Beaches, caprinhas and stunning scenery on the Brazilian coast

We arrived to some mixed weather in Rio de Janierio but were keen to make the most of our time here. We stayed near Copacabana Beach in the Leme area, close to a favela (slums) which occupy most steep areas in the city. Our hostel (Lisetonga) was really good – with a buffet breakfast every morning, cheap drinks, a good common area to meet people and friendly staff. We could get caiprinhas (Brazilian cocktails made with cacacha white rum, sugar, lime and ice) for NZ$2 each which was awesome!

The Argentinian making another round of tasty caiprinhas at our hostel

The end result

The pet parrot that could wolf whistle at our hostel in Rio

The beaches of Rio are the main hangout areas for most of the locals here. We had expected the beaches to be dirty but it was nice to find clean white sandy beaches. There has been a big push to clean up the city before the Football World Cup next year which seems to be working. There are different sections along the beaches for different types of people; one section for families, one for gay people, one for young and sexy people (that was us), and one for people playing sport on the beach. Futevolley is a popular beach sport for the locals and it is a very skilful sport, as they play volleyball without using hands!  We found ourselves stopping to watch the locals play this game on quite a few occasions. The beaches are lined with stalls selling souvenirs, coconut water and acai smoothies. Acai is a berry from Brazil which is a superfood and apparently really good for you. We found a place where we could get a 400ml acai smoothie for NZ$1.50 so we enjoyed quite a few of these while we were here! One thing I found interesting was all of the gym setups dotted along the beachfronts of Copacabana & Ipanema, the perfect place to do a workout with a view. No wonder the locals are all fit here! I think these would be a hit around the beaches in NZ for sure! We headed to the beach most days where it was nice just to relax, soak up some rays and watch all the interesting people pass by..

Another nice Rio beach overlooking Sugarloaf Mountain

Locals playing a competitive game of Futevolley

Having a workout with the locals at the Flintstones gym between Copacabana & Ipanema

Gym set-up along Copacabana beach - such a good idea!

Big cup of Acai from our local in the favela

All the girls wear g-strings at the beach in Rio

The city of Rio is built in amongst quite a few mountains and we managed to get up two of the more famous ones during our stay. One day we visited Christ the Redeemer which is an imposing figure that you can see from most areas of Rio. Unfortunately the weather packed it in as we were going up on the tram. Luckily we managed to get a few photos of the Christ before the clouds and rain came over but didn’t see much of the view. We made up for this when the weather improved by heading up Sugarloaf Mountain, where we got some awesome views along the coastline and back towards the city.

The impressive Christ the Redeemer statue high up above Rio

View from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain

There are quite a few favelas (shanty towns) in Rio and it is weird that they are all located on prime real estate with really good sea views. We went on a walking tour through South America’s biggest favela (Rocinha). The houses in the favela weren't in the best condition but people seemed happy enough living here. Our guide Roberto explained how it was quite safe to visit this favela even though drug lords run the area. Apparently tourists are the biggest group of customers for the cocaine sold here so the drug lords make sure that nothing bad happens to them when they are visiting. As we walked down through the steep streets we were even offered cocaine by three dealers who must have been around 14 years old – quite sad really.

Awesome view from the favelas

Little boy we saw in the favela doing some work in his havi's

Haylee with our guide Roberto after our walk through the favela

The famous & colourful Lapa steps

There are so many things to do in Rio that we could easily have stayed longer but after 5 days here we headed down to the Island of Ilha Grande which is renowned for its awesome beaches & scenery. It was raining steadily for the first two days here so we decided to stay an extra day to make the most of it. We soon found a little gem outside our hostel with a man selling churros from a stall on wheels. These are freshly made fried donut sticks filled with caramel and became our staple dessert on the island. When the sun finally came out we set off early on a massive trek through the bush to the other side of the island to see the famous Lopez Mendez beach, rated as one of the world’s best. There were some really good views during the walk and the beach was stunning as we had expected. It was nice to chill here for the afternoon before making the hike back to Abrao where we were staying.

Visitor coming into our hostel grounds in Abrao

On a mission to get a coconut

Fresh coconut water

Stunning views on our walk to Lopez Mendez

Haylee on the white squeaky sand of Lopez Mendez

Our last shot of Lopez Mendez before our 2 hour walk back to Abrao

From Ilha Grande we were able to get a transfer to the colonial town of Paraty for a good price. We had a day to look around cool old school town before catching our first long haul bus ride to Florianopolis the following day. The bus was really comfortable with wide reclining seats and leg rests and we were able to get a good night’s sleep before getting to our destination in the morning. Florianopolis is an island with a big city and plenty of good surf beaches. We stayed on the east coast of the island near the coast and our hostel had a really good view over the massive lagoon on the island (Lagoa). We were able to check out two of them (Praia Mole & Joaquina) on the day we arrived while the weather was nice. They both had nice left breaks off rocks and Praia Mole has even hosted world class surf competitions in the past. I was planning on getting out for a surf while we were here but unfortunately the weather was average for the rest of our stay. We checked out the small fishing village of Barra de Lagoa which sits at the mouth of the river that connects Lagoa to the ocean. This beach was a bit more sheltered and apparently has perfect surf when there is a decent swell. 

View of Paraty on our 1 day stop-over there

Praia Mole

Locals out for a surf at Joaquina beach

Sunset over the Lagoa close to our hostel

Fishing boats sitting in the rivermouth of Barra de Lagoa

The nice surf beach of Barra de Lagoa

While the weather was bad we decided to check out the main city of Florianopolis where there was a bustling market going on. The island is famous for its seafood and there was one whole section of the market filled with good looking fresh seafood. We enjoyed one of the local specialties for lunch and it didn’t disappoint!

Local specialty of prawns for lunch in Florianopolis

Florianopolis was well worth the visit but I imagine it would have been a lot better with some decent weather. After some last minute Haviana shopping it was time to move on from Brazil. We only managed to explore a tiny portion of the world’s 5^th largest country and there is so much more to see here. We will have to get back one day to see the rest..

From here we leave the coast for a while and travel down to Argentina via the famous Iguazu Falls so stay tuned..