Rio Baby

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Rio de Janeiro - 10 to 13th April

Since we have been travelling on our own we have booked most of our accommodation through the Hostel Bookers website. Unfortunately the Internet on Ilha Grande had conked out so we couldn´t get hold of the address of our Hostel in Rio all we knew was the name, Alpha Hostel & the area, Botafogo. When our boat arrived on the main land we offered to pop to an Internet cafe to check the address but were told not to bother as the Minivan driver new where the hostel was. Of course when we reached the Botafogo area he didn´t have a clue where we were supposed to be going & tried just to drop us at the tube station. We were having none of it & insisted that he take us straight to our hostel (we´d paid for a door to door service & besides we didn´t want to be wandering around Rio lost as with our rucksacks we might as well be wearing signs saying ¨mug me¨)!

Eventually after much grumbling from him we managed to find the place & were soon settled into our lovely air conditioned room. Botafogo is a nice district in Rio & is safe to walk around after dark. There wasn´t really much night life in the area but it is centrally located & it´s easy to get around the city on the buses & tubes. We wandered out on our first evening looking for somewhere nice to eat nearby. No where looked all that great so we headed into the shopping centre to the food court on the 8th floor which had panoramic views over the city the Oriental food place where we could stuff our faces with delicious sushi & Chinese food for a few quid. It actually became our favourite place to eat in the city! With our stomachs full of good food we felt content & sleepy & lost our urge to explore so we went to the cinema (conveniently located next to the food court) to see the film The 300 which we thought was good entertainment but quite ridiculous in parts.

The next morning I checked the computer while And had a bit of a lie in. I had emailed a tour company the night before asking whether we could go to a football match & was pleased to see that I had a reply saying that there was going to be an exciting local Derby the next day & they would pick us up at our hostel. I hurried back to the room to tell And, we were both very excited to be going to see Brazilian football. After a relaxing morning we headed off to catch a bus to Sugar loaf mountain. We waited for ages at the bus stop outside the shopping centre & as lunch time was approaching fast we decided to head back into the food court for more sushi! Finally after a nice lunch & a shorter wait this time our bus arrived. Buses in Brazil are unusual as inside they have little turnstile you have to squeeze through after paying the conductor (this makes taking our rucksacks on a bus quite a struggle).

The bus dropped us off at the cable car station & before long we were soaring high above the city. Our car was full of annoying & incredibly loud teenagers so when we got off at the half way point we hung back letting them get on the car ahead of us so we could have a more peaceful experience.

At the top we wandered around in the baking sun admiring the views over Copacabana beach & the city. The hill top where the famous Christ the redeemer statue is built was covered in cloud but every now and then the cloud parted around the statue so that it appeared to be floating in the sky. It was a fascinating sight so we sat & watched it for a while before wandering off to explore the gardens along bamboo lined very steep pathways. Unfortunately the annoying teenagers where also in the gardens & decided to set of a power hose in our direction completely drenching us in freezing cold water. We were furious & both let out a (very British) angry shout of ¨Oi!!!¨ The little brats ran off up the path but as we angrily marched after them we realised that Oi! in Portuguese translates as Hi! So all we had done was shout hello at them. We realized how ridiculous this was & soon were laughing in hysterics, our grumps evaporated instantly much more quickly than the water in our wet clothes & anyway it was so hot that day that it was actually quite pleasant to cool down.

After a nice cool beer we were back on the cable cars & back onto a bus heading to Ipanema. We had a lovely couple of hours there strolling along the beach at sunset humming the famous song & stopping to sit & drink a coco gelo (chilled coconut) watching the locals play football & volleyball on the beach.

When it got too gloomy we headed into the streets in search of a evening entertainment. As we walked we saw a bar showing a Champions league match so we popped into watch and later walked on in search of dinner. We couldn´t find anywhere we fancied for dinner & were fealing tired after all this walking so we stopped off for a cold drink at another bar. As we were chatting I looked over And´s shoulder to see a Brazilian football starting on the TV. I was confused because the teams were the ones we were supposed to see play the following evening. Then I realized with horror that this was the match we were supposed to see & we were missing it. The reply to my email had been sent the night before so the ¨match tomorrow¨ in the email was the match that was going on right now. We headed back to the hostel & sure enough were told that the tour people had been waiting for us for ages but had now left. Urgh! I felt awful because I had mucked it up. We ordered take away pizza & watched the match on the TV at the hostel. Botafogo won easily & as this was the area we were staying in you could hear the cheers floating through the night air. Not the same as being there though.

The next morning we took a bus to the bottom of Corcovado the granite peak which towers over Rio with the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer on top. We took the little tourist train up the incredibly steep slopes to the top & spent sometime wandering around in the baking sun through crowds of people all like us gazing up at the amazing statue or out over the city below. From here we could see just what a stunning location this city has with green hills & mountains rising steeply all around & the sea glittering away to the horizon.

We took the train back to the bottom then walked a short way to visit some historic colonial mansion houses nearby. As we entered a little courtyard and looked at the houses (which must once have been very grand but which were now old, faded & in disrepair ) a little stooped old lady beckoned for us to enter her house. We couldn´t resist thinking we would stick our noses through the door & then leave but her son pounced on us as soon as we entered & insisted on giving us a tour around. Not that there was much to see, the rooms were all barren & damp with hardly any furniture & the garden was overgrown with the walls & fountains crumbling away.

We explained to the man that we didn´t speak Portuguese & he didn´t speak English but He took us around pointing out things & talking rapidly obviously thinking that somehow the information would translate itself in our heads. This seems a common way for Brazilians to act, we´ve met many who when confronted with our language barrier just talk to us rapidly & enthusiastically in their beautiful melodic language that we haven´t a hope of understanding just like Jodi Foster in the film Nell!

Eventually after having our photos taken in front of every crumbling artifact we gave them a small donation then managed to escape back out into the sunlight, the smell of damp took a while to leave our nostrils as we headed off in search of lunch. We caught a bus to the centre of town & went to visit the huge concrete cathedral which towers like an upside down ice cream cone & has stain glass windows that go almost to the very top. Then we walked to a little station and queued for a while to take the Bonde (tram) up to one of the oldest districts of the city Santa Theresa.

The tram shook & rattled it´s way up the hill. We knew it went over an aqueduct but to our surprise it was so thin that the tourists hanging on to each side suddenly found there feet dangling over a long drop to the street below. there were plenty of shrieks & white knuckles at this point. And & I took our turns hanging off the side enjoying the ride as the trolley swung it´s way through narrow streets of colonial houses. We stayed on at the top & took the tram down to a nice bar we had noticed where we drank cocktails & watched the sunset. Then feeling brave we hung off the side of the trolley as it went back down the hill & over the aqueduct with the gloomy conductor scowling at us all the way.

We caught the metro back to Botafogo & took a taxi to a local restaurant recommended by the lonely planet. There was no sign of the place at the address but just down the street there was a nice looking Pizza place where we had great Pizza but the worst wine I have ever tasted (Brazilian wine is foul & they always serve red wine chilled).

Friday was our last day in Rio. That morning the tour company Be a local not a gringo arrived to pick us up for a tour of the largest Favela (shanty town) in the city. Our young woman guide greeted us with ¨Ahhh so you are not too late this time¨. She was a huge fan of Botafogo & spent a lot of the tour talking to the other tourists who had made it to the match about the game (ouch it hurt a little every time).

She drove us to the bottom of the shanty town where we all got out where dozens of moto taxis waited for passengers. These are motorbikes with a driver we all climbed on to the back of one then were whizzed up the hill. And hated being driven as she likes to be in control when driving but I didn´t mind riding the motor cycle I was more concerned about the fact that mine had sped off ahead of the others & I was being driven by a strange man deep into the favela. The others caught me up in a narrow part of the street where a truck unloading it´s cargo had caused gridlock. Thirty or so moto taxis with horns blaring tried to weave there way through impossibly narrow gaps between lorries & buses. Suddenly a gap appeared & we all streamed through & were soon whizzing through the streets, my knees nearly touching the floor on every corner! The hairiest moment came when a truck was reversing out into the street & two men were desperately waving for us to stop but instead my driver put his foot right down a zoomed around it. Eeeeeeek.

Somehow we all arrived at the top in one piece. And & I marvelled at the Swedish couple who had bought their baby on the trip (he had slept through the whole ride)! We were given a talk mostly telling us not to take photos or stare if we saw anyone carrying a gun or dealing drugs (we didn´t see any of this) then we walked into the narrow streets of the Favela. It wasn´t what we were expecting as it seemed more like a run down area of town than a shanty town. A Favela is basically land that anyone can lay claim to & build a house on. When there is no ground space left the people sell their roofs & the next house is built on top until some of the buildings grow very tall in a ramshackled way. No one pays taxes in the Favela, water is funneled from a stream & all the power lines, phone lines etc have hundreds of illegal cables running off them to all the houses giving free power & services to the locals. There are two electricity meters in the whole favela, both of which have their wires cut & register zero. People living there don´t earn much money (the minimum wage in Brazil is very low) & our guide told us that if you ask the children what they wanted to be when they grew up the most common answers were actress or model for girls (they were constantly asking us to take there photo thinking it would make them famous) & footballer or drug dealer for boys as these professions where the only way people could see themselves becoming rich or getting out of the Favela (some of the most famous Brazilian footballers came from Favelas & the head of the drug dealers mafia there earns an alleged million dollars a month).

Further in we visited the studio of some local graffiti artists who were now producing more conventional art. And & I bought a painting of hundreds of Favela houses tumbling on top of each other. We then went on to a child care centre which was being funded by the tour agency (50%) of the tour price goes back into the community. The main difference from day care at home was that when they arrived all the kids took a shower before having a meal (in some cases maybe there only chance to wash & eat that day). We emerged from the maze of smelly streets back where we had started the tour had been fascinating, moving & in parts exhilarating too! We were dropped off in Ipanema where we spent the afternoon walking the length of the beach & exploring the district.

That evening (after dinner at the self service place) we met up with British bloke who was also staying in our hostel (David Dobbs) & headed over to the district of Lapa by bus. On Friday nights the streets of Lapa are crowded with people drinking at street vendor bars & dancing in clubs throughout the district. We arrived bought beers & wandered down the street & back again looking for entertainment but we couldn´t quite work out where we should go. As we stood there talking two British lads from the Favela tour came up to ask if we knew where to go & before long there were 8 confused Brits chatting in the middle of the street. Eventually we melted away into the crowd in search of action. We´d had quite a few beers by this time & needed the loo so we talked our way into a lovely new hostel where the staff kindly let us use the facilities. The next few hours were spent drinking in the street & popping back to the same hostel. Eventually we gave up on the outside world & stayed in the Hostel drinking on a balcony & watching the milling crowd below, having a good time chatting & laughing with Dobbsie.

Later we tried to find a club but to our surprise they were all closing. We realised that it was very late so we had one last street cocktail & caught a cab back to our hostel & fell straight into bed to catch a (very) few hours sleep before leaving for the airport in the morning .......

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Photos

The view from Sugar Loaf mountain
That´s Copacabana beach in the distance

The cable car
with Christ the Redeemer in the distance

Comments

[Mum & Dad Aburrow]

Fabulous time
Hi Girls Well on reading this blog I felt that I was there with you not that I would have enjoyed the motor taxis!!!! Superb blog and photos xxxx