Fighting the gremlins: first full day in Rio

The IT stuff is enough to do one's head in. A case of when it is good, it is good; but when it is bad it is rotten. Anyway, resolved not to let it interfere with holiday & shelved it until end of the day (mind you, when one is knackered, one is not at one’s best for problem-solving - just great gnashing of teeth & tearing one's hair out).

This is where My Friend comes into his own & I left him to it & went to bed. Between him, Mr Google & Mr Lance from Blogsy we - woops, he - has tackled & appears to have resolved most of it overnight (that is, when I looked at it when I was woken by Mr Mosquito buzzing in my ear at 4.30 a.m. this morning): viz. the Optus non-email, Blogsy photo upload, & Dropbox sync issues.

So I am back online, and have spent the morning backing up Dropbox itinerary file into Calvetica diary just to be sure, to be sure - whilst waiting for my portable kettle to boil (it's taking 1 hour on our Brazilian power adaptor - truly, 1 hour).

It is now 6 a.m. & I am sitting in hammock on verandah overlooking Rio. Yesterday - which is what I am summarising now (late! due to said IT nightmare above) - was a big day & we had a lot of fun.

We were up early (doh! - jetlag ...) & went for an interesting walk checking out our local neighbourhood. The neighbourhood varies from palatial mansions to the down-at-heel. The slum areas are known as favelas.

We are staying in Santa Teresa up in the hills: a bohemian quarter popular with artists & with lots of bars & restaurants.

There are great views over Rio like from our B&B which is a huge old home with a lovely patio where we had breakfast after our walk & looked out over the city.

As we walked along, tiny monkeys chattered overhead, running along the electricity cables & ducking for cover as required into trees. Very cute.

After our early morning explore in the pleasant coolness, we had a nice brekky at our B&B and then set off on foot for the nearby Escadaria Selarón: a set of world-famous steps, the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who claimed it as "my tribute to the Brazilian people". I had been looking forward to these & they did not disappoint.

We then took a taxi (which saved us time & hassle on public transport) to Corcavado to take the funicular train up to the famous Christ the Redeemer, another ‘must-do’ on the tourist agenda in Rio. We had to wait for 2 trains such was the crowd but I'm told you can wait 3 hours! We only had less than an hour & filled it in happily with a walk to a nearby cafe where we had an expresso & little sweet cake plus My Friend had una cerverza (a beer).

Corcavado is a really steep granite peak 710 m high. The train takes you up through the Tijuca Forest & at the top are views all over Rio including to Sugarloaf & the beaches beyond. The imposing Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue created by French sculptor Paul Landowski & the number of tourists posing with out-stretched arms for selfies was breath-taking in its stupidity. Am I just getting old, or what? What is it with these selfies? I come to take photos of the sites; they come to take photos of themselves! The crowd was extremely pushy onto the train but we were lucky to get good seats both ways - with views.

My Friend took this pikky; very good!

Down below again, we took another taxi for yet another long journey to the Zona Sul area to visit the Jardim Botânico where we enjoyed a lovely few hours looking at lovely plants, flowers, fountains. The gardens were founded in 1808 by King John VI of Portugal, just three months after the Portuguese court moved to Brazil as Napoleon threatened to invade Portugal.

Oh, and we saw toucans. Wonderful!

Another taxi zipped us across the city to our last port of call: the beaches. I was aiming specifically for Aproador. This is a famous set of rocks or headland between the 2 famous beaches: Ipanema & Copacabana. It is also a popular surfing spot as there are good wave breaks here,

We got our driver to drop us off a bit before & we walked along the promenade amongst other walkers with joggers & cyclists zipping by. We stopped for a drink at one of the many bars but this one wouldn’t make the Caipirinha I wanted - without ice. So we moved to another bar, although My Friend decidedly looked like he did not want to move. (Postcript: Caipirinha is Brazil's national cocktail).

We continued on further & found another bar on the beach attached to a flash hotel with prices to match but got a REAL Caipirinha. In fact it was such the real deal that it nearly knocked me off my perch & it took a litre of water (drunk, not poured on top of me) to 1) dilute the alcohol coursing through my veins 2) to resync my brain & legs so that we could continue on!

Spent a very pleasant hour watching the world go by in all its shapes, sizes & colours (including one woman my age in a G-string bikini dimples & all: nearly blew our minds away at her self-assured indifference) & the waves crashing on the beach; My Friend says I was 'out to it' for 15 minutes...

We took our shoes off & walked along the beach & in the water to the Aproador & the shadows of the day grew longer. We had a really lovely time looking at the views both ways with Ipanema Beach backdropped by the peaks of Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) on one side, and Copacabana on the other.

We tackled the Metro system back to the suburb of Glória at the base of the hill of our suburb, Santa Teresa, & noted how strangers stopped to ask if we needed help whenever we looked perplexed. We then had the final excitement of the return journey back to our B&B in the ancient Kombi van in our neighbourhood, Glória, that our Olindo had told us was the best way to get home.

My Friend says we walked 17 kms today. And the taxis were a godsend, saving time & hassle!