Her Name is Rio and She Dances in the Street

Another overcast day in the mountains around Rio. After our experience up Sugar Loaf Mountain, we're waiting for a clearer day to go up Corcovado to see the statue of Christ.

We spent an hour or so in a shopping centre hoping the weather would clear. Sarah spied...you guessed it, another bag. As Brazil, and Rio in particular are the birthplace of two of my favourite types of music, Samba Jazz and Bossa Nova, we bought a couple of CDs.

It's nice to try out local cuisine when on holiday. They have some odd offerings in Brazil, like the cheese and jam croissant I had for lunch! The hilltop clouds hadn't cleared after lunch, so we decided to go to the historical centre in the North of the city.

There are over 400 bus routes in Rio. None clearly marked. So we'd been warned off using public transport. Naturally then, we hoped on the first bus we saw with a name on it that we recognised! We got lucky and had a beach front ride round the bay into the historic centre.

The historic centre is an odd mix of old colonial churches and modern high rise office buildings. On the advice of a Cariocan lady who took pity on us for looking lost, we took the ferry across Guanabara bay to Niteroi to get city wide views of Rio. After the obligatory four minute stay, we got the return ferry back to Rio.

We had drinks and cakes for afternoon tea at the famous (it's in the guide book) Colombia Café and then, when taking in the atmosphere around the streets, we came across our first street parade. It was a group of children, some in matching clothes (can't really say costumes as it was just the same skirt) dancing down the street with drums and trumpets being played and two boys in jeans rapping over loud speakers.
We got the bus back to Copacabana beach and as the sunset, we strolled along the promenade, people watching and stopping for capirinhas. A beautiful four hour jaunt with Sugar Loaf mountain as a backdrop. We must have had too many cocktails as we danced on the beach and sang 'At the Copa, Copacabana'.