First full day in Rio

Well, still no internet access in the hotel. It's raining so I've come back to the hotel and figured I might as well write something even if I can't send it. Maybe that's even better than writing something and sending it. ;-) It's Thursday 21st January at about 5pm.

Didn't take my camera out with me today and rather wish I had. Still, I sometimes think - and I'm aware it's far from an original thought - that having a camera with you makes you look at stuff as 'things to be photographed' rather than 'things to see here and now'. So perhaps it was for the best after all.

I just looked in the guide book to check the places I went today and I notice that Santos Dumont airport is not on an island, at most it's on a peninsula and that might be stretching it. Not that important, but true.

It seems much hotter here than Sao Paulo, although I may be imagining it. It still rains though, as I've now discovered. I wandered around the small Parque do Catete after leaving the internet cafe this morning. Actually, that's skipping exciting stuff. I went back to the hotel to drop my credit card off and pick up my cash card, then spent half an hour or more walking around trying to find a bank that would accept it, then went back to the hotel to drop off the card and most of the cash, then went to Parque do Catete. And if that's sounds tedious, just imagine doing it. But I have to be careful of course. It says so in the guide book.

Anyway, the park was fairly pleasant if insanely hot. There is a small temporary-looking steel-and-net building in the park where an 'insects in Brazilian culture' exhibition is taking place. There were butterflies flapping around inside, I don't know how they stop them coming out when someone opens the door. I didn't go in as I suspect the organisers may have stretched themselves a little bit and included some spiders. :-)

I went into the Museo da Republica in the Palacio do Catete, which overlooks the park. It was apparently Brazil's presidential palace until 1954, which is surprising given how relatively small it seems. (Don't get me wrong, compared to, say, my old flat in London it was very large indeed. But by presidential palace standards, just a tiny bit cramped.) As promised in the guide book, on the top floor is the room, preserved as it was at the time, in which President Gertulio Vargas committed suicide. In a nicely ghoulish touch, they even have a glass case with the pajama top he was wearing at the time and the revolver he used. It wasn't totally clear but there appeared to be a hole in the pajama pocket. I couldn't resist wandering round to the back to see if I could see a corresponding exit hole, but I couldn't find it if it was there.

I also went into the Museo Folclorico Edson Carneiro next door, which to quote the guide book "displays Brazilian folk art with an emphasis on Bahian artists". That was a lot more interesting than it sounds, and I even go to go in twice, since I walked into the exit by mistake at first, wandered around the final exhibits and then got redirected by the security guard when I tried to go upstairs. That meant I got to be told it was free twice and sign the guest book twice. That has to be even better than simply being free.

I had the largest pizza on the menu and a diet Pepsi (got to watch my weight) for lunch then figured I ought to have a look at Flamengo beach. And I must admit it was pretty nice, with a good view of the Sugar Loaf Moutain (definitely the real one this time, as it had a cable car running up to the peak, and no one would bother doing that for an imitation) and the various islands and stuff which stop the view being just boring sea on the horizon.

From a slightly geekier pespective, Santos Dumont airport is just up at the north end of this beach and although I only saw one plane after it had already taken off, I imagine it's quite impressive watching things take off and land if you get up towards that end a bit more.

This is possibly the first non-UK beach I've ever seen from ground level. I won't say 'been on', since I didn't actually set foot on the sand. (I know full well if I had, I'd still be shaking sand out of my shoes this time next year.) And while the view was nice and all, I was slightly disappointed at just how, well, sand-like the sand was. It wouldn't have been out of place on a beach in the UK. None of this brilliant dazzling yellowness I had seen from the air and which you always seem to see in pictures. The sky was half overcast to be fair, although until it started to rain it was quite pleasant so I'm not sure that's any excuse. Similarly, the sea, while admittedly not looking grey and therefore beating the UK beaches I remember hands down, was a fairly unspectacular dark blue colour.

I will definitely go back there since I want to take some photos of the view and it's only a few minutes' walk from the hotel, so it will get a second chance to impress me with its dazzling colours.

I need to find out what time that all-day tour starts at and where it goes from, so I can try to get over there tomorrow morning. Lacking internet access (did I mention that already?), I will ask at reception and see if they know, since they did give me the leaflet. If I can find that out, I want/need to be up early-ish tomorrow, so the plan for tonight is to wait until it stops raining and just go have a few quiet beers round here then get an early-ish night.