Rio de Janeiro: Day One

It had been a dream of mine for many years to visit Brazil, and in particular the city of Rio de Janeiro. In fact, I remember that during the 2012 Olympics in the UK, I came up with the plan of going to Rio for the 2016 Olympics, and perhaps making that part of a longer South American trip. But as it happened, I ended up in Germany during the Rio Olympics, and I would eventually visit Rio over 6 years later than originally planned. But it was definitely worth the wait!

Although the weather for most of our trip wasn't the best, and we had 2 days of non-stop rain - something we hadn't expected when booking the trip - I found that I loved the city even more than I thought I would. The days we spent there were really a trip of a lifetime, and it was particularly special to go to one of my dream destinations with Claudio.

We started our first morning in Rio with a trip on the train up Corcovado mountain to the most iconic sight in the city; Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer in English. The train ride takes you through Tijuca National Park, a beautiful area of rainforest, and is the most scenic and relaxing way to arrive at the monument (you can also go by van or hike up there). During the short journey, we saw lots of huge jackfruits hanging from the trees in the forest, and I even caught a glimpse of a toucan!

We definitely did not have the best weather for our visit to Cristo Redentor, and at times the statue disappeared completely behind the clouds! We also couldn't see any views of the city below. However, in the moments when the statue was clearly visible, it was very impressive to see. It is 30 metres tall (38 with the pedestal included), and it really does look huge when you see it in real life.

The area around the monument has several cafés and gift shops, which came in useful when it started raining heavily. We bought white plastic raincoats, which kind of made us look like we were dressed as Jesus in front of his statue, haha! (It turned out we'd be using them quite a lot over the coming days...)

Claudio actually has an interesting story about Cristo Redentor - he went to see him when he first went to Brazil in 2015. At the time, his dog Jack had gone missing for a few months, so he asked Cristo Redentor to bring him back. And luckily, Jack did come back shortly afterwards! For this reason, Claudio always wanted to return to Rio to say thank you to Cristo Redentor, and he was very happy to get to do this 7 years later.

I hope that both of us can come back to see Cristo Redentor in the future (hopefully on a clearer day!). Overall, it was a really amazing experience to visit this Wonder of the World.

After taking the train back down the mountain, it was time for us to visit one of Rio's other iconic sights: Copacabana Beach. (Fortunately, the weather down there was much warmer and drier than it was up on Corcovado!) This huge beach is a very vibrant place, filled with people selling traditional Brazilian drinks and snacks, and with great views of the mountains, including Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), which we would visit the following day.

We had a bit of a walk along the beach, and then we had lunch in a nice vegan café, and watched some of the World Cup final there. It felt like quite an experience to watch a big football match in Brazil - everyone in the streets was getting really involved!

Afterwards, we went to the hotel to get our swimming things, and then we came back to the beach to swim. Even though it was a cloudy day, the water was warmer than a swimming pool, which was quite strange to experience after having only swum at beaches in England and Chile (where the water is notoriously cold) in recent years! The ocean in Copacabana is very shallow, so you can't really swim properly there, but it was still a lot of fun to ride the waves.

Once we'd finished swimming, we went for a walk over to the Pedra do Arpoador peninsula between Copacabana and Ipanema, and sat for a while enjoying the amazing views over Ipanema and Leblon beaches. (We liked this place so much that we decided to come back the following day to take some photos!)

We finished off our beach trip by buying caipirinhas (Brazil's most famous cocktail) to drink while sitting on the sand on Copacabana. It's a very nice-tasting drink made with lime and sugar, but it also contains an incredible amount of alcohol, and I found that the effects were too strong for my liking! But it's still something I think you have to try at least once during a trip to Brazil!

To sum up, our first day in Rio was a fantastic start to our trip, and it was a dream come true to visit Cristo Redentor and Copacabana Beach. Our second day was also really memorable, as we visited Pão de Açúcar, and Botafogo, Ipanema and Leblon beaches. I'll be writing about it very soon!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Two here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Three here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Four here!

Read about Arraial do Cabo here!