Xmas & New Years in Rio !!!
Trip Start
Apr 05, 2008
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Trip End
Mar 20, 2009
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Rio de Janeiro,
State of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
Friday, January 2, 2009
In Ipanema beach if you're wearing more than a bikini the width of dental floss you are overdressed. So going for our first stroll to check it out along the golden hot sands dressed in shorts and a T we definitely stood out. The beach was jam packed with umbrellas and bronzed bodies everywhere where the eye candy was definitely in my favour as 6 packs are all the fashion along with cringe worthy white speedos that not even the hottest of men can pull off. With the two mountains rising at the western end of the beach it's a picture perfect paradise unless you don't feel up for fighting to claim your small piece of prime beach space ;-).
Happy New Year!
What I found interesting about Ipanema beach is that it's divided into zones; there's the zone for families, the gay zone and then the zone for the young and beautiful so it's key to pick your spot wisely. No matter where you choose it's easy to get a drink as there are beer tents along the entire stretch of the beach and in fact the many touts selling everything from bbq'd food to sarongs and jewelry there's no reason to leave. With Christmas in only two days time we sorted out getting stocked up although not many of our usual treats were to be found so maybe Christmas will be cancelled for us this year. To be honest it doesn't really feel like Xmas in Rio, there's a serious lack of decorations and none of the usual Xmas songs being blared from every speaker available. Plus no-one was rushing round in a last minute shopping panic, everyone was just way too relaxed. The first year without a tree I did consider 'borrowing' the one from the lobby but GT wasn't playing ball and wouldn't black out the lobby's security camera so no tree for us.We took a stroll to check out Ipanema's neighbour Copacabana (if you're like me you'll break out into song just at the very mention) which can't actually be reached by strolling along the beach from Ipanema. You get to the Point and then the access round is fenced off so it was through the city streets we walked. We found the beach area much quieter and the water didn't look as clean. There were a lot more artists and people selling jewelry and clothing along the boardwalk.
2009
The hotels though have a prime location for the New Years celebrations as most of them have superb roof terraces so those lucky occupants will have great viewing over all the happenings on the beach. Only our second day here and it's feeling like ten days just won't be long enough!We were awoken on Christmas morning by my Mum & Dad calling to wish us a Merry Christmas. A little after 7am and I guess it's pay-back for all those times when I was a kid when we would wake them up at 5am ;-) Great to hear from home and hear about their day. Looking out the window it wasn't the blue sky hot sunny day I'd hoped for but very overcast, I hoped it would clear. The next thing we noticed was that Santa hadn't visited us so I guess that meant we were on the naughty list this year. So sticking with Christmas tradition we enjoyed a festive lunch, well lunch, of Macaroni Cheese and watched some Xmas movies. Needing some fresh air, we thought we'd take a swim so we hit the beach only for it to start to rain. By the time we got back to the apartment we were soaking wet as it was bucketing down complete with thunder and lightening. So instead of Christmas day on the beach we continued with Christmas movies and reading some gossip magazines we had managed to find in English and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
After another intrepid day of horridly boring rain we finally awoke to sunshine and did not muck about. It was up and in our swimsuits and down to the beach by 10am. Basking in the rays hoping to turn a toasty golden brown, GT enjoyed watching the girls go by and me the hot hunky fit men who wasted not a scrap of flesh run by! Oh yeah happiest day yet here in Rio, this is what I had envisioned (oops need to wipe off the dreamy look on my face and mop up the drawl from the corner of my lips).
Best view in town
It was incredibly hot and the water incredibly cool that we were in and out of the water at least once an hour. I'm pretty sure on one of my dips I saw something floating obscenely close by that looked a lot like particles of No.2s, but hey I was too hot to care and just swam quickly out further with my mouth firmly shut!Getting back into Tourist mode or more accurately feeling like we should see something other than the beach, we set out to see the incredible views from Sugar Loaf mountain (in Portuguese, Pão de Açúcar). After queuing for an hour and a half we finally boarded the teleferico and made it to the top - given that these glass carriages can fit up to 75 people you can appreciate how popular this is. On the way up we spotted the more athletic tourists climbing their way up, I really don't think we missed out on anything there. Once the clouds cleared the views were spectacular and really gave us a feel for Rio de Janeiro (we had been living in the bubble of Ipanema - it's a great bubble though). It's a beautiful city from above, so incredibly green but I guess this could be partly due to the fact that it was once a rainforest. Fair enough I'd want to bulldoze the land and build to hang out at their superb beaches too ;-) We could even see Christ the Redeemer as the clouds cleared which was an eerie sight. Once we had taken in all of the 360 degree views we made our way back to Ipanema and finished our day off in Barro at Latin America's largest mall. The shopping in Rio is amazing, so much so I want to come back with empty suitcases and go crazy.
Favela
Keeping up with the whole cultural theme we set out on a Favela tour. I think I spent the entire 4 hours speechless. It's hard to put into words exactly what the Favela's are like although mostly they reminded us of parts of Central America. For a start these shanty towns are built on prime real estate affording the best views over Rio with the Rich living below - very ironic. Most have electricity even if in some cases it's illegally tapped, there is over crowding, sewerage problems and crime. They are also not recognized by the government and as such you'll not find them on any maps. The houses are built more sturdily than we have seen in other slums in the world due to the fact that with any heavy rains historically the former mud shacks have been completely washed away. They are excellent recyclers as there is money to be made in something as simple as collecting cans and as the saying goes one mans junk is another mans treasure (or something like that), they have got this down to a fine art. We visited one of the biggest Favela's and it was literally a city within a city. It was completely self sufficient for over 60,000 inhabitants, that's the official stat, unofficially it's said to be 200,000 people living here. This particular Favela only has one road in and out, unnamed streets that are more of a rabbit warren of hidden alleyways and a strong community feel. Each Favela is ruled by a gang and some have drug dealers and others are completely drug free. We then visited a contrasting Favela which was very small and completely free of drugs and with a tight friendly community.
Views from a Favela
A school has been established which is 80% paid for by us tourists so it's good to see something positive going back into the community. A scary fact to learn was that in Brazil schooling is only compulsory from the age of 7 to 14 and they only attend school either in the morning or afternoon so there's a lot of free time on the kids hands. There's a whole political history behind the Favela's which is nothing new but there's no doubting that these shanty towns are part of Rio de Janeiro's identity whether they are recognized or not.New Years eve and we're in Rio de Janeiro, apparently the second best place to be in the world behind New York's Time Square. After a day on the beach where it was so crowded by late afternoon you almost had people clambering over you to get to the water, when the final straw was getting covered in sand, we hit Brasil 1800 one of the few waterfront bars. Obviously a few other people had the same idea as it was packed but they really knew a thing or two about turn over. No sooner had we ordered our drinks they had arrived and we sat enjoying an impressive acrobatic street performance over a Brahma and a Caprivodka. The New Years tradition here is to dress in white and offer flowers to the gods at sea. That explains why in the water today there was a lot of leafy debris. The New Year celebrations take place on Copacabana beach and it's out of this world as reputedly over 2 million party goers see the New Year in here. The beach was packed with families hanging out with a bbq, everyone dancing, people swimming - such a relaxed and happy atmosphere with not a hint of trouble brewing. People drinking responsibly on the beach - not a common sight in many countries - just everyone out to have a great time. It was superb. Topped off with fireworks it was a great way to see in the New Year and a truly memorable experience.
Spending our remaining time between the beach and bars our time in Rio came to an end all too quickly. It's such an amazing place that we wanted to stay longer and lose ourselves here for months. Admittedly the only hard part is the Portuguese language, I never thought I would miss using Spanish. At least we know we're coming back here for a few more days and will have to cram in not only more beach time but some more tourist sights as well. At least it started to rain as we were leaving, that made us feel a bit better.
