Rio de Janeiro

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Rio City

Rio is an amazing city with its great diversity from 37 white sand beaches, lush green peaks, skyscrapers and largest slums in the world. It is a city that buzzes day and night, it's energy puslating rhought the city streets and with carnaval around the corner, there was no let up!Our hotel was based in Lapa with its colonial buildings, bars and samba clubs. Lapa apparently had its best days before the 20th century but is now experiencing something of a cultural renaissance with its old buildings being restored and is now the centre of the Bohemian scene. At night, it boasts one of Rio's most vibrant street parties which I witnessed first hand as revellers mingle among the samba clubs.

We spent the first day orienting ourselves, finding a laundry to deposit all our wet and dirty clothers from the Pantanal and decided to take the easiest option which was eating in the hotel restaurant. The next day was an early start for those of us who had booked for hang-gliding off the 520m nigh Pedra Bonito - one of the giant granite slabs that tower above Rio - onto Praia do Pepino in Sao Conrado. It was a fantastic experience to jump off the platform with an experienced pilot and to look down at the city, up at Christ the Redeemer statue and across at Tijuca National Park - all that is left of the Atlantic rainforest surrounding Rio. Having safely landed, we spent the afternoon exploring central Rio searching out its colonial buildings, historic churches and cultural centres. This included the National Library (the largest in Latin America with 8 million volumes), the Candeleria church(built by a ship's captain to express thanks for not being shipwrecked at sea), Praca XV de novembre (site of historic events such as the coronation of Brazil's two emperors (Pedro I and II) and the abolition of slavery in 1888), Teotro Municipal.

The following day found us out on a city tour, taken by minibus to see most of the famour sights of Rio. First stop was Copocabana and Ipanema beaches - long sandy beaches which are subdivided into areas as diverse as the city itself (e.g. areas for hippies, gays, favela kids, fishermen etc.). There is always plenty going on here with tourists lining up for cervezas, favela kids selling snacks and playing football and plenty of street markets lining both sides of the main Atlantic AVenue, the dual carriageway running parallel to the sands. Here is Copocabana Hotel, the haunt of the rich and famous; Ipanema too is the favoured residence of the young, beautiful and wealthy. We then continued to Pao de Acuzar (sugar loaf mountain) with two cable cars taking us to the summit (396ft above Rio) although the first recorded climb of the mountain was in 1917 by an English woman who scaled the rock and planted the English flag (which as subsequently been removed and replaced many times since). The first cable car on Sugar Loaf Mountain ascends 220m to Morro da Urca with a great panaramic view of Baia de Guanabara and winding coastline. The second cable car took us to the top where we could look across to Corcovado and Christo Redentor in the West and the long curve (5.5km)of Copocabana beach to the south. Fortunately, we had a clear albeit very hot day and could take some good pictures.

Next stop was lunch close to Maracana football stadium where some of the group were going that evening to watch two local football teams battle it out. The stadium accommodates 100 000 people but has in the past squeezed in more like 200,000 for events such as the world cup. A sports museum is based at the stadium but not on our agenda. After lunch, we climbed the 710m to Corcovada (which means hunchback) to see the Christ gazing over Rio. The brightly lid 38m high statue weighing 1145 tons is visible from almost every part of the city and the view is spectacular with helpful maps pointing out all Rio's important landmarks. Corcovada lies within the National Park of Tijuca and the tropical heat was almost overwhelming with little respite despite being quite high.

Then back to the hotel before setting off by local bus to experience the beaches at dusk - no sunset as low cloud unfortunately. Copocabana is even livelier at night with various street parties (bandas) occurring seemingly spontaneously at different points. These bandas are essentially impromptu processions with a small percussion band followed by samba dancers and anyone else who wants to join in. We ate on the beach and managed to flag down a small minibus to get us back home by 11.30pm - only to find Lapa alive with more pre-carnaval parties and bandas.

Next day I had booked on a favela tour with Exotic Tours which was very good as our guide actually lived in the favela and took us to his home as the torrential rainfall that day prevented us from frequently stopping to hear snippets of information. Rochinha, the slum we visited, is the biggest of 800 slims in Rio and has over 250,000 people within its environs, the majority of whom work for a living. The favela was started by Portuguese farmers back in the 1920's and the buildings are now 3-4 storey's high as families have built rooms on top of the former structures. This is very much cheek-by-jowl community living with everyone being aware of each other's business. Rochinha expanded in the 1960's as workers were drafted in to build roads. On average, people earn about 200 reals/month (ca $100US) although the drug dealers get about 1 million reals per week selling drugs to city dwellers who come to the favelas to purchase. These drug dealers exercise their own justice within the favela with punishments such as chopping off hands if you are caught stealing or death if you have committed rape. The favela can therefore be a very safe place provided you abide by these 'community laws'. We were told that the local police are corrupt bing paid a salary by the drug dealers to turn a blind eye - and if there are any raids on the favela by the federal police, the 'footsoliders' (young children employed by the drug gangs) set off noisy firecrackers to warn the dealers to make good their escape.

It is apparent that getting services into a favela can be a problem - the tapped wires are evidence of this. It costs up to 200 reals/month for Internet service so this facility is then promptly shared out by friends and family with each paying up to 10 reals/month to the host family who purchased it in the first place. Water is piped in only twice per week. We learned about the social, political and economic context of the favelas and how, over time, they are being steadily integrated into the city, the lack of taxes proving a real incentive for banks and businesses to set up and offer services.

Exotic Tour profits actually go to support various community projects such as a kindergarten and community centre which operates very much like a Citizens Advice Centre. The company also train young people how to be tour guides - ours was one of these who had won a scholarship.

Sunday night was carnaval night - all night at the sambadrome as the various samba schools paraded down a huge carriageway watched by thousands. There were 6 schools parading the night we attended and there were to be a further 6 schools the following night. Each school consisted of hundreds of dancers dressed in amazingly colourful costumes and being followed by a series of huge decorated floats in various themes. The atmosphere was amazing as all the locals were singing to the various songs that had been created for each samba school - and somehow the excitement enabled me to stay awake all night so we arrived back to the hotel as it was opening up its breakfast table. An incredible experience and one which is best served by showing various photos (all taken from a distance given our seats) which I will upload as soon possible.

Having slept most of Monday morning to recover from the carnaval, we decided to visit the Catedral Metropolitano - an enormous cone-shaped concret building with four impressive stained glass windows which stretch 60m to the ceiling, and a suspended Christ in the centre. Then onto Santa Theresa which is set on a hit with cobbled streets and ageing colonial mansions. It is now inhabited by many artists and bohemians who were enjoying various street parties during our visit. We took a street car (bandinhas) up the hill from Lapa which was quite an experience with people hanging on for dear life as it went up over the Lapa Arches - or Canoca aqueduct. The aqueduct was built in 1732 to carry water from the Canoca River to the City and is now the track bed for the bandinhas to carry passengers from the modern section in downtown Rio to the 18th district on Santa Theresa Hill. It was a bumby ride but a great opportunity to see remnants of colonial Rio with cobblestone streets, mansions and good views of northern Rio. We ate in Santa Theresa at a lively Lebanese restaurant with such generous portions that we asked for 'doggy bags' in our best Portuguese. We later meandered back to the hotel and final night in Rio.

The next morning was consumed in final travel preparations and the attempt to fit as much as possible into my rucksack before taking a taxi to the airport to catch my flight to Auckland for the next leg of my trip.

Goodbye Rio and South America!

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Photos

Other truck mates
...waiting for our hang-gliding

Copocabana Hotel
...where a coffee will set you back UK 10 pounds