in the Rocinha favela

A bit later in the afternoon I decided to visit a favela during daytime (I was in a favela on Saturday night). I left the hostel at 2 pm to get a feel of the largest favela in Brazil – Rocinha.

Ironically Rocinha literally means small ranch in Portuguese. The first houses in Rocinha came about in the 1920´s and ever since it has been rapidly expanding. It now houses a staggering amount of 200 000 people and is actually classified as a Favela Bairro, or Favela Neighborhood. Up until the 80´s the government had some sort of control of the favela. Now three major gangs control all the favelas in Rio and they are constantly fighting for territory. Only yesterday (30.November) there was a big gang war in a favela in the Ipanema district.. [...] Read more

Fluminense vs. Vitoria at Maracanã

I then cruised off alone as I ditched the rather expensive soccer tour being arranged through the hostel and did it on my own instead. In the end I got the whole experience for 25.60 reals (85 NOK), instead of 65 reals (215 NOK) which was what the hostel charged – so I would definitely recommend doing the trip on your own!

I got on the metro for 2.80 reals (9 NOK) and grabbed line 1 at zona norte. Before even boarding the metro, I got to know this nice and helpful guy from the south of Brazil who was visiting his brother in law. It turned out that these guys were also heading for the game and we were chatting away having a great time all the way to the stadium. On the way we got off at Estácio (at this place you don’t have to worry about which zone you’re in) and swapped over to line 2 and got off at Maracanã station. I said goodbye to my new Brazilian friend at the end of the bridge at Maracanã and started looking for Imran & Sadiq [...] Read more

Party night in Lapa

27.November: In the evening we went to Berenice’s birthday party next to Lake Rodrigo de Freitas. Berenice is one of the friendly Brazilian staff working in the reception at our hostel (Bamboo hostel). Earlier that day we had talked to Imran and Sadiq, two awesome fellas we got to know during the Salar de Uyuni [...]

Hang-gliding in Rio!

We were picked up at the Bamboo hostel at around 9am and drove off sitting in the back of the truck in free air while holding on to some metal bars going across the rear end. We drove for about 45 minutes and were dropped off next to São Conrado beach to sign some papers. The usual stuff, as for instance the ones in charge of the activities will not take any responsibility for any damages, death or loss of property etc. We got the paperwork over with quickly and it was hang-gliding time! [...] Read more

Sugarloaf mountain

It was time to check out more of those infamous spots in Rio, so this morning we grabbed bus no.353 to a station near Pão de Açúcar (the Sugarloaf in Portuguese). The Sugarloaf is a 396 meter tall peak situated at the mouth of Guanabara Bay on a peninsula that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. To get to the top, we took the teleférico – a glass paneled cable car capable of holding some 75 passengers. The original cable car line was built in 1912 and rebuilt around 1972 to its current form. The cable car runs along a 1400 meter route between the peaks of Sugarloaf and Cara de Cão every 20 minutes. This is a two part ride as the cable car goes from the base, not the peak of the Babilônia mountain, to the Urca mountain and then to the Sugarloaf mountain. [...] Read more

Redeeming Corcovado

Grabbed bus no.583 to the foot of mount Corcovado. Apparently, this was the last stop and we were kinda kicked off the bus here along with a bunch of passengers. We were originally planning on taking a train to the top of Corcovado for 36 Reals (119 NOK). Although, the very second we jumped off the bus, some guy in a mint green bus driver shirt ran over to us and offered to drive us to the top of the Corcovado while stopping at two additional viewpoints on the way up for 40 Reals (132 NOK) pr. person. This also included the entrance fee of 14 Reals (46 NOK). If you haven´t yet done the math, this means that we got the transport for 26 Reals in stead of 36 Reals including two extra great photo opportunities. As I’m a skeptic, I hesitated a bit, but the offer seemed just too good to pass on a hunch, so we went for it! [...] Read more

chilling at Copacabana

As we were within a short walking distance from Copacabana we decided to go for a swim and get that tanning going. Copacabana was packed with locals as it was Sunday. The sun was shining brightly in the sky and all over the beach locals kept walking around selling soda, sea food and grill food from a small portable grill. We decided to rent some camping chairs for 3 Reals (15 NOK) and spent a couple of hours just relaxing full time in the sun enjoying not being on a bus – ahh the good life! [...] Read more