April 19 - Welcome to Rio!
We were excited to return to South America even it is was only for four nights, but we must admit that we were also a bit nervous. Compared to all of the cities we've visited so far, everything we've read about Rio suggests that it is possibly the least safe. With only a few hours of sleep, we gathered our wits about us and boarded the bus to take us to the Ipanema Beach area.
The journey was comfortable, but somewhat long. This was fine since it was still early in the morning. About two hours after touching down, we arrived at our guest house. Seeing the triple tier metal bunks was a bit of a shocker. We'd been perfectly spoiled in South America mostly staying in two-star hotels with private baths and then of course, having spent six nights with the comforts of home in Alberta. We bucked up and decided that we could tough it out.
We went for our usual "no guide book walkabout". This familiarized us a bit with the neighbourhood. We were glad to see some upscale stores which put us a bit more of ease regarding the safety of the neighbourhood. Of course, we couldn't resist a walk down to Ipanema Beach, one of the two famous beaches of Rio. Although it is lesser known than Copacabana Beach, many claim that Ipanema is a better beach. I guess we'll have to decide later.
Finally by about 1:30, we just couldn't function. We gave in and had a nap. About an hour later, Gerald woke me up, woke me up, and then woke me up a third time. I swear that I could have slept right through until the next morning. Not only had the overnight flight tired us out, but our usual marathon-visiting in Alberta had taken its toll.
We enjoyed cooking a pasta dinner for ourselves. Really, we did. We haven't cooked for ourselves in over a month. By the time we'd finished eating it was time to head out to another sporting event.
If football (soccer) is a religion in South America, then Rio would be its cathedral, and Maracana Stadium its altar. Maracana Stadium was originally built for the 1950 World Cup. For the Brazil-Uraguay final in 1950, 199,854 people filled the stadium to capacity. That's right, two hundred thousand people! The stadium has since been revamped to go to an all seating configuration, using only the upper bowl, and now seats a little over 70,000.
The teams playing this evening would be Fluminense, one of Rio's more popular teams, and Vila Nova, a team from Northern Brazil. Fluminense easily defeated their weaker sisters 4-0. Although the stadium was not as full as River Plate was last Sunday in Buenos Aires, it was just as lively. We can't believe the passion displayed by the fans. If only North American sports fans showed this much passion. Game seven of Stanley Cup final, a game seven in the World Series, even a Super Bowl game. None of these have a fraction of the passion of South American Football fans. Drums are beating, people are dancing from start to finish, everyone is chanting, and flags are waving non-stop. It really is a site to see.
April 19 - Carioca Tour
One great thing about hostels is the interaction with the other travellers. Based on some recommendations from fellow safety-oriented guests, we decided to take a city tour to hit some of the highlights of Rio. Some travellers are touring on their own, but Gerald and I are a bit leery of taking too many chances this late in our RTW trip. Getting mugged, robbed, or hurt at this point could put a black cloud over our entire trip. In the end, we certainly didn't regret our day.
We started by hiking in Parque Nacional da Tijuca. It was quite surprising to be walking through a rainforest in the middle of a huge metropolis. The three days of rain preceding our arrival also adding a bit of interest to the hike up. We had our fantastic Keen hiking sandals while others were slip-sliding away in flip flops. The view from the summit of this "mountain?" was worth every muddy step. We were gob smacked.
This mountain faces another mountain on which the natural formation in the rock looks like a huge face. To our right, we saw the southern areas of Rio: the ocean, beaches, houses, high-rises, buildings, and forests. In front of us, we saw the ocean, beaches, houses, high-rises, buildings and forests. And can you guess what we saw to our left? Yup, but with the added bonus of a golf course and Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (a small lake that borders the Ipanema neighbourhood). Another bonus was seeing the famous and massive Christ the Redeemer statue in the distance. Overall, we spent at least 45 minutes just looking around, watching the hang-gliders take off a bit below us (yes that's right, below us!), and appreciating the beauty. From the ground level of Rio, one could have never imagined how beautiful the city really is.
Also, we could see a neighbourhood inching its way up the area between two of the mountains. From afar, one would just think that this area was possibly an older neighbourhood when in fact is it a growing community of small, simply built homes. In fact, there is a name for these growing neighbourhoods: favelas. A favela is a slum settled by people who have come from the countryside looking for the good life of the city. As in many large cities, all they end up affording is slum-housing like in this favela. This particular favela is growing by the day at quite a quick rate.
A saying we read on our tour of Rio sums up life in a favela:
"Living in a favela is an art. Nobody robs, nobody hears, nothing is lost. Those who are wise obey those who give orders."
Unfortunately, as in most slum areas, crime is rampant and drug lords are in control. These favelas reminded us of the South African townships seen in many SA cities. Similarly, one can take a tour through a favela and even go to a favela party on Sunday nights. Not our thing really.
Driving through this skinny city is a bit of a nightmare. It takes so long to get anywhere in the traffic and then the switchbacks up the mountains take a bit of time. Luckily, the small group in our van was really friendly and quite a bit of fun and we kept getting glimpses of the city, sea, and beaches below. Near the summit, we disembarked and walked up a few staircases to the very top of the 710m high peak of Corcovado.
Cristo Redentor. Christ the Redeemer. What a statue! Towering 33 metres in height and 23 metres from fingertip to fingertip, this big Jesus is visible from all over the city, protecting everyone below. In 1931, French sculptor Paul Landowski built and erected this statue, designed by Carlos Oswald. The project was over ten years in the making. It was originally conceived as an idea to commemorate Brazil's Centenary of Independence. As you would imagine, it was pretty packed with picture-snapping tourists all trying to get the best shot. Of course, we took our turn posing in front of it and with various city backdrops. Again, this view helped us to appreciate Rio's splendour.
And then we ate. Whoah, we were pretty hungry by this point. We wound our way back down the hill and drove over the bumpy cobblestone streets of Santa Teresa until we reached a little "hole-in-the-wall" restaurant where we were able to try some typical Brazilian grub. Gerald and I ordered feijoada, Brazil's national dish. This is a stew of pork, rice, and black beans. We enjoyed sides of steamed kale and farofa. Farofa is toasted flour mixed with bits of onion and bacon that is sprinkled over all food. Not much taste to that, but the stew was dee-lish!
This neighbourhood seemed to have a lot of character and may even be a lot of fun to explore, but the tour guide warned us that if we were to come back to make sure that we were out of here by 7pm when it would begin to get dark. By day: safe. By night: well, not so safe.
Next stop: Selaron's tiled staircase. Selaron is a Chilean artist who has been living in Rio for a couple of decades. In 1991, Selaron decided to add tiles to an existing staircase in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood/favela. Amongst colourful, but non-descript tiles, he has added tiles from around the world that he purchased from a store in Rio. He also began to paint tiles himself, including some large tiles with impressive art. We didn't look at all of the tiles, but we read that there was at least one from Canada somewhere. It was quite interesting seeing this mosaic in the middle of a somewhat dingy area.
Supper tonight was a barbecue at the hostel. We had fun socializing with other travellers and, of course, really enjoyed the food. A Brazilian barbecue is a bit unique. Instead of the chefs cooking up a bunch of meat and preparing a whole bunch of sides, they have plain white rice with a fresh tomato salsa as the side and then as the meat is ready, they bring it to the tables in small, cut-up chunks. Imagine all of us "cheap" backpackers grabbing at that meat. Not far off of vultures, really, but instead of squawking we were ooing and aahing.
For the second night in a row, we watched all of the youngins take off for Lapa, the samba/party zone of Rio. Being the old and mature ones, really, we snuggled into our respective bunk beds. Another 10hour + sleep would do us good!
April 20 - Hard Rock and Beach
As you may have already guessed, one of the items on our "to-do" list for Rio was to hit the Hard Rock Café. Luckily, we were able to catch a regular city bus right to its doorstep. We decided only to pick up the glass and a couple of other souvenirs and were soon right back on a bus to Ipanema Beach House.
After having some lunch, we headed down to Ipanema Beach around 3pm to spend a bit of time in the sun watching the waves. Today was a holiday (one of many in Brazil) so the beach was packed like a weekend. Yesterday, you could count the people at the beach, but today it would be impossible. Not only were there a ton of sun worshippers, but a plethora of chair/umbrella rental tents and a steady stream of peddlers with beach apparel, snacks, and funky jewellery. The one good thing about these peddlers is that they a) ask only once, b) appreciate smiles, and c) say thank you. Take note Thailand.
We stayed until the sun went down and enjoyed the pretty colors in the sky. Soon, we were eating our leftovers from our pasta night and enjoying a caipirinha while comparing notes with the other travellers about what we all did today. Again, we passed on the party scene and enjoyed a good rest.
April 21 - Walking the beaches
Luckily for us, the weather held up. Gerald and I find it difficult to sit on the beach for hours. We are quite sun-conscious from our years in Bermuda and get a bit bored so instead, we decided to walk. We began at our part of Ipanema Beach and said that we'd walk until we felt like stopping for a break. Well, before we knew it (okay 45 minutes later), we were at the end of Ipanema Beach.
We knew that Copacabana was just around the point, but inaccessible along the water's edge. We headed inland a bit and followed the beach-clad crowd. Speaking of beach-clad, Rio is quite unique in that respect. We saw many a person walking or jogging along in speedos/bikinis with running shoes and socks on. A little bizarre. Furthermore, speedos and skimpy bottoms were the norm with 95% of the beach crowd, regardless of shape and size. Aaah, so much work for SASS here!
Anyways, we made it to Copacabana and started to walk. We didn't feel the need to sit or stop until we hit the end. Another 45 minutes went by as walked to the end of Copacabana. Here, we decided to have a seat at a little patio stall. Gerald had a cervasa while I had a coconut. Yup, a coconut. The man just picked up a coconut, whacked it with a big knife a few times to make a lid, stuck a straw in it and bam! The juice was clear, not milky and only semi-sweet. I'd been seeing these all week and was glad to have tried it. We just sat back, rested our feet and watched the beach. We estimate that this beach is about 2.5 km in length and that we'd walked at least a kilometre of Ipanema. Not bad.
From here, we walked along the sidewalk back along the beach and then into the neighbourhood a bit. A fellow traveller had given us a coupon for a churascarias. These are buffet restaurants except that the meat is brought around on skewers. Waiter after waiter would come around to the table with a skewer of some type of grilled meat including chicken, pork, beef, ribs, and sausages. We ate until we were stuffed.
We waddled our way back towards the beach, happy to have a bit of exercise. By the time we approached our area of Ipanema, our flip-flop clad feet had had enough. We plopped down on the beach and sipped a couple of caipirinhas. We lasted about an hour. Big black rain clouds were approaching and we weren't in the mood to end up with drenched clothes packed in our bags tomorrow.
We had another quiet and relaxing evening leaving the hostel only to have a bit of pizza for a light dinner.
April 22 - Last day
After breakfast this morning, we headed out to the beach with our camera. Until now, we had only taken pictures on our tour day. As we already mentioned, Rio is renowned for bag snatching and pick-pockets. In fact, a couple of girls from our hostel had to give up their bags to a thug who flashed a knife in their faces. At the beach, we took a bunch of photos and then headed back to the hostel for showers.
We checked out at around noon, walked around a bit, and then waited on a busy street to catch the bus back to the airport. The "every 10 minutes" bus took about 40 minutes to appear. Actually, we were just about to give up when it arrived.
Luckily, we had given ourselves over two hours to get to the airport (the amount of time that it took to get here the other day) because it took just about that again. Once through security, we tried our best to spend the last bit of Brazilian Real that we had, but can you believe that the Duty Free in Brazil only accepts US currency??? Stupid! Luckily, we found a little convenience store and loaded up on Brazilian coffee and some chocolates.
By 7:30 we were on the plane headed for a long flight over the Atlantic to Madrid and then onwards to Barcelona. We were happy to be leaving Rio with everything that we came with and some good memories. Rio de Janeiro is a pretty city in many ways, but both Gerald and I felt like it was a bit difficult to fully enjoy, a result of having to be on-guard all the time. I suppose if we were more into the party scene, Rio would be a riot. It seemed that other than a bit of site-seeing, most of the other guests at the hostel spent their mornings sleeping, the afternoon at the beach, and the night/early morning partying in the Lapa district. Great if you are into that, just not our scene.
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