Rio de Janeiro – The Big Tour

Before I begin with today, did I mention it was hot here? As we head towards the last day of summer in Brazil, the daytime temps are still hovering in the low 30’s and even better, the night time temps don’t go much below 20. Last night before we cashed it in, I took some night shots of Copacabana from our hotel window. It’s safe to say that this place is special day and night.

So…. Today was a big one! We saw it all! Not really, but it seemed like it. After a very nice North American style buffet breakfast at our hotel, we met our guide for the day, Olivia Alves. According to the internet, the number one guide in Rio is Neyla and since she was busy, she proposed her coworker, Olivia. On our first stop of the day we did meet Neyla, but at no time did we feel short changed. In fact, as the day went on we really loved Olivia and really appreciated the fact that the two of us had Olivia to ourselves.

Because the weather changes rapidly here, due to Maritime influences, we started with a visit to Corcovado, which is the mountain location for the Christo Redentor statue that looks out over Rio. It was early, the skies were clear and so far the cruise ships hadn’t unleashed their hordes. The trip to the summit of Corcovado is generally made by cog railway through the Tijuca Rainforest and we embarked right beside a kiosk for Hard Rock Café, which was nice to be able to get the T-shirt out of the way. Along the ascent, we viewed a variety of rainforest vegetation, not all indigenous to the area, but impressive none-the-less. Among this vegetation was the tree bearing the jackfruit. Presently it was out of season, but it is a huge growth that when picked smells bad but tastes good – kind of like stinky cheese.

Before we boarded the train, Olivia beat everyone to the train and saved the best seats for us. As a guide she is obliged to stand, to make room for the touristos. When we reached the summit, we discovered that we had not, in fact, beaten the hordes, as we could hardly make our way through the throngs assembled beneath Christ, at which point I looked up and said, “Christ, there are a lot of people here!” Not really, but I did think it. This statue finished in 1931 is now one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World and there’s no question that he has a fabulous view of Rio.

After taking many pictures of Rio and the Christ, we descended to make our way to our next destination, the cable car ride to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. Now any true fan of James Bond movies knows that this cable car was made famous in the movie Moonraker and although we weren’t allowed to ride as James on the roof, the ride up did bring back memories of the movie. The cable car he used is on display at the top, but today the car is larger and more modern.

The trip to the top is actually in two stages and cars, as it goes from the staging area to peak number one, the Morro de Urca and then continues on in car number two to the summit of Sugarloaf.

The weather continued to favour us and we got great vistas, back towards Corcovado, down to the city centre and back to Copacabana.

Now it was time for some lunch, so Olivia took us to a little hole in the wall in the Urca neighbourhood beneath Sugarloaf. Here, we sampled some authentic Brazilian snack food that included little tarts of cheese and shrimp, cod-balls, packets of meat and seafood, Brazilian beer and for me, fresh squeezed lemonade. Excellent!

Next, was the historic centre of Rio, which included, first, a visit to the staging area for Carnaval. The Sambodromo shown below, houses over 100 000 people viewing the elaborate costumes of the locals. Olivia told us she didn’t work Carnaval because she wanted to dance and dance they do, from morning day one to morning day two.

Then we visited the oldest area of Rio called, Santa Teresa. Much of this area is in serious need of reformation, but with both the World Cup of Soccer and the Olympics coming to Rio, it was nice to see a slightly more authentic area than I’m sure will be seen in a few years from now. One major feature in this area is the Laderio do Selaron, which is an extensive ceramic staircase.

As the day was getting shorter, we opted to visit an area of Rio familiar to Olivia – the favelas. These are the slums of Rio, originally inhabited by the ex-slaves of the Portuguese colonists. Today, it’s pretty much still the ancestors of the slaves who live here. But, until six months ago, no tourists would visit here because drug lords controlled the favelas and foreigners were easy targets for crime and violence.

The favlelas we visited was called Rocinha and it was a little self-contained city of 150 000 people. Things are changing. The King drug lord is in jail and no longer does this area market drugs in the way they used to, in a similar fashion to any vegetable market we’ve visited. There is a huge, heavily armed police presence here now and for the time being anyway, drugs have been pushed back underground. The former drug mules are now moto-taxi drivers – motorcycle taxis. There was some noteworthy evidence of drug use among inhabitants, but by enlarge the people were very friendly and the ex-drug dealers stood about idlely watching the world go by. We actually bought a Rio specialty at one of the shops – Acai, an ice cream-fruit snack – delicious! You’ll notice the beehive of wires in many of the pictures, because until recently, most residents of this favelas stole their hydro by splicing into existing lines.

Olivia lives in the favelas next to this one. She’s a bit of a Bohemian and after she gave up a good career in the export industry and a marriage to become a tour guide, her family considered her the black cat – not sheep – of the family. As it turns out, her favelas, shown below, is in huge regeneration and as real estate escalates, she doesn’t look quite as crazy anymore. Her place is in the white apartment to the lower right.

Our return to the hotel took us down the stretch of what people consider the elite beaches of Rio – Leblon and Ipanema. From our perspective, Copacabana is every bit as nice, but real estate for these areas is definitely the tops for Rio.

Back at the hotel, we bid farewell to Olivia and I began the enormous task of cataloguing the day’s photos. As day turned to dusk, we broke the first rule of tour guidebooks and took a walk down Copacabana to an evening market. We wouldn’t have felt safer walking in downtown Kitchener after dark. There were hordes of walkers, joggers, bicyclists and lots of juvenile soccer matches taking place on the sand.

Dawn got into the bikini-shopping mode, but I doubt the result of this expedition will ever be viewed, so I include the try-on photo as proof.

Tonight, we chose to eat at a restaurant recommended by the concierge, La Trattoria. It was only two blocks from the hotel and we barely managed seats at 7:30. This place was hopping! There was almost never an empty table. The Italian fare here was also considered quite Brazilian. We returned to the hotel with 13 000 some odd steps under our belts for the day, which oddly enough was largely spent in Olivia’s car. Right now we’re feeling pretty good about what we’ve seen in Rio and look forward to a more relaxed day tomorrow.