Rio Day 3

The workers working hard to repair the tram before the wold cup

View of Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastion in the city center, the building on the right upper corner was voted one of the 10 most ugly buildings in the world

View of Pao do Acucar from Santa Teresa

Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastion

Inside the Metropolitan Church of Saint Sebastian

Pao de Acucar from Christ the Redeemer

Day 3
To get to Santa Teresa was a little challenging as most people did not seem to know which bus went there but everyone kept saying how they hope that the tram that went to Santa Teresa would be fixed before the World Cup which starts in June, as in two months from now.  Well when we get to Santa Teresa the first thing we see is all the guys working on repairing the tram taking their siesta on the sidewalk.  Walked around Santa Teresa neighborhood then went to Charcara do Ceu museum for a view of Rio and Pao do Acucar. 

Then went to take the van up to Corcovado (hunchback) and Christ the Redeemer statue.  The van was 20R and 22R entrance fee so 48R.  The tram was 50R but on the van they stopped at a view point along the way. They told me at the bottom that I shouldnt go cause the view is terrible and I should wait another day and that the next tram would not leave for an hour so I decided on the bus since the skies at that moment were blue and the van would leave in 10 minutes. The view was beautiful and constantly changing as the clouds moved in and out of view.  I am glad I went cause I stayed for a couple of hours cause the scenery kept changing.  All the pictures are basically the view from the statue.    Its too bad that we had no view from the top of Sugar Loaf (pao do acucar) especially when it was so expensive.  I told them they should give a discount to go a second day cause many people would go back a second time and they could make more money but they just laughed at me.

Rio de Janeiro

Ipanema beach

Pedro do Arpoador

Christ the Redeemer statue as the clouds are rolling in

Copacabana - tons of fishermen are here with stand up paddleboarders and the city in the background

famous painted tile steps by Selaron

Other side of lake on the gondola

Not much of a view

Finally a small clearing on the way down

view of Pao do Azucar

the ride to the bottom was nice

we arrived at the bottom as it was getting dark

Wow!  Rio is really beautiful.  The city with the green of the trees is so beautiful. Its sad that the crime is so high and that the dramatic difference between the rich and the poor cant somehow help each other to bring the poor to a higher standard of living.

Samba Palace Hostel
In what appears to be a somewhat more residential area but close to the touristy areas.  Nice and quiet and only 25R a night for dorm room with breakfast.   Nice staff and a grocery close by.

My first day here I walked around Ipanema and Copacabana beaches.

I took the night bus from Ouro Preto to Rio for 108R. It left at 10PM and I walked with a group of University students to the bus station who said its safe to walk at night and its only a half mile albeit a bit uphill. I arrived in Rio at 4:30AM so I took a taxi. They had 4 official taxi companies so I went to the most crowded and it cost me 25R to Laranjeiras.  

Day 2
Free walking tour (freewalkertour.com). The tour was good and lasted about 3 hours.  A group of us went to Pao do Azucar after but it wasnt worth it.  It 62R and there was no view at the top.  We stopped to wait but on the way down the clouds parted for a moment and we saw a small view.