7 km Rio de Janeiro

It's been a busy couple of weeks before departure to Rio on the 25th. The last gear needed to be bought and of course I also wanted to spend time with family and friends knowing I'll be away for quite a while. But on the 25th the day was finally there and it was time to fly off to Rio. I had disassembled the bike the day before and left it in a box on Schiphol airport. This avoided a lot off stress just before the flight. I arrived in Rio around 21.00 local time and luckily my bike and bags made it to Rio in one piece. Since the luggage area was almost desserted I used the opportunity to put the bike back together right there. Customs looked quite surprised when they saw me walking up with the fully loaded bike. I asked around a bit on the airport and most people said the 2km I needed to travel by bike from the airport was fairly safe. Luckily I did not have far to go to the hotel. I booked something close to the airport for obvious reasons. The day after however I had to take the bike in a cab to the Copa Cabana where I found a hostel. Cycling from GIG was really not an option. Lots of tunnels without shoulders on route, crazy traffic and most of all cycling through/near favellas. The remainder of yesterday I spend some time on the beach and just strolled around Copacabana and Ipanema and I tried some Caipirinha's as you do when in Rio.

Today I went up to the Cristo Retendor to get closer to Jesus, nah not really, it was mainly to admire the statue and score a nice view over Rio. The weather has unfortunatelly taken a bit of downturn since yesterday. It's clouded and a bit dark outside, though it's still a nice comfy 27 degrees. Luckily the city was at least still clearly visible from the mountain. Later today I'll check out sugar loaf mountain for another view of Rio and tomorrow I will use the daylight to check out the center of Rio.

Saturday I will leave Rio and head west in the direction of Paraty, Santos and eventually Curitiba. I don't expect to camp here in Brasil, so I will likely find some access to wifi every once in while. 

Planning to leave at early daylight hoping to put some distance between me and the suburbs of Rio. Take care everybody, next post I will likely have some more milage on the counter.

All the best Erik