We were sad to leave our friends in PG, but its time to start getting north. Today we are riding to Rio de Janeiro. This is one of those exotic places we have been dreaming about going since we were kids. We had been invited to the home of Paulo and Elizabeth. We had met Paulo in Chile at the end of February when we were at the small Puerto Fuy ferry dock. It is amazing how these chance meetings turn into such awesome opportunities for us to experience places with local knowledge.
We headed off on a cloudy, but hot day. This was all highway to get the 543 km done.
The best part was the 5 min of pouring rain, since we were very cool for the next 45. The worst was the 90 min we were stuck in RdJ traffic at 42 degrees. Even with lane splitting this was torture. Finally we got the 14 km long bridge and some breeze!
This guy in front of us was honking and waving his I phone at us. It took me a while to see he had a Canadian Flag case for it. He is Brazilian, but wanted to tell us how much he loved our country.
We had to stop at the first place to get some rehydration. From there we had a great view of the city and the famous Christ on the mountain at Corcovado.
Paulo welcomed us into his home. We went to his favorite brew house for dinner.
Today we had a mission to get brake pads for the 800 GS and oil. Our first stop was BMW, where they wanted 550$ for pads that we can get at home for 120$. We then managed to get rear pads at Honda and the fronts at Yamaha about 200$ total. After several hours of running around we toured up the coast to Barra de Guaratiba for a lunch of Crab cakes and shrimp Pastels.
From here we drove into the Tijuca Forrest for a nice drive up the mountain and a view of the city.
Near by is the Tijuca National Park, where you get a great panorama of the city from the “ Chinese View”.
There are plenty of Monkeys eating the jaka fruit.
We went down to the Lagoon for dinner. Here they have the world’s largest floating Christmas tree in the center, which has it’s own light show.
On the way home we stopped at vermillion beach to watch the worship of Yemanja Goddess. The Umbanda religion is a Brazilian religion that is a blend of African traditions, Roman Catholicism, Spiritism, and Indigenous American beliefs. They worship the Goddess Yemanja as one of the 7 spirits of God. She is the patron of fishermen, fertility, and moonlight. They send a boat filled with flowers to sea for her.
