Category: Travels

Cristo Redentor

A well known all over the world statue of Christ is a must in Rio (it was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007, yeah!). I’ve decided to ignore all taxi drivers and took a cog train all the way up. Someone told me it’s better to sit on a right side of the train and was totally right.

On the top of Corocovado it turns out that Christ is hiding behind clouds and it’s difficult to see even his feet. I have time, so with my new Colombian friend we’re going for a coffee. To be honest we didn’t even have to look at the statue, causes whenever it was possible to see Christ people started to scream, clap their hands and make many other sounds. Excitement around was big.


Finally, after watching it on pictures at TV and in movies, I was able to see it live, as it is. So, in reality it is small, much smaller I thought it will be.

One more thing – view over the city is just awesome.

Pao de Azucar – Rio de Janeiro

Fuck it, with a little knife in my pocket I’m going to Rio by myself. My sense of direction doesn’t always work, maybe because I don’t have a map, so in case I end up in favela I’ll have some protection or I just hand over my backpack.

I got some bus directions from Miry and went to the sin city. In the first bus a very helpful local-men informed me that there is a Scottish guy in the bus and he goes to the Sugar Loaf as well. Sounds cool. I’ve met Kenny and asked if he knows how to get there, he answered “no”. It’s always better not to know together than by myself.

Pao de Azucar is pretty cool, have been sitting over there for quite some time, watching landscape of Rio, Jesus hiding in clouds from time to time and drinking beer. We also went on a little beach located between two hills.

When it started to get dark it was time for us to go back. I thought I knew which bus we should take, but well, I was wrong about it. We started to ask around. Guy from the petrol station clearly wanted to help us but of course we understood none of what he was saying. Then, we stopped a group of young people who – thank God – were speaking perfect english and explained us where to go. So, we went.

It’s already dark, we’re standing on a bus stop waiting for a bus that is not coming when it was supposed to. I start to ask around and can see that Kenny is in a first stage of panic. One guy says that the bus we’re waiting for is quite rare and most probably won’t stop over here. He also suggested we should take a different one and then change. He offers to show us where to do so. I think “great!”, Kenny is in a second stage of panic. We stop under some bridge where it’s quite dark and empty and where we are supposed to leave the bus. It’s not looking like a friendly place, it’s too dark, too empty, too scary… We run and happily we find the right bus.

Conclusions of the day:

– people in Rio are very helpful and kind,
– some of them know decent english ( LP forum says they don’t),
– it’s not necessarily dangerous after dark,
– Rio is cool!

Niteroi – a base to Rio de Janeiro

I was supposed to meet Miry at the Niteroi bus terminal but finally I’ve decided to take taxi to her place. Vision of loosing my way in Rio and ending up in in one of favelas was too colorful. Anyway, thanks to this I’m pretty sure they will show me in in Rio’s TV. No idea what it was all about, but they interviewed a woman standing just next to me. If see a white face with a big smile – that’s me.

For the next few days apartment 1106 in Niteroi will be my home. It’s a real students place in every possible meaning of that. After few days spent with Miriam and boys I was almost ready to stay for the next few months or even better – to start studies and to live with them for next few years.

Obviously, my first question was “so, is it safe over here?”. As an answer I heard that Miry was mugged like 4 times and one of this times was when someone was pointing a gun at her. You (especially boys from Sao Paulo) can imagine the look on my face.

Most probably she noticed signs of growing panic on my face, so she decided to show me some good parts of Rio’s reality. She took me on a trip around Niteroi, we went for lunch to Steak House and had big portion of meat, farofa, veggies and cola – Yum!. Then we went to the park which was beautiful and safe during the day but apparently full of rapists in the night time. Beach was beautiful and just next to the apartment, but don’t think about swimming in the ocean – water is polluted.

We also went to visit a friend of Miry, cute girl who was living in Rio for quite some time now and still is a bit afraid of surroundings. While we were swiping a beer someone knocked on the door. A man introduced himself as as a government employee. The only thing was it was Saturday around 7 pm. Make the adding. She didn’t let him in saying she’s busy.

Bye bye Sao Paulo

They say that Sao Paulo is dangerous but not with three amigos by your side. Fabio, Danilo and Jackson made my stay unique and my first days in South America just great. It’s not that I’m afraid of life but after going through Lonely Planet forum I felt like even breathing may be dangerous over there and older people are waiting to kill me.

Three nice gentlemens explained, that I’m totally wrong and if I obey few simple rules and use a bit of common sense, I’ll be just fine. In the effect I’ve been wearing not too-cool-clothes – Fabio looked like from the fashion magazine (italian style), I’ve been trying not to show around my camera – Fabio was taking pictures everywhere. We were carring a shopping bag as a backpack and the most important one – we were staring at everyone plus Fabio was talking to everyone around.

How did it turned out for us? Fabio is safe, I’m safe as well, Sao Paulo isn’t that crazy dangerous and Fabio got much better pictures.

Now I got up at 6 am. Took shower and finished packing. It’s time to say goodbye to Sao Paulo and welcome Rio. First I have to get to the bus terminal by myself with two backpack. Well, piece of cake. With a look on my face saying “I’m local going to visit my family”, I took metro, changed it, then I bought a muffin. Happy to be on my way.