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Published: February 25th 2007
Sugar Loaf
obligatory photoWell this one looks like it might be another long upate and I can't remember that well so far back so some stuff might be missing or glossed over. It was over a month ago and I really should have kept this thing more up to date or at least written a diary to copy this stuff out of. Oh well, here goes...
9 January, Tuesday... Arrived in Rio de Janeiro and promptly got ripped off by the taxi from the bus station, not by much but it was a bit annoying, anyway on to the hostel and we were greeted by a lovely room with 24 beds in total in triple decker bunks - sleep might not be so easy here. So the hostel was right near Copacabana beach so we went for a walk along it to see what all the fuss was about. It wasn't the best of weather if I remember rightly, somewhat overcast, but the sand was yellow and the sea was, well, kind of polluted by the looks of things but I think the Brazilians go there to pose rather than swim so I guess that's ok. Oh and they also like to drink lots
of lovely Skol, you can buy it everywhere here, a little taste of home. Didn't do much else, drank some caiprinhas in the hostel and went to bed in the rather large dorm.
10 January, Wednesday... Time for culture... the Museu do Republica was free today but the floor that sounded interesting was closed we did get to wander around an old house and see lots of rooms that looked similar though. What next? There's a big modern cathedral known as the Catedral which basically looks like a pyramid in the middle of town. Up close it looks like a concrete wonder but due to the size of it it remains impressive, not much room inside though - very bad use of space. More culture on the agenda for today so we headed to the Museu do Arte Moderno, MAM, apologies for spelling mistaked. There were some big 'installations' which were rather weird, most memorable was one with two videos of doors talking to each other shown on tvs mounted on mechanical arms. There were paintings by some guy I can't remember and the world press organisation photos of the year exhibition, some very moving and excellent pictures in
I found Jesus
and so did everyone else there. I do like photojournalism but some of it is rather depressing. I think we sat on Copacabana beach after that, or maybe it was another day my memory is a bit sketchy, got burnt anyway and couldn't go in the sea to cool down.
11 January, Thursday... Another day of good weather so we took advantage and went to get a vantage point over the city by taking the bus (not as dangerous as people told me) to Sugar Loaf mountain, so called because it looks like a sugar loaf which I would later discover is a device used to dry refined sugar (I think). Excellent views over the city, we even got to see Jesus on another hill looking back at us. Might go see him tomorrow, maybe get some tea. What did I do next? ... We went searching for a new camera for Thom in some shops but found it rather expensive so gave up. I think that was in Botafogo, it just turned into a walk about the area though. Still sunny and burnt more.
12 January, Friday... Time to go to see the other viewpoint and the Cristo Redentor statue. Another bus,
Mike from Ipanema
What? You were expecting a girl? then a train (HI cards got a discount for the first time since Oz) up the mountain with some weird statues in the forest en route. Jesus himself is a big art deco statue I discovered and the view was probably more complete of the city than at Sugar Loaf but a bit hazy and anyway I liked looking over the coast there. Not much else to do apart from fight the masses for a picture with the big man in the background. Tried to take the bus back but traffic was super slow so walked back along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, not bad weather but still a bit burnt so didn't stop for a Skol. Out in the evening for a big street party in Lapa which turned out just to be people drinking on the streets, I don't know what I expected really, there were some crowded bars about too and it was raining, great.
13 January, Saturday... Today we went to the Museu do Historia Nacional. I don't really remember it that well, I think it was quite boring, some stuff about the separation from portugal and the monarchy becoming a republic. Oh and an exhibition
Copoeira
Tourist show but still cool on churches in northern Spain which wasn't too relevant to anything. I think that was about it for this day, oh, actually I think we found the playstation room in the hostel. That's something to be ashamed of, coming halfway around the world and playing computer games. Well, it's either that or drink.
14 January, Sunday... We headed up to the Santa Teresa area, supposedly unmissable on a trip to Rio, for it's colourful houses and narrow passageways (ooh err). It reminded me of a town and I didn't really see what the fuss was about, I think Thom thought the same, so we came back but not on the super slow tram we used to get there. Didn't do much for the rest of the day until there was a Capoeira show in the hostel. Capoeira is a really cool martial art dancy thing which slaves developed to hide the fact they were actually practising fighting nowadays it's for tourists or shows by the looks of things but is good to watch, especially when Thom joins in and I run away. After that we went to a big Favela party thing which is actually a nice safe organised
Church in Ouro Preto
And the town is full of hills party in a big warehouse and they tried to push on us all the time we were in the hostel but I was rather drunk as were certain others so left early in a pricey taxi.
15 January, Monday... Lay in, checked out, went shopping for a bit and took the bus to Ouro Preto at 10pm. It's starting to feel like we're running out of things to do in Rio so this should be a welcome change.
16 January, Tuesday... Arrived in Ouro Preto at 6am and promptly went striaght to sleep. Not for too long though, there are lots of old churches in this gold rush town, in total we went to see 4 churches all of different styles with differing amounts of gold on display and 2 museums largely based around local artist Alejaidrinho who invented his own style and became a national hero and lost his hands but carried on working by tying tools to his arm stumps and we went to one mine which was for quartz and tin but was pretty much just like wandering through a cave. The town is pretty with lots of old buildings and lots of hills unfortunately
Niteroi
Designed by Niemeyer which didn't help exploring too much. All churched out we gave up with about 10 more to go.
17 January, Wednesday... Still in Ouro Preto, it seems there's another mine nearby (a gold one) and not much else reachable on a day trip so we decided to do nothing and killed time until the 10pm bus to Rio. What a life.
18 January, Thursday... The bus arrived at 4am and there was nothing open! Unfortunately not even the hostels and when we could wake someone they'd tell us they were full (the hostel not the staff). Eventually we found one and argued a little bit with the taxi driver who'd had to backtrack slightly and wanted double. Sleep seemed a good idea at the time. After we woke and moved room at 12 we headed out to the Maracana to further complete our world tour of football stadiums but, shock horror, the dressing rooms and pitchside access were closed for refurbishment. Realising this could be our only time in Rio we went anyway for a view from the 6th floor of the stands, it's quite big and round too. Don't know what else to say. Oh it had the biggest attendence of any football match for world cup final 1950, something just shy of 200,000 people. It's all seated now so you won't get that many again and I'm suprised the whole thing didn't fall down then.
19 January, Friday... A very unexciting start to the day, Thom had to go to the LAN office to get his tickets reprinted (another nasty after effect of the thieves of BA). Then we headed to the Oscar Niemeyer designed art gallery in Niteroi over the other side of the bay from Rio, oddly enough they had an exhibition of greek statues mainly borrowed from a museum in Berlin. Niteroi seems like a nice enough place and a bit quieter than the beaches of Rio shame we didn't really have time to stop, culture seemed to be the order of the day so we headed to the Bank of Brazil's cultural expo in the bank where we got to see more Alejaidrinho work and photos of churches. Onto the market at Uruguayana, which I didn't like much, to pick up some bits and pieces and then back to Lapa for another 'street party'. What a busy day!
20 January, Saturday... Checked out, flew to Santiago, went to hostel, ate, almost ran out of money using old pesos from the last trip and dollars. Worked out alright though.
21 January, Sunday... Flew to La Paz nice and early in the morning. Got to stop at a cafe called Gatsby.
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