Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

So I`m still recovering from Carnaval and I only get one day to see Rio de Janeiro. The reason for this is Julio and Cole have been in Rio for 9 days and the wanted to hit the road. Rio de Janeiro is an incredibly beautiful city but is the most dangerous city in Brazil if not South America. Getting mugged there is very common. In fact, during Carnaval two hostels got ransacked by men from a nearby favella. People woke up to men holding grenades and guns in their face and demanding them to give them all their stuff. Clothes, money, backpacks, passports...everything. One of the hostels was in Copacabana where I was supposed to stay in but I changed the flight. Perhaps this was a good decision to change the flight?

I stayed with a German couchsurfer who lived in the nicest area of Rio (Le Bon). This is where Brazilian celebrities live apparently. That night we went out for traditional Rio food and met up with Cole and Julio to exchange Carnaval stories.

The next day I was in frenzy tourist mode. I went to go see Christo which is the infamous Christ statue at the top of the mountain in Rio. It is thirteen stories high and really is magnificent. You can even hire a helicopter and fly right by the statue. Definitely not within my budget though. The views from Christo were incredible. You can most of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Not too bad. I then checked out an infamous beach in Rio called Ipanema. It was packed that day with beachgoers. I could see why my Brazilian friends told me people really take care of their bodies in Rio. Unfortunately, that is all I got to see. We had to catch a late plane out to Florionopolis. The rest of Rio will have to wait for another time...