Back to Rio

Headed in taxi to Heathrow and checked in the board without any hassle at all.  No queue at Bag drop.  Then headed through security really fast.  Terminal 5 was okay but not mind blowing good.  In fact it is weird how departures is split over two floor and you have to get a metro thing to the plane.

Fortunately on the plane I was blessed with my own row of seats which was good considering the seat pitches on BA are not amazing.  On the way we flew over Quiberon- I looked out the window and it seemed flat.

 The flight was very long at 11 hours.  Although we were fed quickly and well watered throughout the flight- the meals were at the start and right at the end so was feeling pretty hungry in the middle.  Managed to watch two films- Wolf on Wall Street and Mandela which was worthwhile.

Touched down in Rio and picked up bags really fast- only to find Maria was not there.   I was feeling a tad pissed off however she arrived in a bit explaining about the traffic and 3 hours it took her to get to the airport.

We grabbed a taxi to Leblon.  Maria had put a few Bohemia beers in the fridge which was a welcome treat.  Later on headed out for a quick dinner at Frontera, one of these Brazilian kilo restaurants.  They had sushi as well as the usual beans and chicken.  It was late on so the food was not so amazing but alright and filled a hole.  Also a Bolivian football team called the ‘Strongest’ were playing on TV- I was interested because I am always if football is on and also that my mother had bought me one of their shirts when I was younger.  They lived up to their name winning 2 nil with the second goal a great strike. 

We woke up this morning early, because as Maria is learning winds are better in the morning for surf in Brazil.  We left just after 7 getting a bus down to Barra, bit closer to Rio than where I surfed before and the site of CT comp in May.  Actually started off by having a really crap session- could not find a wave that did not close and having not surfed in a while found it a bit fast.  There were some locals scoring as you can see from the pics.  Got dragged down the beach by the current.

However I went back in and scored a few nice lefts with victory fist-pump on the first one for good measure. We sat for a while on the beach, enjoyed the vibe, had a coconut.  It was really sunny and hot.  Maria got tanned crazy fast.  Bonus of surfing in boardshorts- been a while.

We headed back by bus to Leblon.  At the beach I decided to have another quick surf and jumped in and scored a nice little right followed by a shower (there were no showers at Barra).  Following this grabbed a snack lunch with massive Acai at one of the places I used to eat a lot when I last stayed in Leblon.  Was a nice afternoon.

Following was sightseeing.  We were both keen to see Parque Lage- which neither of us in our times in Rio had got too.  Basically it is an old mansion built in the 1920’s, by a rich shipping merchant.  Nice pool at the top.  We went downstairs to a prison- really weird as underneath the mansion was a full on jail with a solitary confinement cell that had a door like a safe.  Turn’s out this was actually where the slaves lived- pretty shocking really as this was less than 100 years ago.  It was like a dungeon down there.

The gardens of the house were really nice, probably better than the Botanic gardens.  You could swing fro the tree ropes semi Tarzan style. 

Around there was various follies like a tower and lake hut.  There was even a waterfall coming from the Corcovado which supplied the house with water, with a cave to the side.  All of this under the watchful eye of the ‘Christo’.The last thing was the stables- the house now houses an art school and the y had some crazy lighting exhibitions going on which were fun for photos.  

Slept the rest of the afternoon as so tired and headed out for sushi and drinks.