Going bohemian in Rio

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Sunday - on the road again.

A long day of travel after a rather less than refreshing night on the bus. We reached Sao Paulo at 8:55 a.m. as promised, and found ourselves in a huge station of the size and caliber of any city airport, with the restaurants and souvenir shops to match. More than 80 gates! We’d soon bought our tickets for Rio and were back on the bus, “convencional” this time. At least the weather was gradually clearing as we went along, from rain and lightning to patches of blue sky as we rolled through increasingly mountainous terrain, the green hills interrupted by occasional small cities and frequent explosions of industry along the highway - including a huge GM Brazil complex. Half an hour before arriving in Rio, we made a long serpentine (and scenic) descent out of the mountains. Then we began seeing the favelas of Rio, and finally the somewhat more grimy (and under construction) Rodoviario of Rio.

Lots of confusion trying to find a taxi out of there (thanks again to a kind Brazilian who showed us the way and made sure we didn’t get a crooked driver), and more finding our way to the B&B, despite the instructions from our hosts that I’d painstakingly copied out. (We’re wondering whether the driver could read!) He stopped and asked for directions at least five times before we finally found ourselves in front of a green steel door with a tiny trap-door opening on a steep cobblestone lane. Buzzing brought a man to our door - our host, Manu, as it turned out, who looked out the peephole before concluding we were okay and then led us into the house - a classic Rio house built on several levels on the side of a steep hill. The living room area has huge red tiles, big windows looking out across the amphitheatre of this crack in the hills, down to a favela below and across to the more middle-class homes and restaurants of Santa Theresa. To the left, a view of the sparkling lights of the central part of the city, with its huge towers, an enormous illuminated clock, and glitzy billboards. Manu and his wife offered us cold water and a bit of orientation to the city - they’re lovely people, just as the TUMCers had described.

Our room is fairly small, with raw brick walls, a white tile floor and old wooden ceiling and doors that look like they haven’t seen varnish in a century. We found the doors led out to a little balcony overlooking the favela, where loud samba music blared from somewhere (so much echo, it was impossible to be certain where), children screeched and laughed, dogs barked in occasional crescendos, and the general roar of a city where people live piled up on top of each other filled our ears.

On recommendation, we headed for Espirito Santa, a wonderful Brazilian-food place up the hill near Largo do Guimadaes. We bumbled around for a while, walking all the way to the Largo dos Neves - where little benches overlook a fine view of another part of the city - and back before finding it. But we were glad we did. It was a sultry night, and we ate out on the candlelit patio, facing back in the general direction of our B&B. I had a fabulous tilapia dish made with banana cream, a mango tart with fresh cheese (a bit like a cheesecake) and Jeff enjoyed frango (chicken) in a passionfruit sauce with a chocolate-ginger cake dessert. Oh, and we enjoyed a capihrinha, the carioca drink of choice, with some sort of liqueur mixed with whatever fruit juice you like. We are enjoying Rio already!

It was a pleasant walk home down our lane, where we enjoyed the luxury of two computers, ours and the B&Bs, to record our day.

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