Her name is Rio

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Although Alison at STA travel booked our seats so we would be on the best side of the plane to fly into Rio we ended up on the wrong side of the plane! That said, the view into first, Sao Paulo possibly the largest city I think we´ll ever set eyes on then the inland side of Rio was still pretty spectacular.

After touching down and getting through the passport stamping we headed for the Bus lane outside the terminal to catch a Real Autobus through the city to Ipanema. Having read the lonely planet about this bus we knew it would cost about $3 USD but when we tried to board the coach the driver asked for 60 Brazilian Real which is about $30!!

Shocked at this and realising we now didn´t have enough cash on us, we walked back into the airport which our massive bags, trudged up three floors to the cash point and then back down to catch the next bus. When we returned, the driver put up a sign in his window advertising the fare as 5.50 Real and making it clear that the first driver was quite impressively trying to screw us over!

Feeling quite pleased that we had avoided the trap, we boarded the bus and began a fantastic route through the many districts of Rio to Ipanema beach. Having come from Peru and Bolivia on our way to Brazil, it was immediately apparent how far removed the countries were.

Whereas there is clearly poverty in Rio in the form of sprawling favelas (slums) along the roadsides and clinging to the mountains, Brazil evidently holds a more confident and more developed culture in many ways. The locals drive around in modern cars and in modern clothing and display an air of confidence like nothing we´re witnessed elsewhere so far.

Our hostel in Ipanema, along with several others was up a private London style Mews just 3 blocks from the famous beach. After popping out for some food at a local organic pay by the kilo joint "New Naturals" a first for us and really good value we wandered down to the beach after dark to get some sand in our toes.

Having already eaten at the weigh and pay restaurant we then encountered another first, A Churrascaria where scores of waiters queue up at your table and slice mountains of meat of all kinds onto your plate. Armed with a traffic light card which you place green side up if you want more and flip it over to red when your throat starts to fizz with indegestion.

Once the waiters had craned us out of our seats we ended up joining some fellow travellers from our hostel at Shennanigans, a you guessed it, traditional Irish Bar and with two novelties not being enough, we there encountered another new concept, the "you can come in, but you´ll have to spend at least 40 reals" entrance condition. Confused, we walked in and spent several hours ordering unpriced drinks and having the waitresses marking our order cards without the faintest idea as to whether we were spending enough, what happens if you don´t or what happens if you spend more than you have!

By the time we´d had enough drinks to not care and after literally wiping the floor with about 15 people at the pool table (I thank you) we went to the kiosk with 54 Reals and whooped with excitement when the bill came to 53 reals! It´s no mean feat to spend 4 hours in a pub and be within 25 pence of your budget without any prices!

With three new concepts experienced we returned to the hostel only to find that I was about to experience a not so unfamiliar feeling... about 15 hours on the toilet! Completely drained and exhausted, I spent the entire Sunday running back and forth between shared bathrooms, learnt by heart the entire user manual of the Portuguese boiler system whilst Claire went to the beach. Feeling like I´d just insulted Zidane´s mother we watched the World cup final in the hostel and could only listen as Ipanema exploded with fireworks at the Italians victory.

The next day, with my illness passed, Claire and I were keen to get back down to the beach to sample Ipanema at its best. Although quieter than at the weekends Ipanema is an incredible beach with its deep sloping sands, perfect waves and its stunning backdrop with two brothers mountains in line with the shore.

The name Ipanema is surprisingly of Indian origin and means "Unlucky Waters" owing to the sometimes vicious currents which occasionally strand swimmers out to sea. Thankfully the waves were a little too good for us to venture out to the undertow so we spent our day smashing through the shoreline waves, trying to do kick ups with as much flair as I could muster and sunning ourselves on the sugar like sand.

Satisfied after a day on this beautiful beach, we returned to our hostel for some home cooking and a game of cards with 3 witty irishmen and 1 japanese chap who turned out to be a bit of a demon at cards! Although the card games were entertaining, the real entertainment came in the form of an effeminate Columbian man with a flowing blonde mullet shouting at the huge security guard outside. From what we could make out, "Wham" as we will call him was trying to get out and the Mafia bouncer wouldn´t let him. As these things generally turn out the bouncer stood his ground and the drunken "Wham", tried a foolish kick in protest and ended up with his leg swiped, his wrist broken in the fall and a gruelling kick to the Copacabanas.

After several minutes of listening to Wham´s squeeky wimpering the police turned up and took him away on the charge of false documents and cursing the complication of having to take him to hospital rather than taking a small downpayment. As it turns out "Wham" was on the local news a few days later and a small crowd of us gathered to watch his claims of unfair treatment, albeit in Portuguese. The lesson however was clearly, "don´t mess with Brazilian security guards" as they will always take you down but perhaps more importantly, "For gods sake, don´t grow your hair long at the back!"

The next morning we decided to take a "Taxi Tour" of Rio and our first stop was Tijuca forest, the largest urban forest in the World at 32km squared and which smothers the base of the famous "Cristo Redentor" or "Christ the Redeemer" Statue. Our chirpy taxi driver turned out to be a bit of a Brazilian Steve Irwin with the monkeys who inhabit the forest and at several points along our journey made monkey calls and brandished bananas to great success.

After two stops at some spectacular views over the city, we rose up to the peak of the jungle at 710m and to the Statue of Christ where we were to stop for 40 minutes. Slightly dissapointingly, Rio by the time we got to the top had become decidedly hazy as it is want to do because of the heat and smog and the visibility was not fantastic. That said, the view of this incredible city is I beleive so imprinted on peoples minds that the view was no less awe inspiring as you can almost fill in the bits which you couldn´t make out.

The Statue itself is a marvel at 38 meters tall and is the largest Art Deco sculpture in existence. The design by Paul Landowsky was constructed in re-enforced concrete with an outer layer of Soapstone for its maleability and weather durability. With the Construction overseen by a local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa, the statue was inaugurated by the president in a lavish ceremony in 1931 and today it stands as one of the most iconic constructions in the world.

After strolling around the statue with quite a few other tourists, it was time to get back in our cab for the descent into Santa Theresa the colonial heart of Rio and home to a curious mix of wealth and poverty in equal measures with favelas surrounding the area on most sides. Originally the seat of wealth for Portuguse inhabitants, the district still possessed some immaculate Colonial mansions but as we descended through the steep cobbled streets and passed the rarely used tramline, it was clear that many of buildings had been abandoned to crumble their bright colours onto the pavement.

As we left Santa Theresa, the crumbling colonial houses began to blend with modern constructions marking the start of "Downtown" and our arrival at surely one of the most unusual Cathedrals in the World. From the outside the Cathedral designed by renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, looks like a cone shaped Car park with filled concrete supports and mere slits for windows but on entering you are presented with a stunning show of brightly coloured stained glass windows which undoubtedly lead your eyes up towards a central cross of light and towards the purpose of any descent Cathedral, God himself one presumes.

From Downtown we drove to Lapa where a bright white Viaduct of arches carries people laden trams between districts. Still in Lapa, we visited the famous steps of Lapa which are a steep staircase of some 215 steps on which Selaron, a Chilean Artist has spent decades applying brightly coloured tiles from all around the world. The steps are a fantastic sight but more intruiging is the way Selaron is there in person as he has been day after day and year after year, applying yet more tiles which people have sent from all over the world.

All in all the Taxi tour was a fantastic way to see Rio given that time is tight and some if not many areas of the city are considered too dangerous for gringos like us. Back in Ipanema for what looked like a descent impending sunset, we strolled along the shoreline towards two brothers mountains and on the way, I got a great shot of a guy doing a backflip whilst Claire got stung on the toe by some unknown spiny thing.

That evening we watched street entertainers display their Capoeira (A form of freestyle dance born out of Rio and it´s combat routes.) and found great amusement in watching a chap trying to sell a Spongebob squarepants toy to a miserable old toff at the next table.

Given that it seemed a safe and enjoyable activity, the next day we spent another full day on the sugary sand of Ipanema before catching a bus over to Urca to board the first of two cable cars up to the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain. Sugar loaf or Pão de Açucar is of course the lipstick shaped rock which most people will know from photos of Rio and which stands at 396 meters above the sea below.

From the top, it immediately strikes you that Rio is probably without question the most beatifully located city in the world with its districts partitioned by dome shaped mountains and its bays and beaches arranged as if by design. As we watched sun dissapear below the horizon we pulled up a chair and enjoyed the view for about 2 hours as the lights of the city began to switch on and sparkle the city into life again.

Keen to visit the place where Mr Maniloe was always harping on about, the next day we walked to the end of Ipanema and crossed onto Copacabana where music and passion etc. As it turned out we weren´t huge fans of the most famous beach in the world as its comparitavely thin compared to Ipanema and seemed to lack atmosphere... if indeed a beach can have atmosphere. Still, we didn´t pass up the opportunity to sink a beer and a Pina Colada before heading inland to view the shops and some descent graffiti.

For the evenings entertainment we decided to head down to upmarket Leblon as we had read about a live jazz cafe and because we were dying to witness live music of some description. To our continued dissapointment the Esche Cafe didn´t have any live music and neither for that matter did any other cafe restaurant or club... not even a radio on! All Leblon had to offer was a couple of 24 hour bookstores, one of which had a reading going on accompanied by some rather spooky sound effects and in the end we opted for the Esche Cafe where they put on a video of the Rolling Stones at Copacabana whilst the locals sampled expensive Cuban cigars.

With the next day being our last day in Rio we decided to take a stroll down to Pier 9 at Ipanema, a small section of the beach where the coolest and most beautiful people hang out (We should have been there from the start of course) and playground for some of the best keepie up footballers we´ll ever see! (Ditto)

In need of a slightly more serene environment, that afternoon we took a bus over to the Botanical Gardens, a beatiful forest oasis of exotic plants and trees from all around the world. The gardens seemed a world away from the city streets and we spent maybe two hours wandering through several amazing avenues of Palm trees some 20 meters high and for the first time seeing Toucans in the wild.

For our final night we at last had the opportunity to see some live music and it came in the form of a trip back to the white arches at Lapa and an outdoor drinking and festival tent where a local band called Monobloco were due to play.

Rather than drinks in a bar, in Lapa, drinks were served from small stalls in the street and random kids walking around with bottles of Tequila! After several shudderingly strong Caiparihnas served by a Ming the Merciless lookalike, we entered the venue to join a mosh of Monobloco fans.

Monobloco, a kind of cheesy Latin Happy Mondays were clearly a local favourite as the entire crowd sang along to illegible lyrics and jumped about seemingly with the intention of crushing our flip flopped toes. After a few more drinks and a bit of a dance with some amusing Kiwi chaps it suddenly dawned on us that we had to get up in 3 hours time to catch our bus down the coast!

With that, we jumped in a cab back to the hostel only to get pulled over on the way home by the policia where I had my pockets turned out looking for drugs! Now with only two hours sleep in front of us, it was time to draw a line under our time in Rio de Janeiro.

As we reflected on what a great time we had had and what a stunning location for a city this was, we also felt that the city had so much more under the surface which we could not experience. In the areas where it is safe to go in Rio, we got the distinct impression that the roots of Brazilian culture had over time been lost to commercialism and vanity.

Particually when it came to "Barry´s" Music and passion, we couldn´t help but think that the real passion in Rio was sadly restricted to the favelas and therefore out of reach of anyone wishing to travel there.

Although we were sad to be leaving Rio, we were equally looking forward to seeing a different side of this huge and fascinating country and the seclusion at Isla Grande a paradise island some 3 hours down the coast.

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Photos

Sao Paulo
Just a small section of the massive city of Sao Paulo from the air

Oscar Niemeyer Cathedral
Strange from the outside....

...
...but surprisingly beautiful on the inside.

The Steps at Lapa...
...with Selaron the creator of this masterpiece in the foreground wondering what to do next...

Ipanema beach by night...
...guy doing capoeira back flip.

Rio by night....
..Copacabana beach is the bay to the left.

Comments

[Laura]

Hello to you both....
Hey you two, what a great time you've been having...you've seen some amazing things and its also suprised me what a varied country it is too. Well done on keeping on top of the blog, is always great to read up on your adventures! All good with us, having a beauty of a summer which is unusual- we must have bought the sunshine back with us! Wedding plans going well, will e-mail you soon, Lots of love xxxxxxx