Rio de Janeiro

10:14 AM Unknown 0 Comments

Olá guys!! This is another long overdue blog post. We apologize for the long delay but we figure better late than never, and great things take time 😀

We arrived into Brazil by plane and are settling into our new apartment in Rio! Fortunately, I utilized Air B N B and found a quaint little apartment in Copacabana a couple of blocks from the beach! We rented the apartment for 11 nights and we could not be more excited to be able to unpack for the time being and have our own bathroom and wifi to ourselves! We even have our own kitchen to cook. The apartment was only $575 for the 11 days, a bit more expensive than a dorm hostel but with way more benefits. We even had a door man to the building!! We took a local bus from the airport and were quite proud to have figured out which bus it was to the apartment. The city of Rio increased the number of busses and routes throughout the city prior to the Olympics, which we happily took advantage of. Once we arrived our host met us. Her name was Carolina and she was so nice and helpful. She gave us her to do list to be the ultimate "Carioca," which is a person who was born and raised in Rio! Brazil so far has been amazing, we found the nearest grocery store and made a grocery list for our dinner's for the week. 

How do I sum up 15 days in Brazil? Three words: welcoming, loving, and amazing.

Our main objectives were to try Brazilian food, lay out on the beach, see the Christ of the Redeemer/Sugar Loaf Mountain, and experience the culture. I think we did a pretty good job at all of the above thanks to our new Brazilian family. The first few days we spent exploring our new neighborhood and laying out on Copacabana. The beaches itself I was expecting a bit more. What do I mean by "more?' In my head and from what I heard from others and what I've seen on TV, I had a picture of what Brazilian beaches would be and feel like. To me, the vibe wasn't what I saw on T.V. Don't get me wrong, it was still sweet to lay out on the beach and soak in the sun! And it was a bonus to have vendors come to us when we needed a water or food! We would be laying on the beaches and want a water and someone would be by yelling "AGUA!" And we would wave our hand and buy one from them. Now that was awesome! You could haggle the price too! They sell everything on the beach!! We may or may not have bought one too many sarongs, but we figure they are very versatile and we will definitely use them in the future! Jackie loved the Acai ice cream. Everyone tried to sell her stuff. They were very persistent even when she told them no. Eventually we learned you just have to ignore the people so they would leave. We enjoyed watching people play soccer on the beach and seeing the impressive sand works of art. 

The main form of transportation we used while in Rio was Uber. We could connect to wifi and order an Uber anywhere in Rio. They were less than half the price of a taxi and were reliable and fast. We also took the local bus transport to a few of the major tourist attractions. We also walked a great deal through the various neighborhoods we wanted to explore like Copacabana, Leme, Ipanema, Botafogo, Urca, Lapa, Santa Teresa and the city center.