Travel to Rio de Janeiro VLOG – 3 Days in the City

[soft background music] After spending a few days in the Amazon rainforest and experiencing its natural beauty I made my way back to civilization to spend a few days in Rio de Janeiro I'm back at the airport, it's around 12:30 in the morning just waiting to catch a flight back to Rio.

Hopefully this time around Rio is good to me and I don't lose anything else while I'm there.

Back in Rio.

Taking a walk around before I can actually check into the hotel.

It's pretty early in the morning.

Quite a beautiful scene back there.

Ahh! [soft background music] This is actually pretty cool.

It was in the botanical garden.

I would never have stumbled across this if I wasn't walking through lost trying to find the original thing that I was looking for, which was a restaurant.

Which I still haven't found.

Which I am going to go and try and find now.

I found what I was looking for it's this little restaurant up in here.

I didn't actually go and eat but I went inside to take a look.

There's like a lineup of people wanting to take a photo because it's quite beautiful inside.

Let me show you what it looks like on the inside.

[soft background music] I finally got checked into the hotel.

Here at the Best Western in Ipanema beach.

Ok, let's check out the room.

[soft electronic music] So one of the challenges with travelling with just a carry-on, my little carry-on there, I am constantly having to do laundry.

[hairdryer] Drying some pants that I had just washed.

And then I've got clothes hanging over here.

And my undies hanging all up over there.

I've gotta get a bit creative so, what are some of the things that you guys do and how do you guys travel with a carry-on for a long duration of time.

Share some tips, give me some idea as to how I should do this going forward because I love to hear your thoughts.

Today I'm just gonna take it really easy I'm gonna spend some time here at beach on Ipanema.

And then maybe explore the city later on in the afternoon.

We'll see what we get up to today.

I just want to chill, just relax.

[upbeat guitar music] This beach is beautiful, but also a lot happens here.

I saw a body get pulled out of the water.

I got quite worried and I don't think the person made it.

They were working on him for about 20 minutes.

I'm still hopeful that maybe he might've made it.

Also just witnessed on the beach a tourist getting robbed.

Must have been her phone.

The tourist police were there they had the guy in handcuffs.

There wasn't really much that they can do at that point.

Like, ugh [scared expression] Enough of the beach.

I'm taking a walk towards Sugarloaf Mountain.

It's about six kilometer walk.

I didn't realize it was that far.

That's where I want to go you guys.

I totally could have just taken that gondola but hiking makes it even more fun, I think.

Man, this trail, is really steep.

And it's wet.

Which means it makes it even more slippery.

But I think I'm almost close to getting up there.

Finally made it to the top, I had to take the cable car because that's the only other way that you can really get up here .

People are sticking around, I think they are waiting to take their photo to take the sunset.

Umm, but let's take a look around and see what angles and what shots we can take.

[soft electronic music] Walking through a tunnel at night isn't really the smartest idea but it's the only way that I can get through back to where I need to go.

Hopefully, I'm safe.

So one of the most interesting challenges I've had here in Brazil is around communication.

And everyone that I've interacted with I've always had to ask “você fala inglês?” And the answer is always “no”.

However, Brazilians are very helpful and so, after playing a bit of charades we usually get to understand as to what it is that I need help with.

[soft background music] Today I'm on a mission to find Starbucks been there series mugs.

I collect these on my travels, and so far I haven't been able to find any in Ipanema, Leblon, Copacabana, and Botafogo.

So now I'm gonna go into city center and hopefully I can find some there.

Wish me luck.

First location, here in Cine- Cinelândia, I don't know if I said that right.

Nothing there, so on to Centro next.

I'm here in Centro, still no luck and I have directions, old fashioned directions.

Cause I still don't have wifi, in terms of how I'm gonna get to the next Starbucks.

So on to the next, hopefully this is the last one.

Last one, hopefully they have one here.

Otherwise it's the airport that I'm gonna have to try my luck.

Oh my gosh, they have some here.

They've got Brazil.

They've got Rio.

São Paulo I've already got São Paulo.

These are the two that I've been looking for.

I got my mugs.

I am super happy I got them.

Ok, I'm done for the day.

I've got a couple more hours left before I head to the airport, so I guess I might as well just explore while I'm down in the city centre.

[upbeat latin music] I'm gonna do my last meal here in Brazil and I think I'm gonna do kilo, the kilo meal.

It's kinda like a buffet but it's all weighed by kilo.

And you pay for what it is that you put on your plate and what it is that you eat.

My last meal here in Rio.

So when you enter the restaurant usually you'll get some sort of card or a ticket.

And then when you go get your food, you just plate it, and then you go up to the counter where they have like a weigh station.

And then they weigh it, calculate how much it is that you have, and then load it onto your card in terms of what they're going to charge you or on your ticket.

And then you can keep going up many times.

So drinks they'll come afterwards ask what it is that you want, they load it onto your card.

At the end of it, then you go up to the cashier you give your card or your ticket and end up paying what it is that you eat in weight, in kilo.

Which is I think a pretty neat concept.

If you guys do know of any kilo restaurants in Toronto do let me know, share in the comments below or message me because I would love to check them out.

Ok I lied, it's not the last meal that I'm gonna have here in Rio.

The last one is going to be açaí.

I can't leave without having one last açaí while I'm down here.

Because we don't have this in Toronto So let's go grab some.

It's so good.

I wish we had this in Toronto.

I'm pretty sure me do you have it Toronto but I just don't know where it is.

If you guys know where we have this in Toronto please do let me know.

Leave a comment below, I will definitely go check it out.

I was a bit over ambitious because this is huge.

Like, they had two other sizes that were bigger and when I saw the one liter, I was like, uh huh, can't do that.

And then size up, I'm like maybe I could do it, but then this looks like the right size and now I'm like thinking I over estimated.

But definitely it's gonna get finished because I just love açaí.

As I sat there eating my cup of açaí I reflected on how beautiful and diverse this country is, holding its own unique culture founded on tradition and global influences.

I realized that there's still more to experience and will hopefully return one day for another visit.

I spent the last few hours I had in Rio strolling through Copacabana beach before heading off to the airport to catch a flight to Atlanta.

From there, I did a quick stopover to explore the city grab a quick meal and then returned to the airport to catch my final flight headed home.

And that's wrap you guys.

Thanks so much for joining me on this adventure.

I really appreciate all the messages and commentary along the way.

It's as if you guys were traveling right here with me.

Stay tuned more adventures to come this year but for now I think I'll get some rest and maybe update some video logs from this trip.

As they say in Brazil “tchau, tchau” [soft electronic music].