After a few solid days relaxing on Ipanema beach, I decided to move to the cheaper part of town, Copacabana. It´s pretty good here in Copa, a little bit seedy but cheaper and due to the Pan American games, police are everywhere so its pretty safe.
Didn´t get much sleep last night, the galeforce winds made a huge racket and actually smashed a window in the building nextdoor. Listening to galeforce winds smash windows and the thought of hang gliding in them, or more like, spiraling out of control in them, helped keep me awake nearly the entire night.
I was supposed to go hang gliding yesterday morning, but the pilot got back to me and told me the wind conditions were terrible and it would be too dangerous to fly. So, instead, I decided to do some touristy things around Rio. So I jumped on a bus and headed to Sugar Loaf (Pao de Acucar), which is a massive stone monolith that dominates the south eastern beaches of Rio. The cable car ride was slightly expensive (35R) but well worth it, the views from Pao de Acucar (396 meters high) are amazing.
After that, I headed back to the hostel for lunch and got a tour to Corcovado (the mountain with the big statue of Christ the Redeemer on it). I managed to the resist the urge of posing in front of JC in a crucifixion/embrace pose, but think I might have blinked on the only photo taken of me in front of JC with my disposable camera. The statue is pretty cool, but I found myself spending most of my time checking out the expansive view of Rio. Santa Teresa was my next stop, its the older, more colonial part of Rio, old trams still run through the tiny streets. Then I went to the staircase of Lapa and walked up that, which I really enjoyed taking my time and reading all the tiles.
I would go on, but I have to run right now and get a bus/boat to Illa Grande, where I will be staying for the next 2 nights.
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