South America Part 27 - Rio - Day 2

We had to get up early (sort of early latino time) in order to make breakfast (10am) at our hotel. Breakfast at the hotel is a sort of strange deal - there are the usual suspects (fruit, juice, coffee, toast, yoghurt) - but half the buffet is made up of various cakes (including chocolate) - not sure if this is a typical style Brazillian breakfast?!

We have noticed that Brazil is the country of sort of extremes (American style) - you have the rich and you have the dirt poor, and you have the skinny and you have the incredibly fat. Brazil must take the cake (or should that be the chocolate cake) for being the fattest country we have visited in South America. Although Chile had the most junkiest food around - everyone was mostly not morbidly obese... but Brazil are full of the fatties... Also - we think it is mandatory that all girls here dress like prostitutes (no matter how big or small you might be).

After breakfast - we took our lives into our hands again and caught a bus to Urca to go up the famous Sugar Loaf hills. If you have seen the James Bond / Roger Moore ¨Moonraker¨film (the cheesiest one to date) - then you might remember the sugar loaf and the cable carts in the movie. I have included a picture of the villian Jaws and his sexy girlfriend to jog your memory. I have now been on both cable cars in the James Bond film (also been on a one in the Swiss alps which had the Australian James Bond in it).

At the cable car station - we were a little shocked to find that prices were no longer $US8 but rather they had more than doubled to about $35 Reals. Talk about inflation and another example of LP being wildly inaccurate. However - we both agreed that this was definately worth the money as the view from both Bia de Guanabara (there are techincally two cable cars - and this is mid station) and the Sugar Loaf of Rio was spectactular. We even went on a mini-rainforest walk around the top of Sugar Loaf where you could almost get away from the screaming Brazillians (must be a genetic thing).

Another great thing was the amount of eagles at the top - circling the peak. We must have seen 8000% more wildlife than the Colca Cayon in Peru (where we didn´t see one stinking condor). And there were also heaps of rock climbers climbing up various nearby peaks. Also of note - there were mormans at the top sight seeing (you just can´t get away from them anywhere!).

After getting back down the Cable Cars to Urca - Urca was a very scenic (and quiet) ¨village¨ all most with big shady streets and some nice old buildings against the backdrop of the spectactular Sugar Loaf and surrounds. We took our lives into our own hands and walked (instead of taxiing) to the nearby Rio Sol (a big mall - Ant needed his fix).

We continued our Rio tradition of Ant having a semi decent meal and me not having a good meal when we ordered some expensive food court pasta and risotto. I define good risotto by at least being hot - this one didn´t pass the test unfortunately.

Taking our lives into our hands (for the 20th time) - we attempted to walk to the nearby metro. We passed thru an underpass and it had a sign pointing to the ¨nearby¨ metro station - but the metro station happened to be at least a km away. Ant also hit his head on the underpass (despite Brazillians not being as small as their Sth American counterparts - both vertically and horrizontally).

We took a train to the Centro area of Rio to find Rio´s Modern Art Gallery (which wasn´t in LP). They had a few interesting exhibits on including a ¨shrine¨ to Brazillian 40s/50s star Carmen Miranada - who was popular in the 40s and dead in the 50s. Apparently - she had starred in heaps of movies and stage shows (and was a hit in the States) - but my knowledge of old movies is poor and we hadn´t heard of her. There was also a exhibit on the 2005 World Press Photography - which showed all the winners (and runners up) in all of their gory depressing details. Of note - Australian photographers were prominant. There was a gallery (amongst all these exhibits) and the collection was interesting (including Warhol and Pollock). There were a few Brazillian artists too (in for the mix).

It was starting to get dark and we had to leave Centro (more advice from LP) - so we headed back to Copa to chill. Ant checked out the pool which includes screaming kids who splash water as a bonus.

At about 9pm - we trekked out of the hotel to find us some food. After walking up and down the beach to find something (everything is Americn tourist prices), we walked down a block to the ¨seedier¨areas of Copa, where we stumbled upon our first ¨Kilo¨restaurant. Confusing at first - it is basically like a Buffet where you have a wide selection of food and you help yourself to it - but you have to weigh your plate. You pay for every 100g of food (so it doesn´t matter whether or not you have steak or salad - it is all the same price). This was my first good meal in Brazil and it was the cheapest. You can get a big plate of food and beer for about $6-10 AUD. The inner accountant in me was happy.

After dinner - Ant made us go on a ¨forced march¨ (Ant was mad with the death march remark in an early post and he prefers the term forced) to try and find the local disco area. After walking the complete length of Copa - we couldn´t find it (although it was later revealed that we were 1 street away from it).