Days 294-297: Rio de Janeiro

Days: 294-297  -   Date: 14JUN-17JUN14  -   Itinerary: Curitiba to Rio de Janeiro, BR  -   Miles: 608

From Curitiba, I rode along the coast towards Rio de Janeiro. The BR-101 is a popular coastal road with bikers as it has some good curves and goes through occasional small beach towns. It’s really pretty along the coast here in South Brazil.BR_15Jun14_001 BR_14Jun14_002

BR_15Jun14_002I ended up riding into Rio at about 20:00. I usually try to be off the road before dark but the coastal road was much slower going than I had anticipated. I had already booked a hostel online a few days earlier since Rio is a really popular city with the World Cup going on. Tons of tourists here and with that comes a big increase in price. I was paying $100USD/night for a spot in a 9 bed dorm room.. crazyness!
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I stayed in Rio for just 2 days/3nights. This place certainly deserves more but with the inflated prices and over abundance of other tourists, I didn’t want to stay that long. I’ll just have to come back another time 😉

Of course, no trip to Rio is complete without going up to see old J.C. himself:
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To get to the top you take a train. It’s a pretty quick ride and has some good views on the way up.BR_16Jun14_004

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The other necessary thing to do in Rio is to check out the beaches. Copacabana and Ipanema beach are world famous and really do live up to their reputation.BR_17Jun14_Panorama_1

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Cariocas (people from Rio) are serious about their health and appearances. Everyone’s got their beach body maintained all year round here. I saw thousands of people running along the beach sidewalk. I could totally get into that mentality here.BR_17Jun14_001Overall, Rio seems like a great place to visit and probably an even better place to live. This place certainly lives up to it’s hype. As I mentioned before, I’m gonna have to come back here again someday 😉

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