The route to Rio from the airport travels through some poorer parts and industrial areas but then goes through tunnels where you burst through into a more Miami-like environment of high-rise buildings with imposing sheer mountains. The Christ the Redeemer statue looks over all of Rio keeping watch.
Its New Years Eve and the taxi driver thinks there will be at least 2 million people on the beach by midnight. The weather is overcast and its rained a few times but I don't think that will stop the revellers. We've been given special wristbands so we can get to the rooftop to watch the fireworks but also to even enter the hotel if we were to venture outside. The picture below shows a large stage where there's 6 bands scheduled. The barges in the water hold the fireworks in readyness.
The official language of Brazil is Portugese which is quite different to Spanish. Add to this the fact that outside the tourist areas no-one speaks English and buying food becomes very difficult...so tonight we're just having room service. We've got a guide picking us up tomorrow morning and considering the language barrier, this should turn out to be a good idea.
The fireworks on NYE were awesome! The barges were set up about 150m off the beach and the booms from the detonations rocked your chest and assaulted your ears. The display went for about 15 minutes and in my opinion rivalled Sydney's although they didn't have a bridge to light up at the end.
The beach was packed with people and the noise when they cheered was indescribable. Copacabana beach is about 5km long and there was a mass of people along most of it. We were on the rooftop (pooldeck) of our hotel so we had an excellent view right on the railing. During the buildup, no less than 9 cruiseships lined up on the other side of the fireworks barges to watch the show. There was also a beach concert featuring Brazil's version of Kylie Minogue, Daniela Mercury.
We'd been up since 5am to catch flights from chile so were very tired and as the beach party rocked on into the night, we thought sleep would not be an option however fatigue won out in the end.
In the morning, an army of orange-overall workers were clearing Copacabana beach and Atlantic Avenue ready for the new day.
No comments:
Post a Comment