| Rio day 2 |
[Apr. 7th, 2008|10:33 pm] |
Oi!
The weather was slightly better during daylight today, although it's pouring now (10pm).
I spent most of this morning wandering around Ipanema and Copacobana searching for somewhere to exchange my devalued dollars. There are a load of banks around here that can apparently exchange money but this can be a real hassle if you don't have an account with them, which I don't. So I wandered for a couple of miles into Copacobana after failing to find the "several cambios" along some Ipanema street advertised by Lonely Planet. Eventually I found a sign for one that pointed down the dodgiest, dingyist (sp?) corridor I've ever seen outside a horror film. To add to the creepyness, a solitary guy stood at the end, not moving, not saying a word. But I needed Reals so down the corridor I went. Luckily for me there was a cambio at the end, with an exchange rate of 1.65R$ per dollar. Thanks George Bush, you made this so much more expensive. But anyway, it's better than the 1.4R$ per USD I got from Travelex on my way through Atlanta. So I swapped a vast sum of money and half expected an armed gang to be waiting in the corridor when I came out, but it was empty, save for the silent creepy guy.
After dumping most of the money back at the hostel (yey padlocks) I wandered off to have a look at a lake a few blocks from my hostel. It was surrounded by people biking, running and generally being healthy, even guys in suits were exercising. Weirdos. I wandered half-way around (~4km I think) then got bored. The giant Jesus had been towering above me during my walk so I decided to catch a bus to the train that would take me to the top of that hill. How hard can that be? Well... I had the bus numbers from a hostel employee, unfortunately those are the buses that leave from near my hostel. The buses that left from the area I was now in had completely different numbers. After waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes and not seeing a single bus that had anything close to my destination of choice I plucked up the courage to test my terrible Portuguese on a woman. She did understand which was a plus and waved her arms at the other side of the street. Ok, I thought, off I go. Wandered to a bus stop over there, again failed to see any bus that might be going in my direction. Then I realised she had been waving her arms quite vigorously and thought maybe she meant me to go several streets over to the main road. Aha! Several buses per minute were passing through although I still couldn't find one with Corcodova or the Portuguese translation of "Giant Jesus" on the front. It was at this point that I envied those on package tours, I was jealous of the tourists who simply have to stumble down to the hotel lobby at the right time to make it to their sightseeing destinations. Then I realised I was being a wimp and tried to snap out of it, lest I find myself eating McDonalds and only speaking English for the rest of the trip. So finally, I recognised the name of a road nearby the train station for the giant Jesus, jumped on board, checked with the driver and off we went.
The train went up through what little is left of Atlantic rainforest around Rio, it was pretty impressive until the clouds killed the view. I was hoping to see monkeys again but they must have been hiding. Up the top were the predictable hundreds of tourists (yes, I know I count as one) and a giant Jesus. No, dad, he did not have steps inside him.
I took the obligatory photos (see picasaweb.google.com/rach150384) and took the train back to Cosme Velho, where I caught a bus back to Ipanema. Actually, I caught a bus to Copacobana because I got off too early (I hate buses). But that detour took me past a bakery where I bought something that looked like a ham and cheese pastry but had random other things in it too. I have no idea what it was or what it was called, I like to just point and order. I munched on that as I walked quickly back (it was getting dark and Rio is not too safe).
I had hoped to make a foray into the National Park where some good hiking trails go through the rainforest but the bus-kerfuffle knocked a couple of hours out of my day, as did the exchange-kerfuffle. So maybe I will do that on the way back. I'm off to Belem in the northeast tomorrow (in theory at least), from there I plan to catch a boat up the Amazon for 5 days (1500km) to Manaus. Find out how the plan goes awry tomorrow...or the day after or maybe in a week depending on t'internet access.
Rach |
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| Comments: |
From: (Anonymous)
2008-04-08 06:11 am (UTC)
From Emily | (Link)
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Oi! Love the pictures! (and the coconuts look delicious, doctors' orders me damned :P) Have a blast floating up the Amazon, can't wait to hear about it! (when internet access permits). Miss ya!
From: (Anonymous)
2008-04-09 12:55 pm (UTC)
We've... | (Link)
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...eaten at McDonald's since we've been on our trip.
More than once.
It made us feel dirty all over, but when the alternative is trekking around six restuarants in an evening (our personal record) quick n' dirty hits the spot.
There, you're better than us. Happy now?
(Mendy insists on pointing out that it's no longer an option and since China we've been diligent tourists and eaten all manner of unidentifiable things.) | |
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