When my baby smiles at me...

I go to Rio, de Janeiro (if, like me, this means nothing to you watch this you tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCYxTg6svXg ). When my fiancée started singing this at me while in the immigration queue at Rio airport I though he was doing a really bad job of singing something I should recognise but actually she was doing a fairly decent impression of the guy on the piano in that video (good luck getting it out of your head, it has stayed with me for days)

Our arrival in Rio was a mixed emotions kinda thing, we were sad to be leaving Colombia and also sad because we only have 4 weeks left of our trip, however the prospect of seeing Rio was something we were looking forward to, despite the fact that it is one of the more costly destinations we planned on visiting.

We chose to stay for 4 nights in the Bohemian Santa Terresa district, which is set in the hillside overlooking the Centro business district, the lively Lapa area which is where much of the partying takes place at the weekend an Rio's funky modern concrete cathederal (which lights up with all sorts of neon colours ay night). Sadly although we arrived on a Saturday because the flight was an overnight one from Colombia we only got 2 hours sleep on the plane and so failed to make the most of the Lapa nightlife, although we did make it as far as Nuevo Chapela, a Lapa restaurant focusing on traditional Brazilian dishes.



This was fairly typical of the Rio restaurants we ate in, although the food is not what you would describe as amazing or life changing Rio restaurants could not be accused of skimping on the portion sizes, most of the mains (even the ones which were supposed to be half portions) were enough for two people, although at 70-100 reals (21-33 pounds) you would probably hope this was the case.

The best find was probably the fact that the restaurant had a more than acceptable Brazilian Cabernet Sauvignon which was around 12 pounds a bottle.

Most of the traditional dishes were of the meat and rice variety, the broccoli rice (which was green and I believe also contained spinach) from Nuevo Chapela would be one of the things I would recommend (although this could be a bit hit an miss as when we came back to this restaurant later in the week there was far too much garlic in it). The streets and the bars in Lapa looked really lively but we imagined they would be that way most of the week so we gave in to the fact we were exhausted after our flight and lack of sleep. Sadly and surprisingly this turned out to be a mistake as we were only staying from Saturday to Wednesday the nightlife on the rest of the week was disappointingly almost none existent!

So if you are in Rio outside of Carnival and want to party then apparently Friday and Saturday nights are the best time for going out.

Pictured below are the excellent cod balls from the starter at Nuevo Chapela along with part of the half lambs leg and broccoli rice. A view of rio from near our hostel in Santa Teresa and the main street in Santa Teresa.