Rio de Janeiro

  Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Monday, November 24, 2008

We flew this morning to the capital of samba and girls in tiny bikinis, aka Rio. Unfortunately, summer seems to be late here. It is cloudy when we arrive and only 24 degrees ( I am a b#$%, I know it is snowing at some of you´s). We strolled around Ipanema in the afternoon, which is the nicest neighbourhood in Rio. In Ipanema, people love to jog on the waterfront, doing press ups at the view of everyone and gather around post 9 (beautiful people only !)  What a change from the towns we have visited recently!! In the evening we stopped at a cheap hairdresser for Sean. He has not been to one in ages since I have mastered the machine. The style is now a bit different..a bit like Tintin

Jesus is my homeboy

The following day was one of our favourite days of our trip. We had a great guide, Marcelo for the day and he made us discover the city like no one else. We started by the famous Corcovado with Christ the Redeemer. It was a bit foggy but we managed to admire the view of the bay between clouds. It was great to be at one of the new wonders of the world. He then took us through Tijuca park, which is the huge rain forest  around the city. We saw a monkey, some weird fruits and a nice waterfall.

Sugar Loaf

Rio is really the city of contrasts, as expected. The most expensive private school is next to the largest favela. We visited this particular favela with a local. It was not as bad as expected. I thought it would be really like houses made at of metal. Apparently, their conditions have improved. They have now water and electricity. The favelas are built on hills and houses are built on terraces. The alleys are quite filthy and stinky (live chickens at the butcher for eg). It is a city inside the city, with its own rules.  We passed by a group of lads smoking pot who were carrying guns and suddenly I was not feeling so safe. I was assured that they would not annoy us. We respect their business, they respect ours. -  I will even pretend I did not even see you if I can go! 

I was kind of happy to leave! We visited the sambadrome, where you have the prime seats to watch the famous Carnival de Rio. You can also see the costumes of previous seasons and even try them on. They were so big and flamboyant. I imagine the atmosphere at Carnival must be pure madness..

Sean wants me to get that outfit

We visited to colonial part of Rio, Santa Teresa. You can really see the Portuguese influence with the tiles on the walls. Even if a bit run down, some of the houses looked really great. The tram is great way to visit it. Kids were just jumping in and out of it, doing tricks.. We stopped at a small restaurant and after a bit of beer, a caipirinha and a shot of ginger alcohol, I felt pretty tipsy for the second part of the trip! We visited a couple of churches whose names I forgot (San Beato I believe) which were just covered in gold from top to bottom. It was pretty decadent.  There was also The Metropolitana  cathedral, which looked like a pyramid, and the stained-glass looked really impressive from inside. We walked in the center, passed by the beautiful Confeiteria Colombo, a lovely coffee place which reminded us of some Parisian bistrot. We then visited the library, covered in old books..very Trinity Collegesque ( t´aurais adoré M´man!).
We arrived by the red district, where transvestites can really be mistaken for girls ( extremely impressive!can be dangerous !!). There are loads of strip tease places and brothels where you can go and look at the girls ( so the guys went, I was not allowed to go inside). We finished the day by going the the escadaria Selaron, the famous colourful steps made (and still being made) by the eccentric Selaron. he puts tiles sent by people from all around the world. His steps were featured in various magazines and videos (´´Walk on´´ by U2 and ´´Beautiful´´ by Snoop Dogg ft Pharell). We were totally knackered by the end of the day. Marcelo, best guide ever! We quickly ate at the Gerato de Ipanema, where the song ´´the girl from Ipanema´´ was written.

With the master himself

dancing samba

We had a lie in on the 26/11 after our big day yesterday. It took us a while to start our day because we had trouble finding a place that changed money..believe it or not. We walked on the beachfront of Ipanema all the way to Copacobana, admiring the beach. We visited the fort of Copacobana and the casemates look a bit like the ones in Verdun. Later on, we strolled down the botanic gardens before heading to the lagoon. They have the tallest floating Xmas tree on the lagoon. It is beautiful at night when lit (except it is blue).
In the evening, we went to Rio Scenarium, a famous samba place. We had dinner listening to a band playing some bossa nova and the second act was samba. The place was jammed  with locals dancing beautifully and tourists admiring. Sean was really up for it and wanted to be on the dance floor all the time!!


Today (27/11) we had to admit the fact that we would not be able to visit the sugar loaf. The top was in the clouds for the last week and does not seem to change. Therefore, no point for us to go up there. We came back to Santa Teresa and the centro before visiting the former presidential palace (Rio was the capital of Brazil before 1960) and it was pretty fancy obviously. Tonite, we will probably go to a club again (seems we have put our dancing shoes since we arrived in Brazil) and tomorrow, we are going to Foz Iguacu, the waterfalls.

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We also put new pictures (has been a while, sorry) from Bolivia up until now!