Today we had another sighseeing tour through Rio. It was really interesting. We passed the favelos (slums) again and even very nice houses along the Copacabana. There are flats, which actually are 2.000 m˛ large!

We went through "Centro", where all the companies have their offices. It's quite interesting to see the mixed architecture - there are old churches and modern skyscrapers just beside each other.

We passed the large and famous soccer stadium, which was built for the soccer world championship 1950. Today it's the second largest stadium in the world. The official name of the stadium is Estádio Mário Filho and earlier there was place for approx. 200.000 visitors. After a renovation the capacity was decreased to approx. 80.000 visitors.

Then we continued to the sugar loaf (Păo de Açúcar), 396 meter high granite rock, which is located north of the Copacabana. We reached the top by using two cablecars. The first one goes to the hill Morro da Urca and the second takes us up to the sugar loaf.

On the top of the sugar loaf we had a fantastic view over Rio and the Copacabana.

We had lunch at a great restaurant called Porcăo, from which we had a great view over the sugar loaf. The service was great, the waiters very nice and funny and the food was delicious!

There was a nice buffet with a lot of fish and meat and other things. We had a lot of food and a lot of fun!

After lunch we went back to the hotel and had some time to relax and having a Caipirinha.

In the afternoon it was time to take on the costumes, which we had chosen the day before. We were looking quite funny! We were picked up by a bus and went to a very nice culture building.

Caipirinha (what else?) was served as a welcome drink. Then we had a delicious dinner, which was created by the most famous TV-cook in Brazil. Crayfish with palm tree meat
Lamb with mushrooms
Fruit sorbet
Quail with tomatos and peas
Vanilla ice cream with bananas

And then it was time for carnival! The famous carnival in Rio takes actually place in February but they had arranged a little carnival for us! It was a great show, dance, samba, music, nice costumes and everybody had a great time!

It's impossible not to move when hearing the Brazilian music! So we were dancing all night and had so much fun!

When we came back to the hotel at 1.00 hrs it was just to take a shower, change clothes and go down to the pool. It was great!

We went to bed very late, but who cares? We were in Rio!!! :-)