A year in Brussels here.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Rio - Day 8 - Revestimento

Cidade Maravilhosa. Last day, travel day, sad day. We left Buzios by bus in the morning to meet up with some local Brazilians back in Rio for a (huge) late lunch. Our plan at this point was to head back to Maracana stadium for a futebal match between 2 local teams. The plan fell through when we discovered one of our travel mates had mistaken their flight departure time, making the outing a bit trouble than it was worth. So it was a lazy late lunch, then off to the airport.

The last thing we wanted at the end of this week, besides going home, was 10 hours on an overnight flight. But there we were, in the plane, and I scored an entire row to myself, while the rest of the flight was full. Score!


I will post pictures I like best soon. Now I nap.

Rio - Day 7

Last full day in Brazil. So much to do! Naturally we will do almost nothing - the weather is great, the beach is there, and so are the caipirinhas. Also, a week of late nights, partying, walking, traveling, less than desirable beds, too much food and sun one one member of our party has come down with the flu.

As for me, surfing has been canceled. I don't want to just do it a couple hours on the last day.... I want lessons, then keep on practicing. I guess I have to go to a surfing beach again some time soon.

A quick stroll out for a late night pizza, and that's about it for today.

Rio - day 6


Today we went to get some morning surfing lessons, which were canceled due to weak waves. This gave us time to rest a bit more before heading to the beaches and islands boat trip based out of downtown Buzios.





The boat trip took us to three beaches and 1 island, snorkeling was wet and caipirinhas were bottomless.

Doesn't this thing look like it has a man's face?

The focal point of this town is Brigitte Bardot. The boat captain was sure to point out the house she lived in, the building she filmed a movie in, the beach she appeared topless on, where her statue was located,...

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Rio - Day 5

Our first day in Buzios, originally settled by European pirates and slave traders. Great place. The beach we were staying at had a geological site - it relates to how Buzios is connected to the African continent - rock formations on both continents are the same, and exposed as cliffs high above the water's surface.

On this day we stuck to the beach, visited the old town in the evening, and coordinated the next day.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Rio - Day 4

Today was another late morning, it included breakfast, packing, and Internet time.


Then it was off to Maracana Stadium, host of the 1950 and 2014 World Cup finals. (photo taken in warm up room under stadium)

We had to return to Santa Teresa, and taking a friend that did not get the chance to go earlier was the perfect excuse. Here we had a chance to fully experience feijoada and caipirinha.

And it was time to leave Rio for Búzios, 2 hours north of Rio. (Travel site) In Buzios we have the opportunity to stay at the apartment of a friend of a friend,, and it is an awesome place just off the beach. Brigitte Bardot is their hero here, more on that later.

I will post our own pictures when we return home.

Rio - Day 3

Day 3 was the day we made our way up to the Christ. We arrived early to avoid the line ups, this plan worked. The trip up Corcovado mtn. is about a 30 min. train ride up the path built by a Portugese king for his pleasure, before his son developed it for public enjoyment. The train weaved its way through the tropical forest up the hill with great views of the city below. Once at the top the giant and impressive statue was well worth the trip to Brazil. At nearly 40 m tall, it is made completely of stone, no metal or wood supports to hold it together. The head was done by one artist, the hande by another. The design by a French engineer and the rest of the body and construction by Brazilian workers. It was completed in 1931.

The view was great.

We tried to make our way back to the hotel by catching the same bus we took to get to Corcovado, by it did not go back to the hotel, so we were lost. But it was a great tour of the city, we got to see the Botanical gardens, the Hippodrome, a mall, and more of the general hustle and bustle of Rio.

We easily found our way back to the hotel were we found internet (and made my first 2 trip posts, wrote home, and ignored some work email).

Then off to Copacabana beach again were we milled about until finally getting to the party streets in search of good Samba. We found what we were looking for, some learned to dance while others were grumpy and refused to learn to dance.....

Monday, November 19, 2007

Rio - Day 2


The two previous days were very hard on my so we slept until 5 minutes before the hotels breakfast was over. It was time to visit the Christ... But the line up was long so we went..... to Santa Teresa, by bonde. This was a very old rail line that started in the old city center (Centro) and went along the old aquaduct to an artist suburb in the hills.


We will probably return to this place.

Later that night we sat on the beach at Ipanema with alcohol, food and coconuts and relaxed.

Rio - Day 1

Arrived early after a long and slightly bumpy flight. 5 minutes after leaving the airport we were stuck on the freeway next to a flavela - there had been some shooting. Promptly the cars all began to turn around and try to drive backwards on the freeway, against traffic. Our cab only got about 100m before the cars driving the wrong way were stopped by police. And we had to turn around again. Madhouse.




The rest of the day went relatively smoothly. Met up with the larger group, including some Brazilians. We were shown the local spots around town and ended up at this club which kept us busy until 4 in the morning.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Happy music

Saturday, November 10, 2007

RIO!!!!



1 more week!