Days Six and Seven in Rio de Janeiro

 

On Thursday we were planning on going to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, but we ended up having a lazy day on the beach instead.  I did remember to put sun screen on my face and my arms, but I forgot to get my legs.  Unfortunately, they got very sun burnt, and are currently on fire.

After sitting (and dozing off a bit) on the beach, we came back home and just took it easy.  We made some more pasta for dinner (a reoccurring theme) and chatted with some of the other hostel goers.  There's a couple here from Australia and a guy here from Ireland, although he lives in London now. The couple from Australia is actually travelling until November, and the guy from Ireland is just wrapping up the final leg of a 5 month long travel.  I can't imagine travelling for 5 months alone, or travelling for nearly a full year. 

Anyway, last night was pretty low-key, except for an incident that happened around 3 AM.  We went to bed around midnight, and there were 3 people still up drinking in the kitchen.  At around 3, one of the guys in the dorm room started shouting that he needed to go get more vodka. He was up in the dorm room with 7 other people, so I just assumed he had gotten way too drunk.  I woke up the next morning to find out that they had all gone to bed at around 1.  We're not exactly sure what happened, but we think he might have been sleep walking.  Lauren said he kept getting up and unpacking and repacking his bag, laying back down, and then unpacking and repacking again.  Oh the joys of staying in a hostel!  Lauren was actually pretty scared because he seemed to be acting a bit crazy, and you really don't know what a drunk person that is acting crazy will do next.  Thankfully, he finally went to bed and that was that.  He was a really nice guy, and he left this morning, so at least we're sure that won't happen again tonight.

Since we didn't make it to Sugarloaf on Thursday, we figured we would take a crack at it on Friday.  After yet another hot ham and cheese sandwich (same thing I've had literally every day for breakfast so far, because it's provided by the hostel), we headed out at around 10:30.  We found out the night before that there are a couple of easy mountains to hike up right around Sugarloaf, so we decided to hike up one called Morro do Leme.  It was about a 20 minute hike, and was pretty easy.  The path was paved and covered nicely in shade.  We saw a few marmosets, which was awesome, and it was a perfect hike.  My legs were still a bit hot, but they weren't awful.  The mountain in the distance is Sugarloaf.

When we got to the top, I set my water bottle down in the shade.  It was very hot, and I was getting tired, so I figured I'd set it down in the shade to keep the water a bit cooler and give myself a nice rest.  Lauren and I sat for a while, taking in the amazing view, and when I went back to grab my water, it was gone. There weren't that many people at the top, and there wasn't anyone that looked "sketchy", but obviously somebody took it.  Not sure if they knew they were stealing it or just thought it was abandoned, but the end result was I was out of a water bottle.  I did love that water bottle, but it was a cheap lesson.  I have found myself getting a bit too comfortable in the past few days, such as leaving my phone out charging on the bed while going to grab a bite to eat.  But this was a cheap reminder that I need to be very careful with my stuff.  As the owner of our hostel told us, people don't wear signs on their heads that say "thief", so just because someone doesn't seem like they're not the type of person that will steal something doesn't mean they are.

Any how, after we hiked back down we were planning on going to Sugarloaf, but my legs were both tired and hot, and I was still kinda bummed about my water bottle.  So we headed back to the hostel to take a cold shower, do some laundry, and relax for a while. At around 5 we headed out with the couple from Australia and the guy from Ireland to see a concert on the beach in Copacobana.  We were told it started at 6, and that it was going to be very popular, so we figured we should get there a bit early.  We hopped on a bus, which was a fun experience. When you get on, there's a separate person that takes your money.  She had her own chair with a big drawer full of money to make change, and a big turn style thing in the middle of the aisle like when you walk into a stadium.  I couldn't believe that the bus required a driver and a separate cashier to operate.

When we arrived, there weren't that many people around so we grabbed a table outside one of the street "concession stands" and chatted for a few hours. At around 8:30 or so there was a pretty decent sized crowd gathering around the stage, so we figured we should head over there and check it out.  It was actually a pretty impressive stage for having been built on the beach specifically for this occassion, especially considering the show was free. 

We stayed for 3-4 songs, but music just isn't as fun when you can't understand any of the words.  It was actually a lot of fun, and the crowd absolutely loved it.  But we hadn't eaten dinner yet, and we weren't sure how much there would be between the opening act and the main guy, so we decided to head back.  After bussing it back to the hostel we reheated some left over pasta for dinner, and then made some stove top popcorn for dessert.  Tomorrow (probably a few weeks ago by the time I get around to actually posting this) we're planning on seeing Christ the Redeemer in the morning and then going to an all you can eat place for dinner.  Oh boy!

All in all it was a fun two days.  Didn't see quite as much as we had hoped to, but we're pretty happy with what we did see, and we don't want to kill ourselves running from sight to sight.  We're going to need to pace ourselves over the course of this trip, so if a lazy day on the beach is what we need to recharge, then so be it!

- Bob