Rio rush hour

I arrived in Rio at 5am, and steeled myself to tackle the city with an iced cappuccino at the airport. I eschewed taxi drivers and navigated the way to the city by bus. The journey during peak rush hour was interesting, and I had all the time in the world compared to my usual flailing. A city of 14+ million, this is one of the biggest behemoths I’ve visited. It was such a cacophonous journey that the only thing I gained was a slightly better understanding of the geography.

I headed for a hotel in Copacabana. Early in the morning the beach is quiet with mainly elderly sun-worshippers going about their daily constitutional. Amongst the kiosks gearing up for the day you will sometimes see a muscled body parading around.

Angolan Airlines bestowed on me some sleep so I hit the streets to look around. Walking for hours moves you around one centimetre on the map. The key thing that differentiates Rio from other mega-cities is its backdrop of boulder mountains and settlements sprawling up the hillsides. When I saw the Corcovado I let out a whoop of excitement as it’s such an iconic monument. I needn’t have been concerned that Rio was still experiencing its winter temperatures. Wandering the city was all rather on the hot and sweaty side.

My friend Erlyn, who I met in Buenos Aires, arrives tonight. So I had a day to explore parts of the city, knowing that my brand of tourism, walking so far and for so long in unsuitable footwear until I acquire blisters on both soles and heels, may not be for everyone and might not be how he wants to spend time.

I plunged into rush hour commuting time to meet Erlyn at the airport, as he’s a more anxious traveller. Rio is such a melting pot that it’s refreshing being able to move around bus and metro stations incognito. The metro carriages themselves were so packed at 6.30pm that fellow passengers would have had no idea that the knee in their groin, or the sweat we were all exchanging, came from a non-Brazilian. When I could move my arm enough to use it, the WiFi in the metro thinks I’m an existing user called Carolina.

Erlyn was successfully collected. One blazing row with an unscrupulous taxi driver and one good value hearty meal later, we retired and had a calm one on the first night of the holiday.