Rio again

Long drive back to Rio today. 6.5 hours according to Google maps. But its such a fun drive over and around mountains all the way. I was about an hour outside of Rio at noon and i pulled over to check out a castle i saw near the highway that has a restaurant but unfortunately it was closed.

Nearby Petropolis has brazil's oldest brewery, so i went there instead. Had lunch there and then checked out the very pretty town. Tons of mansions and palaces. But i couldn't park because i had already incurred a parking ticket near the brewery (and i got one in mariana too). I pulled over for a few quick pics on one street where i found an opening. But around the corner i saw the parking ticket lady putting tickets on every car, so i scurried back and left. Certainly not the types of towns i imagined before arriving in brazil. Lots of german settlements here and there apparently.

Made my way to chaotic Rio. Driving in this city requires a certain level of insanity and patience haha. Often there are 4 lanes of traffic and no lines on the road, and everyone is jostling for position like a race track. And my map will say to exit to the right but there will be one ramp going up and another going down. Google maps isn't 3 dimensional, so its a coin flip every time, and I'm losing more than winning :) But i just laugh and recalibrate Google maps for a new route and try again. I can't imagine doing this without google maps.

Got to my hotel in copacabana. This time i ended up with something much nicer and somehow much cheaper. Got in contact with Daniela again and she took me to a really cool restaurant in Ipanema where you can order off a menu, but i don't recommend doing that. Because, there are waiters circling the establishment with different trays of small plate appetizers every 10 minutes that you can take off their tray and they add it to your bill. You can see the food and decide, whereas i have no idea what anything is in print. Brilliant! And delicious!

Then we went to a craft beer spot a few blocks away for a little while. She had to be up at 5am and i was exhausted from the long travel day so we both needed to get some rest and get out of there after a quick pint.Read more