Car rental Rio

I could not help myself but to rent a car. They say not to do it, but really, the traffic in Rio and the driving are not that bad compared to what I have seen elsewhere, so I got a car on Sunday and drove myself and my friends around the area. Sunday turned out to be the perfect day to rent a car since the roads were fairly empty, though it is a little tougher to get around the beach areas since the main roads are partically closed and turned into areas to walk, sell things, rollerblade, etc. The people in the beach area are very sporty for sure, as there are soccer games every night on the beach, a good number of surfers, and plenty of runners and bike riders.

The drivers obey the laws pretty well around Rio. I was a little surprised by that, but it is really quite civilized, though there is a certain amount of creating your own lane that goes on when the lanes are not marked well (or even if they are), and no one really signals to change lanes, but then I drive kind of like that anyway so I am not bothered by it. The cars are smaller than what we are used to, but not tiny. For a cheap flex-fuel car running on the cheapest of the many different types of gas avaiable, it ran me about US$6 a gallon to put fuel in it. When taking people to the airport very early in the morning I took full advantage of the law allowing drivers to run red-lights after 10pm...something to do about avoiding car-jacking and all. Haha, but I really have not felt unsafe anywhere I have been around the city. Granted, I did not get off at the exit when I saw Cidade de Deus (a famous favela) and have generally stayed in the nicest areas, but so far everything has been orderly and safe. Even the bus station that I visited today to get information for my trip tomorrow was not too bad.

We tried to drive up Corcovado to see the Christ Redeemer statue, but were prevented from getting to the top by the police, despite my best efforts at playing the dumb tourist who is on his last day in town and always wanted to see it, etc. As it turned out, the guy that told me the road to the top was closed for private cars was right. The large amounts of rain that have hit the area have taken their toll on that particular road, so the only way to the top is by authorized bus, which of course costs about US$30 to take up there with entry fee included. Since the statue is under repair right now from a lightning strike (ironic...?) and covered in scaffolding, I did not mind too much that we would not make it up to the top.