Running and Relaxing in Rio  

With the world famous beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro was a great place to slow down, relax and not see much other then these beaches. After a 10 hour flight from Lisbon, the lounge chairs at the Sheraton Hotel and Resort felt very good that first day. Also with our 4 day Macho Picchu hike coming up we wanted to spend time training. This meant running along the beach almost every day.

Because of the size of the city and country, we weren’t able to see much other then the beach areas of Rio. There were some areas of the city that we would have liked seeing but didn’t feel comfortable going there. We did see the biggest tourist attraction which is probably looking at all of the ‘nicely tanned skin’ you see on the beaches.

Rio de Janeiro is a bustling city with 3 primary areas that include Ipanema, Copacabana and the downtown district of Rio. Since Ipanema was very close to our hotel, we visited this part of the city almost every day. We must say that after enjoying the charm of Lisbon we found Rio lacking in many areas. The city streets were crowded with traffic and, for the most part, not very clean. We also had trouble finding many choices in restaurants with a menu we were interested in. However, the Brazilians were very kind and helpful even with the language differences. We couldn’t help but notice that the ‘thumb-up’ sign is always given by all Brazilians as an acknowledgement or sign of agreement.

On one of the days we ventured out to see Christ the Redeemer which overlooks the city at an altitude of about 2,500 feet above the city. The statue has been the prominent fixture of the city for many years and is one of the biggest tourist attractions of the city. The ride to the top and the statue was very impressive. With the many unusual rock and mountain formations around the city, the view was spectacular. Even our hotel was visible, many miles away. While seeing Christ the Redeemer we met a couple of twenty-something guys who had just started their 6 month around-the-world trip, traveling in an easterly direction. They are from Nelson, New Zealand and it was fun comparing travel notes and talking about our visit to Nelson and Abel Tasman while we were on the island in January.

We are now at the Rio airport on our way to Peru and feel that we saw and did what we wanted to do in Rio de Janeiro. After all sometimes it’s OK to not visit the local churches, museums and palaces. This was a country for visiting world class beaches. It’s time to move on and take our next trek.

Where’s Pat and Mike??