Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Oct 24, 2014: |
| « | » |
| » now | ||||
| Fr |
Friday Oct 24, 2014 #
Note
(rest day)
Made it to Rio this morning, with no dramas entering the country but a (predictably) slightly crazy taxi ride from the airport (wasn't confident enough in the neighbourhood before seeing it to be confident about walking from a bus stop to the hotel with luggage; I would be now). Vehicular highlight was seeing a motorbike squeezing through a gap that I wouldn't have been game to go through on a pushbike with the cars stopped, let alone with all vehicles involved going at 60 km/h plus.
I'm staying in Copacabana, a couple of blocks back from the beach - Rio is an expensive city but definitely a better place for less money (still not cheap by any means) than in New York. Did quite a bit of walking around the neighbourhood in what was left of the day (and got down to the next beach, Ipanema, at sunset too). I'd hoped to get up to the Cristo Redentor statue in late afternoon but was too late to get on a trip so that will have to wait until the morning, but did get up to a smaller hill at the east end of the beach which gave plenty of great views regardless. (The forecast for Sunday is wet so I'm trying to get the outdoor things done sooner rather than later). The area has a bit of a seedy (which doesn't necessarily equate to particularly dangerous) reputation after dark but seems perfectly OK during the day; seeing a lot of families around is always a good sign in that respect.
I'm planning to stay in Sao Paulo on Monday night (not because I'm particularly desperate to visit there, but because the bus schedules make it hard not to). Have been researching possible places to stay and crossed one off my list when one of the Tripadvisor comments referred to being robbed at gunpoint outside the front door. (Like in Rio, I expect most of the serious crime is confined to particular neighbourhoods but it isn't so obvious from the information I've seen where these are).
I'm staying in Copacabana, a couple of blocks back from the beach - Rio is an expensive city but definitely a better place for less money (still not cheap by any means) than in New York. Did quite a bit of walking around the neighbourhood in what was left of the day (and got down to the next beach, Ipanema, at sunset too). I'd hoped to get up to the Cristo Redentor statue in late afternoon but was too late to get on a trip so that will have to wait until the morning, but did get up to a smaller hill at the east end of the beach which gave plenty of great views regardless. (The forecast for Sunday is wet so I'm trying to get the outdoor things done sooner rather than later). The area has a bit of a seedy (which doesn't necessarily equate to particularly dangerous) reputation after dark but seems perfectly OK during the day; seeing a lot of families around is always a good sign in that respect.
I'm planning to stay in Sao Paulo on Monday night (not because I'm particularly desperate to visit there, but because the bus schedules make it hard not to). Have been researching possible places to stay and crossed one off my list when one of the Tripadvisor comments referred to being robbed at gunpoint outside the front door. (Like in Rio, I expect most of the serious crime is confined to particular neighbourhoods but it isn't so obvious from the information I've seen where these are).