Hello from a hot and humid Rio De Janeiro.
We are in Ipanema at the moment yes the one from the song ``Girl from Ipanema` which is where our hostel is.
You can see it here at
We have actually just had our evening meal at the Girl from Ipanema restaurant, it was where the famous song was written.
We had a delicious ``cook your own steak at the table` meal with a busker nearby playing THAT song which has been in my head all day!
Arrived here yesterday morning and had a look around Ipanema beach with the locals playing football and volleyball on the
beach. The local area is nice with upmarket shops and nice restaurants and bars and pleasant to walk around day or night.
We flew overnight from Chicago via Miami so were really knackered yesterday.
It is all very hot and tropical here with balmy evenings. It has been 30 degrees today.
We did a fantastic city tour today and went up the mountain to see the world famous Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer statue but unfortunately it is being
restored so was mainly covered in scaffolding. There were wonderful views from the top of Rio.
Went into the city centre and to areas with lots of old Portuguese buildings.
They had a lot of rain here 3 weeks ago and you can see where lots of landslides have happened. Lots of houses on the steep hillsides (in the favelas) were washed away and people killed.
Here are a few pics of the statue, not ours though.
Went up Sugar Loaf mountain for sunset and once again there were amazing views. The Christ the Redeemer statue actually looked better from afar as you could get the real shape and it looked good especially when lit up after sunset.
It is such a beautiful city with the mountains and beaches and surrounded by tropical rain forest.
We are going to a football game at the Maracana stadium on Sunday to see the local team, Flamengo, it should be interesting with the crazy fans with their samba music, drums, singing and flag waving. Will be interesting to compare it to an English game. We saw the outside of the stadium on our tour today and it is massive. It will be closed for 18 months in a months time for renovation for the world cup so is good timing.
They are football mad here which makes a nice change to the United States and Japan!
Tomorrow we are hiring bicycles and will cycle over to Copacabana which is the next beach. I will probably have that Barry Manilow song in my head all day!
They are gearing up for the Olympics here in Rio in 2016 and the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 so they are cleaning up the city with more police around keeping an eye on things.
The locals are friendly here and the hostel here is run by Aussies.
We don´t know any Portuguese but are getting by and making ourselves understood.
We leave here on Monday and head for Peru.
We had a great time in the UK as I mentioned before. We had a lovely weekend at my brother´s in the New Forest and enjoyed a great walk in the spring sunshine followed by a real ale at a country pub.
It was great to be back and see everyone.
It was good to see Simon too in Chicago and the day we left we had time to see where he works in the Hancock building in the city and then we went up Sears Tower (now called Willis tower) as we could not go up it when we were in Chicago in 2001 just after 9/11 happened. We walked back to Simon´s place along the parks by the lake, Lake Michigan and there is even a beach on the lake. So we got a feel as to how close to the city he is, it took about 50 minutes. It was a lovely warm spring day but nobody was swimming the lake though!
That is it for now.
Hope you are all well.
I am lucky to get on this computer here at the hostel as they have three of them but they are always being used so I am making the most of the opportunity.
Lots of love from Diana and Dave
