The Girls From Ipanema

Broccoli trees clustered on miniature mountains, mile-long white sand beaches and crashing green waves...Rio turned out to be a little piece of heaven! The people were chilled, the sun was hot and so were the bodies. We made our first outing on a Sunday from Centro Rio, along the beach and all the way to the Sugar Loaf mountain. People were jogging, playing football, volleyball and beach tennis, and drinking refreshing coconut water across the stretch of the coast. Sarah and I stood out like pink flamingos but we carried on chasing the shore line, and just included ourselves in the colourful mixture of people and dogs running about. * It was all about the views: from Cristo and the Sugar loaf, to hand gliding above Leblon beach, Rio could be admired from every angle. The city also seemed to take influence from every angle of the world- the music and art was really colourful and had a lot of influence from Africa (like the drums in Samba), and the bar culture from Europe was ever present (especially the night Sarah and I went on a bar crawl through trendy Leblon sampling Caipirinhas and Bohemia beer). Everyone we met was very relaxed and happy, they seemed to be well aware of the fact that their city was enjoying a bright future, fat economy and winters with temperatures of 27 degrees in the shade. * Sarah and I left this hustle and bustle for a long weekend on Ihla Grande. It was paradise – the beach we hiked to, Lopez Mendez, is often voted as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. With no cars on the island, our only option to get around was– alas! - via speed boat. On our second day we took a trip visiting more inaccesible places, such as the green lagood and the blue lagoon whilst posing and tanning on the bonnet of the boat. We snorkelled a couple of times and saw fat orange star fishes, unpuffed puffer fishes, and a graceful turtle. The fresh fish was exceptionally yummy, and we ate sushi and sashimi a lot back on the mainland. * It was so different compared to the other countries that I have visited in South America. First and foremost, the completely inpenetrable Portugese provided a barrier between us a total experience of local life, and it didn’t really sound that nice either ... it seemed that no one felt the need to learn Spanish. When we met a couple from Rio, the man offered that Brazil is the King of South America, but was promptly shut up by his friend for involving us in South American politics. Otherwise, the food is more fishy, the cachaca liquor is stronger and they seem to work harder (both at their bodies and at their jobs). * I can’t believe I was going to go to South America and not go to Rio. It has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip... but then again my whole trip needs to be highlighted, underlined, in bold and capital letters as a rather special section of my life.