Rio & Petropolis

Flying into Rio - you can cleary see where the city boundaries start at night.

One of the many Fevelas - shanty towns - on the outskirts of Rio. Thousands of people are crammed into these areas but this view from the bus was as close as I was getting as they are not exactly a safe place for a tourist to wander around!

Botafago Beach was only a couple of minutes walk from my hostel.

Someone had been getting romantic on the beach by the looks of things....

Downtown Rio as you would imagine was just mobbed.

The State Parliament of Rio De Janerio

Some really nice old buildings in the middle of all the tower blocks in the centre of town.

The police dog was on guard to make sure everyone was behaving!!

Unusally the domestic airport is right in the middle of the city - this plane had just taken off.

This colourful picture hanging in the National Museum ' Colonisation and Dependence` represents various different aspects of Brazil history from the indenginous tribes, Sugar Cane Plantations to Portugese rule.

The museum itself used to be a fort and then an armory.

Though there are obviously a lot of very poor people here it wasn´t quite as bad as I expected - I think that the main poverty is far outside the areas that travellers generally venture into.

Cemitario de Sao Joao Batista a short walk from my hostel this cemetery was huge and overlooked by ´Christ The Redeemer´from the hill in the background.

This one reminded me of the Dementors in Harry Potter!

As it was too cloudy to make the trip up Sugar Loaf Mountain my first day I went for a walk around Urca the neighbourhoos just under the mountain which is one of the more affluent areas in the centre of the city. As it then started to rain I gave up all together and found a cinema playing the new Harry Potter movie in English (yeah).

The next day it was a little clearer when I got up so I took the Cable Car up to Sugar Loaf Mountain as the forecast was for bad weather for the rest of the week!! You stop on Morro Da Urca first which as it wasn´t so high was not cloudy. At the top of Sugar Loaf one side was pretty clear but a cloud had settled into the other and you couldm´t see the view over the Copacabana beach!!

There was a lot of these little monkeys at the Cable Car stops waiting for the tourists to feed them!!

A monument to fallen soldiers at the base of the mountain.

The view from the small Urca beach when I got back down the cloud had lifted off the top of Sugar Loaf!!

Graduation Day.

As there was no cloud over Christ the Redeemer I decided to take my chance and jumped the bus over to the base of Corcovado(Hunchback Hill).

Corcovado Express takes you up to the top.

By the train got to the top the clouds had rolled in again!!

My first sign of a Coati (a member of the Racoon family)

This was my view of Christ The Reedemer from his feet!! He is 30m tall and was erected to celebrate Brazils cenenary independence celebrations in 1922 (though he was not finished until 9 years later!!)

As stubborn as I am I hung around for a while and the cloud did lift for a few minutes and I got a better view and he is as impressive as he looks in the photographs.

The only glimpse of the city that I got from the top.

Half way down we came out of the clouds and saw a little of the view that we might have gotten!

Of course by the time I got back down to where I was staying the cloud had completely lifted and there was a nice clear view of Christ The Redeemer lit up!! Typical!!!!!!

I t00k a one hour bus ride up into the hills to the City of Petropolis - the views on the way were worth the journey in itself.

Although only 66km from Rio Petropolis had a completely different feel to it. Well maintained old colonial buildings, wide streets - a city with a small town feel really.

Petropolis Town Hall.

When I went into the Culture Centre there was an exhibition on the history of the local police. The older gentleman in the middle photo was a retired officer of 47 years (glad I don`t have to work that long!!).

Don Pedro 2nd was the 2nd and last Emperor of Brazil after they became a Replubic he and his family were exiled. Before this he had his summer Palace in Petropolis which is the reason it still is a summer getaway for many Brazilians especially from Rio.

Emperess Isabel (Pedro 2nd daughter) who abolished slavery in Brazil in 1888 when acting as Regent when her father was out of the country.

Some of the rooms in the palace now he Museu Imperial- the Crown Jewels and the more exciting rooms were not allowed to be photographed! The worst part about not having my camera inside was not being able to take a photograph/video of the woman who kept on their high heels with the slippery felt slippers that they gave you to wear so as not to damage the floor!! Would be worth a You Tube moment!!

The Royal Carriage.

The gardens at the palace had some interesting statues and flowers - the second photo is a flower but it looked and felt like a banana peel!!!

Palacio de Cristal based on the London Crystal Palace that burnt down this was just a big greenhouse.

The Horse and carts for the tourists - most of whom were Brazillian.

Museum de Casa de Santa Dumont - he is considered the Father of Avaition in Brazil as he was the first person to show that routine flight control was possible flying a balloon and made the first European Public Flight of an aeroplane - and hey I always thought it was the Wright Brothers!!! Funny how different countries claim the same achievements as their own!!

Think someone was confused Santa being pulled by a goat in July!!!

Cathedral de Pedro Alacantra built in 1884 this holds the remains of Don Pedro 2, his wife Teresa and the tombs at the side the Empress Isabel and her husband.

There was also the more modern commercial area in Petropolis but that wasn´t as attractive as the old colonial centre.

And as you head out of town to the bus station the setting changes to much more of a country feel.