Day and night out in Rio

Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The hotel in Rio is a 5 star job with views of Copacabana beach. Gigantic bed, fluffy robe and a nice breakfast. All good - the trouble is the lifts take ages (it's got 39 floors and I'm on floor 34), the hot water is luke warm and the hairdryer is useless. Not only that but it's £8 for a vodka and tonic - that is the most upsetting thing of all!!

My morning started with a run along the beach . When I say run it was more of a plod because I've picked up a nasty cough which I can't get rid of and I didn't really want to cough up a lung on Copacabana beach. Despite that I had a lovely time. All sorts of people out and about at 7am and no hassle.

After a good breakfast with a truly great cup of coffee. We got picked up for the 'half day' tour. It started with Christ the Redeemer. We had to get a train up from the bottom of the mountain, then 2 escalators. It was a bit cloudy but it was worth the effort. The statue itself is enormous and the views are spectacular - even with the clouds.

We drove round a bit more with the guide droning on - by this time I had concluded he was going to be terrible. His main concerns were pointing out posh hotels and talking about himself. Anyway by 1pm he announced we were going to stop at a place for a complimentary drink at a bar on the beach. Nice!! No, not nice. By this time it was a bit windy and cloudy - not ideal beach bar weather . There was no mention of lunch and a few of the group ordered from the bar menu. This turned out to be a very bad idea. I asked for a cup of coffee - they didn't have any IN BRAZIL!!! Over an hour later and most of the food had not arrived and it was all getting a bit grim. What made it worse was that we were just opposite the 5 star splendour of the hotel we were all staying in. Suddenly £8 for a vodka and tonic didn't seem so bad.

A couple of the group did stomp back to the hotel in disgust. I was tempted but I wanted to go up Sugarloaf mountain. We went to the cathedral which looked like a car park from the outside but the stained glass on the inside made up for it. Then, finally, it was Sugarloaf mountain. It's a 2 cable car journey. At the first stop you could look down and see Rio but at the top all you could see was cloud. This was a shame but the view wouldn't have been any different.

By this time it was past 5pm and the guide decided to recommend 2 of the most expensive restaurants in Rio . £70 a head without any drinks. He decided we needed to see these restaurants which added another half an hour to 8 hour 'half day' tour.

I had found a highly recommended place to eat on Trip Adviser which was about 1/4 mile from the hotel. When I mentioned it was in a Favella the look of horror on some of the faces in the group was priceless. The Favellas are shanty towns that surround the city. You can be staying in a high class hotel and your view could just as easily be a Favella rather than the beach. So, instead of what could have been a memorable meal on the outside edge of a Favella on the doorstep of the 5 star hotel I was staying at on Copacabana beach my last night in Rio was spent in quite a a boring restaurant eating a very average prawn risotto. Not the best night out I've ever had but not the worst either.
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