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Published: March 7th 2009
With no sign of Bob Hope, we head into Puerto Iguazu to catch the overnight bus to Rio. The taxi we had negotiated a price with the night before had done a runner and the hotel concierge ran off down the road to source us a cab.
We asked the Brazilian border security if it was necessary to go though all the paper work as we were only catching a bus in Argentina and would be coming back through to Brazil in an hour or two. “It’s no problem” the woman replied as they stamped our passports to exit she advised “you do again”. Obviously paper work is not a problem! And hey, they’ve got a whole rainforest of paper here.
The bus was about an hour late but the senorita at the gate was very good and told us it was late, so all pretty smooth really. We had cama suite, which is a seat on the top deck of the bus that sort of folds flat like a bed so you get a reasonable night’s sleep. We were supposed to be fed on the bus and get champagne in the cama suite section, but given the rush
to get to Rio, someone clearly overlooked that part. The bus made good time and we got to Rio in 21 hours. So by about 10.00am we were entering the huge metropolis that is Rio de Janeiro and excited to be joining in the world’s biggest festival, Carnival (or Carnaval as it is here). Carnaval goes for about five days on the run up to Shrove Tuesday, so this year from 20-25 February.
Rio is a bit of a grubby and run down city sprawling in between green forested rocky outcrops. Many people live in shanty towns (favelas) to which organised tours are provided. We didn’t go on one of these as the idea of being driven around the poor areas in a luxury air-conditioned bus didn’t appeal.
Saturday was a trip up to Pao de Azucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain), which was quite spectacular providing great views over the water and hills with the city nestled in between. The cable car which takes you up in two stages is pretty cool too. It’s hot and humid here - although the temperature only averages about 35-36 degrees, the humidity affects us WA types. We have been very lucky with
no rain. It has apparently rained for Carnaval the last two years but the show still goes on regardless. The rain wouldn’t do much for the feathered costumes but it would take more than a bit of rain to dampen the Cariocan spirit at Carnaval.
Saturday evening we walked around the local area of Flamengo and caught a local street party/procession “Bloco Estica do Flamengo”. We followed that around for an hour or so. Loud drums, bad singing and everyone marching to the beat. Technically it was pretty poor, but being here and in the middle of it has a strange effect that just draws you in. The music is a song that each local area has (perhaps its anthem?) and consists of two to three verses and a sort of chorus. Overall the song is about two minutes worth and it repeated for the whole parade - it’s a little hypnotic really.
Sunday - Copacabana and Ipanema
It is said that Rio has some of the best beaches in the world, but that’s just bull shit! The sand is coarse (almost brickies sand) and they are packed (see photos). Now I have been to some busy beaches,
Copacabana Beach
Allegedly there is sand and water!but at Ipanema it is hard to see the sand through the proliferation of umbrellas and people (and they don’t go topless - sorry fellas!). We walked for a few kilometres down by the water’s edge (you couldn’t run) and people-watched. It is also said that Ipanema beach is where the beautiful people go, well they had gone by the time we got there. Fatties and oldies were the go and although all the girls had their bikinis in their bum crack, this is not as nice as it may sound when they weigh in at 120kgs!!
Having caught the public bus on quite a few occasions and out to Copacabana, we were feeling reasonably confident in our bus catching skills. Our “getting off the bus” skills however were not quite so well honed. From Ipanema we checked with the driver that he was stopping at Flamengo. All Brasilian bus drivers (and cab drivers) have trained at the school of crazy. The drivers don’t stop unless you tell them to. Our driver was gunning it around what we knew was our area and not stopping for anyone. We didn’t recognise anything familiar in Flamengo and hence didn’t ask the
driver to stop. About three suburbs later and some argument between us as to whether we should just get off at some unknown location and catch a cab or admit our mistake to the driver, Jono played the part of the stupid tourist and bravely asked the money lady (who sits diagonally opposite to the driver) “Flamengo??“ We couldn’t understand what she said but we’re pretty sure it was something like “you must be kidding… Flamengo was about 10 stops ago“. We said we would get off but the kindly driver indicated we should stay on. He took us to the end of his run at a very scary bus station. On the upside, it was right alongside where all the floats were parked for the parade so we got a sneak peak at those. The driver spoke to one of his bus driver mates (no doubt relaying that we were idiots) and put us on another bus through the back doors (so we didn’t need to pay again). We waved a grateful goodbye to him and the new money man told us where to get off for Flamengo (in the nicest possible way).
Samba Samba Samba
Sunday night
was spent at the Sambadrome watching 6 of the 12 the samba schools compete with their dancing, singing and floats. The purpose-built sambadrome holds about 70,000 people and the locals all have their favourite “team”. Each team comprises between 4,000-5,000 people and they have 80 minutes to impress the judges. As with the blocos, the song is a short ditty repeated for the duration of that school’s parade down the runway. Now it sounds somewhat repetitive, but oddly you really get into it and the next day one will be stuck in your head! The floats were just incredible and would have taken so long to make, not to mention the thousands of different costumes that they were all wearing. We were sitting in sector 13 at the end of the runway and were horrified to see loads of beautiful costumes scooped up by the garbage truck at the end of each team’s performance.
It is a stunning spectacle where each team’s parade has a theme which has been kept under wraps. The floats reflect the theme and there are about five to seven floats in each team’s parade. The last parade was titled “samba in heaven“ and had
a space theme. One of the floats was an imperial destroyer with the characters from Star Wars beneath waving light sabres. Hmmn you may say, doesn’t sound that impressive, well the destroyer looked to scale and about seven metres long, yes it was that big! (Chewy was in the front row and Leia was on top - not of Chewy, the float). Accompanying the floats were hundreds of rows of people in costumes of Trekkies, Klingons, Men in Black, Marvins (that little green martian) and a whole host of other costumes. Each costume set (ie the Klingons) includes about 50-70 people and that’s an awesome display of costumes.
On the down side you need to take a cushion as the seats are concrete (you can buy foam cushions on the way in, but ours were flat in a couple of hours). The event started at 9.00pm and took almost half an hour to reach sector 13. Half way through the last parade the sun came up and we were surprised to learn that it was 7.00am when we left. It’s a long time to be sitting, but really it is only the 30-odd minute wait between parades that gets
to you. Once the parades arrive you just stand there in awe (or dance a bit if you have the energy). The photographs just don’t capture the spectacle (and there is something very mesmerising about a fit woman shaking her feathered booty at you!!!).
We thought some schools should have been done for time wasting as they took longer to reach us, but apparently that’s okay - they only lose points if they finish under 80 minutes. It was a great night and we were surprised we made it through to the end. With aching feet and bums we headed back to our hotel for a quick breakfast and bed for a few hours kip. I woke up at midday with that “where the hell am I?” dazed feeling. When I remembered, it felt so good to be in Rio!
Monday afternoon was an organised trip up Corocovado (that Jesus statue). We headed off at 1.30pm, but couldn’t get on the cog railway until 4.00pm as our group booking had been bumped by the cruise ships (welcome to South America!). (Apparently 46,000 people descend on Rio by cruise ship for Carnaval and 1 to 1.5 million overall). The
view from the top was really good, but it was packed, really packed. There were tourists lying everywhere trying to get arty photos of the statue. It’s big and difficult to photograph.
Tuesday we headed to the Rodoviaria (bus station) to arrange transport out of Rio. The bus trip was a bit of an eye opener as the streets became worse and worse. We just prayed that the bus wouldn’t stop until the bus terminal. With bus tickets successfully obtained we ventured back outside to catch a bus back. Again the streets around the bus station were pretty rough and the bus driver actually hit a couple on a motor cycle. He was more concerned that the bus had been slowed by this inconvenience than the welfare of the couple. They looked okay (again welcome to South America). In a way we were glad the driver didn’t stop or open the bus doors. That evening the tour company had arranged a “sunset cruise” around the harbour on a schooner so we got some different views of the city (slightly blurred with the caipirinhas they were serving).
Wednesday was a trip up to Santa Teresa, a lovely old area
in Rio set into the hillside. We caught an old “bonde” or tram to get up there. It was a very busy day and there were people hanging off the running boards for the white knuckle tram ride. As with the rest of Rio, some of the architecture was really beautiful but a huge number of buildings are quite derelict.
After the excitement of Carnaval, we've had a change of plan and decided to head to the south of Rio to an island called Ilha Grande for a rest and a swim (it's a hard life.)
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Jo
non-member comment
Rio!
Wow - looks like Rio will have to be on my next list! Sounds like you guys are having a ball and I am loving reading about it (although would obviously prefer to be there). Keep up the great writing and the photos - I especially loved all the Mings!