Rio De Janeiro

Rio is such an iconic city, I was very excited to be going there. But I only had a short time planned to spend there. I figured the less time I spent there, the less chance I had of being mugged! It`s also extremely expensive and Brazil was already killing my savings!. So, as I headed off to Rio with my new amigo Quinton (the english lad i met in florianopolis) for a quick 3 night jaunt, we decided we`d do a whirlwind tour of Rio and tick off the appropriate boxes...

Tick 1. Arriving.
Flying into Rio itself was quite an acheivement for Quinton and I. After having resigned ourselves to another overnight killer bus ride, I had discovered a one day sale with one of the airlines on the internet. In theory that sounds great, but let me tell you, it was a nail biting, stressfull couple of hours trying to book the tickets on a portuguese only website! Most of the airlines here don`t except overseas credit cards on the net so usually you have to go to a agent to book them (after having done all the research yourself anyway, because they can never seem to find the cheap flights!), but this being a sunday night and it being a one day sale and all, we were on our own. After rallying the help of several people in the internet cafe we managed to book ourselves two seats on a flight using fake national id numbers and brazilan post codes (seems they don`t actually want foreigners on their planes over here!)...only to turn up at the airport two days later to find we`d accidently booked the wrong day (right date, wrong month!!) We were scooted over to the airline desk and told it was cost some extortionist amount to be changed! However, luckily the credit card had not been charged yet, so the very helpful lady behind the desk was able to re-book our flights free of charge. Saved. We were so excited about getting away with this we didn`t notice that when we were checked in, the lady only checked us in half way (we needed two flights to get to Rio) so when we arrived at Sao Paulo late (our first flight had departed late, patience is definitly a much needed virtue when travelling in South America!) we missed our connecting flight! This was turning into one very frustrating day! The ever helpful staff managed to get us on another flight that arrived in the city airport closer to town (our other flight would have arrived in the international terminal further out of town) Saved again! Cathching the bus to our hostel, The Mango Tree, in Ipanema we passed many of those iconic sights that Rio was famous for and I was more than a little excited. We arrived late afternoon, only an hour or so of daylight left to take a walk along Ipanema beach, before heading back to the safety of our hostel.
The next day we had a jam packed day of sightseeing planned.
Tick 2. Corcovado and Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer)
When we arrived at the base of Cordovaba, we were told there would be a 40 minute wait to get the cog up to see the big man. Damn day trippers had beaten us to it! Luckily there is always someone on hand in Brazil to offer you their services, so we took a guided tour with Zenildo, a very good english speaking cab driver. It was cheaper than the train and we got to stop more places and Zenildo was a wonderful guide, so it all worked out well in the end! I have to say it was pretty impressive seeing Christ in all his 38 metre, 710 ton splendour! I`ve been seeing him in movies, on tv, in print my whole life, it was pretty cool to see him in the flesh (or should I say concrete?!) The views of the city were also amazing. Cordabova stands at 710metres high and was a popular look out point well before Christ arrived upon it`s top, some 75 years ago. The views confirm that Rio really is a beautiful city, full of colonial architecture, surrounded by green forested mountains and beaches.

Quinton and I on the way up

The big man himself

me and Christ

Tick 3. Historic tram to Santa Theresa
After our tour, Zenildo dropped us off at the bondinho (tram) stop where we wanted to catch the last surviving streetcar in Rio, to the pretty little bohemien bario of Santa Theresa. After waiting at the stop a while it became apparant that we were pretty much smack bang in front of a favella (a slum or `community`). Oddly enough it didn`t feel dangerous sitting there, maybe because we had made chums with a lovely local girl called Jewell. She was learning english and enjoyed practicing with us. Apparently the trams have no timetables, you only know they are coming by the shaking of the lines above. We waited over an hour for one, all the time talking to Jewell. Meanwhile many buses went by taking the same route downtown. We waited because we wanted to take the historic tram. I wondered why Jewell was waiting so long when buses were going all the time. It wasn`t till we go on the tram it became apparent. If you rode on the outside of the tram, it was free. The ride itself was only 60 centavos (about 20c) and the buses that she had let pass by were 2 reils (less than a buck). Even though Brazil has the 9th biggest economy there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor and you can see it on every street corner. I had already been blown away by how friendly the people in Rio were, for such a big city, they seemed to make the time to talk to each other, locals and foreigners alike and went out of their way to help you. On the other hand, within minutes of arriving in Rio, you will be bombarded of stories and warnings of muggings, some of them at knife and gun point.

Jewell hanging off the tram

Santa Theresa

Tick 4. Sunrise at Pao de Acucar (aka as Sugerloaf Mountain)Two cable cars take you up the 396m to the summit of this mountain for spectacular views over Rio, the opposite view from Corcovado, taking in the big dude himself. We had a Skol (local beer) whilst watching the sun fall behind him. It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Halfway up Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf cable

Tick 5. Ipanema and Copacabana beachesThe next morning we arose in anticipation of a much cruiser day than the one before. We had three objectives. One was to book our onward flights from Rio and the other two involved lazing on the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. As Ipanema was only a block from our hostel, we headed there first. Forever immortalised by the famous bossa nova song, `Girl from Ipanema`, Ipanema is a long stretch of white sand in one the richer, nicer neighbourhoods of Rio. It has postos along it, each one is a hang out for a different type of group of people. Nine for example is where the bohemium people hang out, eight is where all the gay guys hang and ten is where the beautiful people reside. We of course headed for ten! And you don`t need to worry if you forget to take something to Ipanema beach. There is someone selling just about everything you could ever need from bikinis to sunscreen to beach balls! After Ipanema, we booked our flights (pain free this time, through an agent) and then headed to Copacabana. Not nearly as nice as Ipanema, quite polluted and a little seedy, still, you can`t go to Rio and not have some time sunbathing on Copa!

Ipanema beach

Tick 6. Samba club in Lapa.Lapa is an area famous for it`s music and samba clubs. On the recommendation of our hostel host (Lance, incidently an Aussie guy from Melbourne who had just opened up this hostel in Rio) a group of us caught a cab to a club called Rio Scenarium. Ok, so this bar is the coolest place I have ever been to. In fact it is rated in the Guardians top 10 bars in the world (http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2006/nov/28/bars). It was an old converted warehouse, three stories high with lots of different rooms that I imagine host all sorts of different music when full on the weekend (we were there on a wednesday night). Every wall was filled with different curios. One wall was old clocks, another art deco mirrors, there were cabinets with old medicine bottles and old bycicles hanging from the ceilings, piano bars hidden in side rooms and great big old couches. I loved it. And then there was the music. A live samba band with a big mama on vocals and guys wearing brightly coloured jeans and shirts. Everyone was dancing and just generally having a good ole time. Samba is one these dances you can get by having a go at and not really knowing what you are doing! You just have to move your feel real fast and you at least look like you know what you are doing! A few capirinhas (typical brazilian drink) and lots of dancing later, we stumbled out of the club and headed back to the hostel, another perfect ending to a another perfect day in Rio.
Wish I had some photos of this place, but unfortunatly you don't really feel like you can take your camera out in Rio at night.
So it was a short but very sweet time for me in Rio.