Brazil´s Terrific Waterfront

Liverpool FC look like they are in trouble, we haven´t been watching the whole game, but already we´ve seen them let 4 goals in. In their defence, they are up against the might of Brazil, but with a 10 year old girl playing up front, the samba kings shouldn´t really be causing Liverpool the problems that they are. We´re sat at a little cafe sipping fresh pineapple juice while watching the game unfold on the beach before us. Liverpool are made up of a collection of kids wearing tops of a variety of colours, but with the words Liverpool FC proudly painted on the red and white goal posts they are defending. The opposition, are almost all in the yellow tops of Brazil, again, they are a collection of kids running around madly chasing the ball except they also have ¨Dad¨ playing in defence, and that added experience must be making a difference as Liverpool have just let a fifth past them.

Copacabana´s mile long stretch of sand is the jewel of the Brazilian beaches, and although it perhaps isn´t fair to say that this one part of the country represents the best of the Brazilian coastline, it´s hard to think of something that could top it - and besides, the title of Rio´s Terrific Waterfront didn´t fit our BTW theme! We arrived in Rio De Janeiro early yesterday morning after an 18 hour journey from Manchester via both Heathrow and Sao Paulo. After navigating immigration, bag collection and customs we stumbled wearily into the arrivals lounge and got a taxi, with a driver who hadn´t heard of our hostel and consequently didn´t have a clue where it was - we´d also made the mistake of not printing the full address before we left the UK and as our Portugese is non-existent, had no way of telling the driver roughly where to go. Suprisingly our attempts at communicating by speaking slowly in English and pointing at the tiny map in our Lonely Planet guide didn´t help much either - good start! Luckily, Rio´s taxi drivers are a resiliant bunch, and after a quick mobile telephone call to his English speaking friend, we were able to let him know where to go (via the man on the end of the mobile) and we were soon speeding along around the bends and through the tunnels of this magnificent waterfront on out way to Copacabana.

We spent much of the rest of the day getting organised, i.e. exchanging money, buying supplies and catching up on sleep. Our hostel is a fantastic little place called ¨Stone of a Beach¨ which is just two blocks from the famous Copacabana Palace hotel. All the staff here are really friendly and only too willing to help you with anything you need. A great base for our exploration of the city and the start of our next 6 months of travel. After getting nearly 11 hours sleep last night, we woke up this morning a great deal more refreshed and headed to Sugar Loaf to look down over the panoramic coastline. Although there was some early morning cloud hanging around, we weren´t disapointed and managed to get some great shots of copacabana and botafogo beaches, and even some of the statue of Christ the Redeemer when he emerged from the clouds surrounding the Corcovado mountain on top of which he stands. After a break for some delicious food, the cloud cleared further so we decided to take a helicoptor flight to get an even better view, and it was well worth it. It only lasted 10 minutes, but it was the first time either Mandi or I had been in a helicoptor and it was a great feeling to be swooping over Rio and it gave us some great shots looking back over the city towards the ocean beyond.

After getting our feet back on the ground we caught the bus back to Copacabana and headed to the beach to relax and grab some dinner. We then sat there for a while just watching the world go buy and drinking fresh fruit juices as the football game unfolded before us. Speaking of which, Liverpool eventually managed a bit of a comeback and by the time we left, the score was Brazil 18 v Liverpool 15, and there was still a good hour to go until the sun finally set behind the mountains of this beautiful Brazilian waterfront...
Steve