We’ve wanted to go to Brazil for a long time, but now is finally the right time. We have time during the Brazilian low season, Brazil no longer has an authoritarian government and the flights are cheap. What more could you want? Unfortunately, we miss Carnival by a week, but as we will find out later, we would have had to plan at least 1 1/2 weeks for Carnival anyway to get into the right mood. We’ll probably put that off until our next trip to Brazil and start with the south of this huge country!

But first, of course, we have to go to Rio to visit Copacabana, the Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugar Loaf Mountain. We spend two days strolling along the city’s many beaches, sipping caipirinha and eating acai smoothies – a lilla fruit that we’ve already tried in Colombia, but as a smoothie it’s simply unbeatable. Despite a few rainy days, we also managed to get to the Sugar Loaf Mountain to watch a fantastic sunset and enjoy the night-time atmosphere over Rio – with almost no other tourists. They were probably all put off by the rain We also take a walking tour through the city center and learn a little about Brazil’s history (especially that the colors of the flag green, blue and yellow do not stand for rainforest, blue sky/water and gold/sunshine, but are simply due to the colors of Portuguese colonial rule

For the statue of Christ we wait for a sunny morning, which we catch on our third day in Rio and take a cab to the train stop on the mountain.
We don’t want to take the train because 1) it’s too expensive and 2) there are too many tourists, but there are also supposed to be vans that will take us to our destination much more cheaply and quickly!However, at the starting point of the train, we learn that it has been closed since the previous evening due to a security incident and it is currently unclear when it will reopen – the queue in front of the train terminal is already easily a hundred meters long… We treat ourselves to breakfast and wait a while, and then the ascent is actually reopened relatively quickly.We grab one of the first vans and are at the statue before the biggest crowds. Nevertheless, you can hardly avoid the crowds in front of the statue, but it is an impressive experience coupled with a great view over Rio!

In the afternoon we go to Copacabana again and let Rio end in the evening in the nightlife district Lapa with a Caipi for 2€!!!

The next day we continue by bus to Paraty, unfortunately we have to skip the beautiful island of Ilha Grande due to the heavy rain forecast