco. 

Dumping our bags, grabbing the football we rush straight down to Copacabana beach; 4.5km long, a cross between Australian fine sand and fronted by early 20th century short high rises like the South of France.



Crossing over to Ipanema beach we rest in the 31 degree heat for a fresh coconut, especially enjoying the succulent flesh when empty of refreshing juice. The morning only soured by Krish shredding his toe, thereby preventing him from having his footballing skills “spotted” on the beach.


Following a clean up shower we hunt down a “Livre” (all you can eat) where we gorge on four plates of piled up food. 

Back at the hostel we find two pairs of previous companions and enjoy several Skols with Irish Lee and Marmaloid (we don’t understand her name through the accent) and the two English girls Effy and Mia from Foz du Iguaçu.



Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tuesday 27th July 2010

Another day, another walk along Copacabana, just because we can. Cloudy day so rather than go up high to one of Sugar Loaf Mountain or Christ the Redeemer we hire bikes (not tandem) and cycle round the lagoon (8km-ish) behind Ipanema.

From there plans to catch the tram up to Santa Tereasa are scuppered, firstly by not being able to locate the tram station at Corica and secondly, when we do find it, there being a massive queue. 

Instead we Metro back to Ipanema and settle on a kebab, for want of anything better before sourcing some more chocolate fudge balls first found in Paraty and a couple of beers to have back in the hostel.