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Published: March 13th 2010
Hi Everyone,
We have arrived to
Rio de Janeiro after a long long 18 hours ride on the bus from Florianopolis .
We made (in our last hour in Floripareservation) a reservation for an apartment in Rio, and so we knew where we were going once we arrived - this made our life slightly easier upon "landing" there.
The apartment we booked was well situated in the heart of
Copacabana - probably the most famous beach & neighborhood in Rio, or should I say in the world!
We were exhausted from the ride, so we only did a short walk along the main boulevard of the neighborhood that afternoon.
The next morning, we scheduled to wake up early - our first exciting 'Rio event' was about to happen - meeting my parents. They came 3 weeks ago on a guided organized group trip to South America, to celebrate their 60's birthdays, and were planning to then stay with us for 2 more weeks.
Well, I guess we were all really excited from this coming meeting with family after 6 months! and we all lost our sleep somehow - Tal and Omer, could not
sleep, and stayed awake late until 2am and 5 am respectively. Nitzan and I could not sleep well and woke up very early at 5am and 6 am respectively.
The plan was to wake up, have breakfast, and then walk to the hotel my parents were suppose to arrive in (with their group) and welcome them when they arrive. However, when I woke up, I found an e-mail from them, that they are not expected to go to their hotel after landing in Rio, but rather directly from the airport go travel in the city, and will only arrive to their hotel in the afternoon. We quickly changed our plans, and decided to try and surprise them in their first tour stop in the city -
'Pau de Azucar' (the 'sugarloaf mountain') - and so we did.
We almost missed them, but somehow, when we entered the building trying to escape the rain, Nitzan managed to see my mom's head (and she is not that tall...) from the back, just making its way with the group into the cable car. She raced and after her also Omer and Shachar, calling loudly ''Grandma, Grandma''. My parents were in SHOCK. My mom
almost fainted on the spot.. They did not even think we would meet them, it was a complete surprise for them. We hugged and kissed and the whole group were happy with us. You can imagine they have already heard about us..
Though the weather was bad, and we knew the view from the top would really be bad, we decided we will go up the mountain as well, and join my parents and their group. Though it was still dripping, there were a few moments that the sky became clear enough, the clouds disappeared and we could have a glimpse of beautiful views from this amazing view point. Rio is gorgeaus - with its many beaches and bays, the lagoon in the middle, the massive Granite peaks, the green of the trees in between, it is really a unique city. There was also something very dramatic and special in seeing the Corcovado peak with the famous statute of Jesus the Redeemer, on its top, revealing itself through the clouds while the peak itself is compeletly covered with clouds.
After descending back with the 2 cable cars, we drove with the group for a short trip in the
center of Rio. We went to see the
unique cathedral of Rio. Really special cathedral not similar to none in the world. Don't expect massive European heavy style with lots of statutes and carvings in marble on the front, no columns inside - yet impressive. It is a gray concrete construction in a shape of a rounded pyramid. It has windows all along its huge height, made in a special way to allow sunlight and air to flow in, in order to light the place and ventilate it, yet protect the place from the tropical rain and heat.
We walked to some other famous buildings, and through an old preserved street of Rio, but for us the main thing that day, was being with family!
The next day, my parents have elected not to join the group, who went on a boat cruise to an island next to Rio for relaxing and swimming, and rather joined us for relaxing on the beach of Copacabana. We first walked along the beach, enjoying its beautiful setting, the many sand sculptures artists have created, then actually swimming and resting - obviously with some food (corn cob, ice cream and more) and
a freezing cold beer. We all went back to our rooms and apartment early afternoon, to make sure we sleep well before the big night -
Carnival Winners Parade! (even though we still had no tickets for this event...).
After having a great siesta sleep - we woke up and went to find out whether we could get into the winners parade... We took the underground, and immediately started to feel the carnival atmosphere, as many of the people who were with us on the train, were either those who were going out to see the carnival or those dressed up ready to march in the parade. We walked in the streets around the 'Sambodromo' for almost an hour, learning on the way from people, from other tourists and with the help of the many many policeman that were on the streets, where are the different gates, what are the prices for tickets sold on the street etc. We also enjoyed much, seeing the floats and the marching people getting ready and putting their customs. We enjoyed the street happening, as many locals were hanging out in the millions food and beer stalls that were built due to the
event. Music was playing from each of them, people were dancing and drumming all around - who needs to get into the parade, there is enough action outside. Yet, eventually, we took a decision to buy tickets to the cheapest tribune - tribune 13. For the price we paid ($25 US), it was really stupid not to enter, though some people told us that it is a waste of money in that tribune as you see nothing - well they were wrong.
We saw EVERYTHING. True we could not see the faces of the dancers or the small details of their customs, but this is not important -
the beauty of this parade is in its size, its colorfulness, its happiness - and there was no problem seeing all of that.
It was AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!! Tough we already saw 2 parades, one in Gualeguaychu in Argentina and also the winners parade in Florianopolis in Brazil - this one was bigger, more extravagant, with more ideas and just more from everything. We stayed until the very end, i.e. 0600 in the morning...
In the winners parade, the 6 winning schools (out of the 13 that competed) pass
Rio - Championship in Maracana
General View of Botafogo and Vasco Fansaccording to their location - the first school that march is the one that got the 6th place, the second one to march is the 5th place etc. The last school to pass in the Sambodromo is the winner - and so we had to stay until the end, as we wanted to see the best of the best.
If we thought we have already seen all one could imagine in the previous parades, we were wrong. This time, the floats had water falls and water fountains on them, they had circus acrobatics on them, there were people skiing on one of the floats and so much more. The group that won, had an amazing magic dancing show: their first group, the dancers - were switching something like 5 different sets of dresses each in milliseconds, we could not understand how they did it. It was definitely worth the reputation it has.
My parents who were also watching the parade (from a much better spot), were also strong and made it all the way till the end (this is not so obvious, out of the 17 people in the group, only 6 stayed all the way, the rest retired
Rio - Championship in Maracana
Gollllllllllllllllllllllllllll !
Botafogo - 1
Vasco - 0 to their rooms earlier).
We returned to our apartment by 7:30 am, together with the rising sun and went to sleep...
But intensity is not over yet... We had another “carnival” coming on that day - a
football match in the Maracana - the biggest football stadium in the world (to the best of our knowledge), containing up to 200,000 fans. We did not know exactly what to expect, but we guessed that in Brazil, where football is more important than anything else (perhaps except Carnival...) it is going to be thrilling to see a match, especially in this special stadium. It was a local Derby - a championship final game between Botafogo and Vasco. Tal bought our tickets in Botafogo club, so he knew that their colors are black and white. What we did not know, and discovered on the way to the game, was that the colors of Vasco were surprisingly black and white as well...
Well, the party started already on our way to the stadium, in the underground. It was stuffed with fans only, as if the rest of the population of Rio did not dare to get close to the underground at
Rio - Championship in Maracana
Golllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!
Botafogo - 2
Vasco - 0 that time.
When we got to the stadium (after throwing away the 4 litres of water we brought with us, as bottles, even plastic ones, are not allowed in), we could only stand breathless - the stadium is sooooo big, it is soooooo full of people, it is soooooo noisy when they are all chearing and singing the songs of their groups, it is soooo black and white!
Though I am not a football fan at all, and was not even planning on going at first, I found myself excited:
excited from the game, excited from the fans, excited from the experience. We got to see a good game with all the “juice” of such a game - yellow cards, red cards, 3 goals and fanatic fans! It was not only the biggest stadium, it was also a huge carnival!
The next day, we saw some special sides of Rio, that not many go to see - we went to see Santa Teresa neighbourhood, still using the old tram to commute to/from downtown Rio. The end of the rail (so we believe) is right at the top entrance to one of the Favelas (Rio's famous slum neighbourhoods that
surrounds the city). From there, we took a “taxi” to the top of Corcovado from which a van took us really to the base of the statute of Christ The Redeemer - a terrific view point over this magnificent city. This time, there was no single cloud to block our view, but only a beautiful sunset and soft pinky colors over the city. We got to be there until it got dark and so we also enjoyed the view of Rio with all its night lights. We made our way downhill the same way, with the last taxi and the last tram...
All in all - It was a very intensive and emotional week, in beautiful Rio - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! After the intensity of Rio, and for my parents the intensity of the last 3 weeks (covering what we did in 3 months) - we decided our next destination would be a nice beach, where we will all enjoy the life style of the Brazilians - beach, sun, drinks and exotic fruits...
Trancoso was the beach we selected, and I won't take away from Tal the pleasure of telling our story in heaven.
Wishing you all that you will get one day to Rio De Janeiro!
Lilach To view our photos from Rio and its events, hit the following links:
photos of Rio's Carnival Winners Parade Rio photos Maracana Photos
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