Day 3 – Two Brothers, Vidigal Favela, Serrano Steps & Lapa

Day 3 was our busiest day yet, in fact I’m not sure we could have done anymore if we tried. Cue long blog post, sorry in advance!

We started by heading over to the foot of the Vidigal Favela where we were meeting a local tour guide (who lives in the Favela) called Felipe. We found his tours on instagram so messaged him and set the trip up. Having met with him at the entrance to the Favela we were both chucked on the back of two separate motorbike taxis and rallied up through the steep twisting streets zooming past each other, people on the street and any cars or vans also charging around. I must say when I saw Laura vanish off into the distance ahead of me with a random guy into a favela I was thinking that after three months of marriage I really had got rid of her… no joking aside I was genuinely shitting myself thinking they’d set this up, driven her off with our money and belongings and who knows what they had in store for me!!

Much to my relief this tour was legit and we pulled up alongside each other before coming to a stop at the top side of the favela and at the start of the hike to the Two brothers peak which towers above Vidigal. We walked for around 45minutes to the top, catching glimpses of the views through the thick Forrest as we went. Nothing could really have prepared us for the views at the top! 35degrees, blue skies, Rio and the surrounding suburbs on one side and endless sea views on the other, we were completely blown away.

Filipe took some cool photos for us and after a quick breather we headed back down to start the walk to the bottom through the Favela itself. The ‘Red Commander’ (the Favela boss) had been at a party the night before and was staying in the Favela Hotel which was heavily guarded, it was pretty mad to see the amount of security he had. Only tourists were allowed to pass the street he was on and this was off limits to the people in the Favela.

We then had a beer at the Favela pub and the tour was complete.

We loved the whole experience but felt a bit conflicted by it all. We jumped on a public bus back to Copacabana but got dropped at the wrong end of the beach somehow, we then decided to run the 2km back to the hotel but doing this in the heat was a bad choice hahaha

It was only about midday so we jumped on the Metro to the centre of town and went on a three hour free Walking tour of the main bit of the city. It was a great way to learn about the way the city has changed over the years. So many of the old buildings were amazing. The government has started an investment scheme to restore all of the old buildings in the city by 2027. We also got to try the famous Brazilian Brigadeiro which were class!

Laura is glad we don’t have them in Glasgow or I’d be fat(er) apparently!! We met a nice German couple on this tour as well and walked with them up the Serrano steps after the tour, we managed to find a Scottish and Irish tile which was cool!

We had some Caipirinhas at the top and enjoyed the sunset before heading to the real party area of Lapa 🍻🍹The next bit speaks for itself, we got very drunk and Laura did some Brazilian line dancing to Beyoncé!!