My little talk with Jesus...

Rio: The city where Jesus literally watches over you (and ironically known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world...), the city of beaches, sun and the samba.

Well, first day in Rio: cloudy and cold! Would you believe it!?!?! But then, it is winter! So I decided that since my hostel is only a block away from the famous beach of Ipanema, I would go there and read a book in jeans and a jersey (funny sight for the locals!). Amazing beach! And the waves! After my disapointing session of wave catching in Hawaii, maybe this is the place to do it, Meike!

Next day though, lovely sunny and warm. I went to the Corcovado, where a giant statue of Jesus watches over the city with open arms. An impressive 30m high Art Deco statue as well as the panoramic views of Rio which are stunning! From here we went to Pão de Açúcar (sugar loaf) which is a giant granite rock in the bay and to get to the top of the rock, you take two cable cars. The view, once again is amazing, but this time you can see The Christ the Redeemer statue almost dancing above the buildings ontop of his mountain....pretty spectacular. From here I watched the sunset. Ok, you guessed it: AMAZING!!! (Really need to come up with some more adjectives!)

Yesterday I went to the centre of Rio, but after 5hrs of wandering along the streets of the centre, I don´t really have anything interesting to mention! Concrete buildings, there was a building shaped like a rubrics cube and a very ugly modern cathedral (looked like a beehive and generally unattractive), visited a very luxurious coffee shop where they had the most amzing little cakes, so I treated myself to one of those and then I took this little cable car up a hill to a community of Santa Theresa (very old and picturesque little place...cobbled streets and stuff) which was paroably the highlight of the day´s sightseeing.

Today was really amazing! I was supposed to go on a Favela (shanty towns of Rio) Tour, but yesterday evening i found out there was this Boat Party they were oaraganising and it would include an all you can eat barbeque, drinks and a tour in the bay by Rio and all that for just 15 euros! It lasted for like 6hrs and i even got to dive off the boat and go for a bit of a swim...the weather also decided to be perfect. I think it was also fun to see the city as a whole and to see Jesus hovering over the city in the distance and to see the cable cars whizzing up to Sugar Loaf. Really had a great time! Tomorrow I´ll be going on the Favela Tour and then on Sunday I´m off to Miami!