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BiKEs From Bra Zil - part 4

there was a serious risk that we’d be attacked for our possessions while clogged in traffic. He’d even paid our tolls for us, a truly saintly man who JC said just disappeared when we reached Copacabana, completely safe there as long as we kept our eyes shut.

The hotel was in a top place, laundry and supermarket and drinking and dining options are all that are required to satisfy the motored cyclist. And cats apparently, with word quickly reaching Cindy’s ears that a community volunteer run “Cat City” was located in a nearby park. Bad luck, it was too late and we’d have to wait for Day 38 afternoon to experience that highlight. Day 38 morning was the Rio de Janeiro tour, sans Cat City, our guide a very knowledgeable native whose grandparents had left Poland for the New World in the early 20th century. Firstly the cable car up the Sugarloaf rock with its spectacular view, early enough to beat the crowds.

development here. In the olden times journeys between suburbs that now take minutes could take days, unless it is peak hour in which case it still takes days. The suburbs reaching onto the steep slopes are an engineering wonder.

Up the Sugarloaf

The hills around Rio city aren’t soft and friendly, no firing up the D9 for a new housing

Nervous passengers advised to pick their seating side carefully when landing in Rio

Down from the Sugarloaf, it was into the bus and up another even more popular bit of rock to see Christ the Redeemer. There was a Palm Sunday service going on in front which left less room for the scantily dressed Padre-distracting selfie flock than normal, but in Brazil nothing will put them off.

Impressive concrete Jesus’ (Jesii?) out of the way, it was onto more important sightseeing – Cat City. This is the stuff of nightmares for most human beings, cat-crazy middle-aged ladies the obvious exception. The City is set up like Rio and the outside areas with up-market condos on a verandah out of the weather, a slummy under-verandah world, and villages and estancias out in the rural areas where yeoman cats were seen building simple yet comfortable lives on small acreage plots. Probably not quite as focussed on hard work and helping other community members as the Pennsylvania Amish but they seemed to be getting along okay.

Day 39 was leaving Rio, concerns that the traffic would be dangerous and scary didn’t match with reality – it didn’t take long at all and was done at high speed. The objective once again was simply to avoid Sao Paulo while