As we came in to land my first impression of Rio was a black blanket of mountains defined only by a dusting of millions of tiny, sparking lights. This is when it dawned on me just how many buildings are crammed in to this legendary city.
Rio De Janeiro is 1182.3 square kilometres (over 11% is green space) and has a population of roughly 10 million people which is pretty crazy! But this is perhaps what Rio has become recognised for, its crammed in shanty towns making it famous through films like City of God.
The next day we wandered down to Copocabana Beach, where we watched the Brazil vs. Portugal game and chilled with 200,000 other Brazilians. This is when I learned that Brazilians love dancing, love yellow and love noise. It didn't matter that the game was pretty crap, everybody had a day off work, it was 27 degrees and it was time to party. Their energy was infectious and soon had us grinning ear to ear as we wandered back down the beach taking in everything happening around us.
Over the next couple days we swallowed up all the great sights of Rio including Sugar Loaf Mountain and Christ, which had the most breathtaking views of this awesome city. One of my favourite sights however had to be the tiled stairs of Lapa which is a normal staircase that a local artist took upon himself to spend 20 years covering in colourful tiles from all over the world.
Before arriving in Rio we heard many scare stories about how violent and dangerous a city it was, and ok yeah it does have a higher crime rate than Aberdeen. But apart from the occasional gunshots and the polite offer of some weed or coke from some grinning dude on the beach, Rio is just like any other city in the world. If you keep your wits and don't go looking for trouble you probably won't find it. The people here were friendlier than any other country I've ever been too and greeted our awful Portuguese with nothing but smiles.
I felt sad when it came to leaving Rio and felt like we had only just scratched the surface of what this amazing city had to offer us. When I look back on it now the only word I can think that would describe it is Juxtaposition. It is sweet and sour, green and grey, rich and poor, pristine and shabby, but unlike any other city in the world there is no attempt to hide it's less desirable features. I haven't figured out if this is a good thing or not yet but what I do know is that anybody who comes here will fall in love with it's luscious green mountains, vibrant streets and of course the people.
Obrigado Rio, it's been a blast!
