So after yet another 15 ish hour bus we arrived in Rio full of hopes of some sunshine but no -it was cloudy and it had been raining that morning - typical !

We headed to our hostel praying that it was gonna be half decent after all it was THE most expensive stay so far and the prospect of a 12 bed dorm was certainly not inviting . The hostel was nice enough though and we ended up with both Aussies and kiwi's so at least it was all english speaking people who like to party.


 
Tour or not !!
We had decided to book the tour of Christ Redeemer and some other places the next day as the forecast was partly cloudy as opposed to all the rest of the week which was all rain. We went to book the tour and it was full....gutted but we could get up the next morn and hope that someone cancelled. Our luck was in and we got on the tour but unfortunately not in the same van as the kiwi girls from our dorms we had the most boring van full of people ever and a tour girl who's first day it was and her english was barely understandable so it was a bit rubbish - she tried bless her!!

Anyway all we hoped for was that Christ could pull his head out of the clouds long enough for us to get some decent pictures and the skies were pretty grey all morning .


The Tour
We first went to the beach where all the the hand gliders land it looks well cool we are debating doing it. Then we went to see some waterfalls, drove through some neighbourhoods then eventually got to the Christ. It was utter chaos it was packed there were people everywhere and the queues were massive - thankfully being in the tour we didnt have to wait too long as we got to skip the queue and as we got up there his head had came out of the clouds woo hoo. Taking pics was a mission there was a million people in the way but at least we got to see him. The views from the top were amazing but the skies were grey but at least the rain had stopped.


After that we headed to the Lapa steps, in 1990 a guy began sticking tiles onto the steps in the colours of the Brazilian flag, the tiles were originally scavenged from building sites but once he became famous people bring tiles from their own country with pictures on it and they are all put into the steps - see if you can spot the Tennants lager one in the pics haha.


 
Trekking up Sugar Loaf ....the things you do to save money!
After lunch we drove a bit more passing by a huge favela (shanty town) its all built on a steep hill it looks crazy.

The tour ends at sugar loaf or you can be dropped back at the hostel, we were shattered and it was still cloudy but we figured best do it today seeing as its meant to rain this week . So basically you can walk for 30 mins up the first part then you only have to pay the first cable car and if you stay after 7pm then you dont have to buy a ticket to come down a saving of £20 each.

The tour girls said it was a nice walk up not too bad !!!!!! Well for us two unfit souls who were already shattered it was totally exhausting, there was no path it was climb up through the trees with no proper steps and it was really steep. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad had we not been shattered but by the time we got to the top ....40 mins later..... we were soaked with sweat lol.

The first part of Sugar Loaf has great views all the way around Rio but of course Christ had stuck himself back in the clouds so he was nowhere to be seen - gutted. We hung about for a bit then got the cable car up to the next bit. The views were amazing just so annoyed about the weather - it was getting cold thankfully we got up there after 7pm anyway so it was a free ride back down and no more trekking thankfully. The queues were megga though we got back to the hostel about 10pm that night - shattered !!!


Costs
Tour cost - £31 each
Sugar loaf cable car - £9 each  
Giant tub of ice cream - £6 (it was by weight not amount of scoops !!!)
Cost for a dorm bed in a 12 bed dorm with 3 tier beds - £54 each !!!!!