Here comes the sunshine!

Sunday finally showed signs of the weather improving. I got up relatively early, and as the sun was out, organized a hang-gliding trip through the folks at the hostel. My pick-up, scheduled for 11am, was 45 min late (hey, it's Brazil), and once we got to the beach in front of Pedra Bonita (the location of our launch ramp), I met my two Brazilian would-be co-flyers. The guys were from the North of Brazil, in Rio on a business trip, and were lots of fun to chat with. We used a mix of Portuguese and English, and I learned the younger guy was into a lot of the same sports I was (climbing, surfing, etc.). As we had to wait for a bit at the beach, they decided to order caipirinhas (a totally sensible thing to do at noon), and I went along. The younger guy also played me a selection of Brazilian music from his mobile phone, and showed me some amazing photos from around his home town - definitely putting Northern Brazil on my to do -list for later.

The trip to Pedra Bonita was interesting in itself. I got a ride in an old piece-of-junk station wagon, and when we got to the steep ascent section, two of the guys in the back had to get out and sit on the car's hood to ensure the front-wheel drive had enough traction.

At the top, we found that while the beach was nice and sunny, Pedra Bonita was completely clouded over. We put on our gear nonetheless, and the pilots (our flights would be tandem) set up the hang-gliders. Then we just waited for the clouds to part. And waited. And waited. After about three hours, everyone had pretty much lost faith that visibility would ever improve. Furthermore, there was a big football game at Maracana that afternoon (Flamengo against another team whose name I forget) and my two new Brazilian buddies had tickets. Disappointed, we took off the gear and returned to our respective ho(s)tels. At least we got full refunds.

The weather was still decent lower down on the beach, so I spent the remainder of the afternoon lounging on Ipanema and working up my Brazilian tan. I was supposed to take a bus to Iguacu waterfalls very early on Monday morning, so called it an early night after a quick dinner and watching the fireworks for the Christmas Tree's inauguration.