October 5

We woke up bright and early and joined the tortoises for breakfast. Renata had laid out a big spread of fruit, juice, coffee, bread, toast, ham, cheese and yogurt. Delicious! We chatted with her about our plans - we´d been thiking of checking out the downtown and going up to the statue of Christ the Redeemer- and she offered us a ride out to the beeches. We decided to accept, but when we´d got ourselves ready, realized we´d crossed wires somewhere, and being the polite Canadians we are, went with the original plan rather than arguing.

We walked down to the square again and once more failed to catch a Bonde(the streetcar) The bus ride turned out to be quite adventurous anyway - the streets in Santa Teresa are STEEP. We ended up downtown near the cathedral and explored some stores and markets (I needed sandals!) and drank some more sucos. We had lunch at a very civilized buffet - when you´ve chosen what you want they weigh your plate and you pay a certain rate by 100g. Lots of tasty stuff, and two sizable lunches with bottled water still only cost 18R (about 9 bucks.)

We walked down to the bay, and looked at some boys fishing from the peir. We impressed ourselves with our navigation skills, and got back to the cathedral, which is a huge beehive structure, which was just incredible inside. It´s the kind of building you can really beleive was built by someone who believed in God.

Then we descended to the Metro and transferred to a bus that took us to the cog traing that delivers you to the top of the Corcovado - the mountain where the Christ the Redeemer statue is located. The train is kind of insane, a little scary as it drags up this very steep mountain for ages and ages, crossing over more than one tiny bridge. It~s worth it at the top though, the view of Rio is just amazing, and it´s hard to know whether to be more impressed by that or the statue (the view, actually). The statue is immense, though, teh head almost out of sight when you~re standing by the feet. (Can you tell this keyboard layout is different?) It~s incredible that people would have chosen to build a city in this valley between so many big mountains covered in jungle - you have to be amazed at the ingenuity!

We wandered around the neighbourhoods on our way back to the B&B and walked up the hill to the top of Santa Teresa before getting ready to go out to Porcao Rios, a giant Churrascaria (Gaucho barbecue.) It~s a totally surreal place, huge, with an enormous buffet of sushi, and all kinds of seafood and salad and veggies, and fish. And then you have the dozens of guys wandering around with giant knives full of meat. They come to your table and pile it on until you say you´re done, and they come one after another, until you´re surrounded with guys who´ve just served you half a cow. A very-well marbled, rich and delicious cow. Some people actually also manage side dishes and dessert!

From there we tried Lapa, the nightclub district, but I was almost too tired to think about dealing with a neighbourhood so busy and packed. Still, we had a nice drink in a popular bar and listened to a local musician.

Ok, I think I have to stop for tonight - it´s already been 40 minutes and $5, and John´s on another computer down tehre too. We´re about ready for supper and an early night.

Much love to everyone - and more soon!