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Published: March 3rd 2010
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Beautiful beaches and crazy Carnival street parties defined our visit to Rio de Janeiro. The beaches were the best - yes, VERY busy, but I love how you can go to a Rio beach completely unprepared. Just find one of the tent stalls renting umbrellas and chairs - hell, these guys will even sell you a cooler full of ice cold beers! How perfect is that? You can get anything else you need from salespeople roaming the beach - sunglasses, sunscreen, souvenirs, you name it.
We stayed in an apartment in Botafogo with a spectacular view of Sugar Loaf Mountain. Many people who live in Rio rent out their apartments during Carnival while they skip town. Since we were lucky enough to be traveling through Brazil with our Brazilian friend, we stayed very cheaply at her friend's apartment who had left town.
I think spending time in Rio without our Portuguese speaking friend would have been difficult, since we don't know the language at all and there aren't many people who speak English. Apparently, they teach English in Brazil the way they teach French in English Canada, i.e. very badly. The first, and often only, thing Brazilians learn how
to say in English is "the books is on the table." At one point, a drunk guy came up to us in the street, recognizing us as Anglophones, and screamed "THE BOOK IS ON THE TABLE!" It was hilarious.
Rio seemed to me to be VERY safe, in sharp contrast to some of the things I had read in travel guides and WikiTravel. I was totally expecting to get robbed, but Rio is not Paris.
Some of the great things to do besides spend time on the lovely beaches such as Ipanema and Copacabana are:
1. Take the cable car up to Sugar Loaf Mountain for some spectacular views of the city. Go in late afternoon and linger, buy a beer and watch the sunset.
2. Take the old trolley up to Santa Teresa
3. Go search for monkeys at the Botanical Garden (our friend claimed there were no monkeys in Rio, but we saw one in the Botanical Garden and several others playing with each other while hiking up a trail near Urca Beach)
4. Take a stroll around Lagoa, and buy a coconut for a refreshing treat. But make sure before you buy it that the
person you buy it from has a machete so they can cut it open for you after you drink the liquid. Then you can scrap the bits of coconut that's left over. It's delicious.
5. Go to a club or bar in Lapa (we did eventually make our way there, and it was a very happening place, particularly during Carnival.)
6. And of course, you can always go up to the Christ of the Redeemer for another great view of the city. We didn't do this, however.
Going during Carnival is also great. We didn't bother spending the money to go see the official Carnival Parades (you can see all the action on tv anyway, which is better because then you can mute it when you get sick of hearing the same song for the hundredth time in a row, but are still enthralled enough by the amazing costumes that you want to keep watching). You can soak up the Carnival atmosphere by partaking in the festivities on the street...and you don't even have to be looking for it. We were trying to find Lapa, the district with good pubs and clubs, and we ended up finding ourselves amidst
a huge street party and outdoor concert with lots of food vendors and lots of people selling beer. I love how you can buy and drink beer on the streets without any problems. However, it's a bit sad when it's a 5 year old girl trying to sell you the beer.
Carnival time in Rio reminds me a bit of Halloween, only it's really hot outside and it lasts for days. People everywhere on the streets and in the metro are dressed up, and there's lots of cross dressing going on, which is awesome. The metro system is also very good. The only annoying thing is you have to pay a separate fare for buses and the metro. But the system is very efficient and easy to use. Unfortunately, it closes too early - 12:30am if I recall correctly. So you have to rely on a cab if you're going to stay out late. And getting a cab during Carnival can take a very long time.
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