Rio: 31st March – 1st April 10

Yesterday we took the bus back to Rio – it was raining as we arrived but has been beautiful since!

We’re staying in a guest house 3 blocks from Ipanema beach in one direction and 3 blocks from the lagoon in the other. The area is quiet, but has great bars and restaurants.

It’s really weird as it feels like you’re in a normal city and then you come across the beach and the ocean and it’s like being in the tropics again – a real contrast. The beach is beautiful, golden sand and blue water – it’s wide and very long so you can always get some space and there are some very dramatic mountains nearby.

In the evening we took a walk along the beach as the sun went down and then explored the local area.



The following morning we took a tour of the favelas. Rio has one of the biggest and most obvious divides between rich and poor of any city in the world and we wanted to learn how this had come about and what was being done about it.

The favelas are notoriously crime-ridden, but we’d been advised that we’d be safe on an escorted tour.


The guide told us how the they came into being - when there was a mass-influx of population from the country to the cities, shortly after the abolition of slavery. Brazil was actually the last country in the world to abolish slavery – as late as 1888.


We learnt all about how organisations are trying to improve the lives of the residents, but are often hampered by government corruption – and we saw some projects run by NGOs, as well as walking around and generally getting a feel for the area. It was certainly an eye-opening experience!


For the rest of the day we chilled out and then went to a local Japanese restaurant for sushi in the evening – apparently Brazil has a higher proportion of Japanese people than anywhere outside Japan!