Brazil: Rio and Buzios

On our flight to Rio we were surrounded by Boca Junior football fans.  They were all hyped up for a big football match and it was worse than sitting with fifty five year olds.  They sang their fight song repeatedly, couldn't seem to sit down, and even had a pillow fight.  I had never before been hit with a flying pillow on an airplane.

The weather was gorgeous in Rio when we arrived and we decided to spend a full day on the famous Copacabana Beach with Sugar Loaf Mountain in the distance and Christ the Redeemer looking over us.  It was very surreal.  Much to my surprise, the beach was not packed with people and we only saw a few of the stereotypical beautiful Brazilian women in their string bikinis.  Maybe they come out more in the summer.

The next day we were lucky to have bright blue, nearly cloudless skies when we visited Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer.  The views from both spots were spectacular.

View of Sugar Loaf Mountain from Corcovado

Simon and Christ the Redeemer

View from Sugar Loaf Mountain

Accommodation in Rio is very expensive, so after hitting the main Rio attractions, we headed to Buzios, a beach resort town about two hours away.  Buzios is on a peninsula and has several different small beaches.  Just a few blocks from our hotel was a nice, quiet strip of sand where we spent the majority of eight days.  We ventured to other beaches a couple of times and found them to be crowded and full of vendors pushing their goods on people.  One tropical storm rolled through while we were in Buzios and brought an amazing lightning show.  The same night, we spotted a lone sea turtle swimming around the harbor.  The only downside of Buzios was that since it is a resort town, all of the restaurants are quite pricey.  This meant that we had a lot of meals at Subway.

On "our" beach

Sandcastles

We had a few more days in Rio before flying to Peru.  When we returned from Buzios, the weather had changed.  Cloudy skies constantly threatened rain.  We were glad that we had gotten our nice city views before we went to Buzios.  On our last days in Rio, we visited Ipanema Beach, walked along Copacabana again, and did a lot people watching.

I had been a bit nervous about crime in Rio before we got there, but we just stuck to the tourist areas and stayed in at night, and I never felt unsafe.  I was quite pleased to have visited Rio without getting mugged.  

With mountains, rainforest, and beaches, Rio really is an awesome city. 

Copacabana Boardwalk

Cloudy day on Ipanema Beach