Monday, January 12, 2009

Life in Flip-Flops: Rio de Janeiro

Friday 9th January 2009

My first early start was quite a challenge but well worth it and possibly the best way to make most of all that Rio has to offer in the little time we have here. We headed up to the Cristo Rodentor, or Corcovado on a lucky bright day. The sky needs to be clear for the view to be worthy and it so happens that the micro climate in Rio is pretty foggy and rarely has complete clear skies due to the comination of oceanic humid air and the proximity of the mountains. The Cristo itself is at 980 meters above sea level and only a couple of kilometers away from the ocean.

We took a taxi to Cosmo Velho village and from there took a choo choo train up the moutain for 45 reales return. The train took a good 10-15 minutes to climb up and along the way we crossed a natural park with all its natural wonders and gradually reached heights from where the view of Rio de Janeiro is uncomparable. Once on top, we were litterally 'in the clouds'. The sky grew white and unfortunitely we didn't get to see the complete views of Rio, however what was presented before us was breath-taking enough. Perhaps it was a good thing that the skies were not completely clear, or else i would never want to leave!


The Cristo was very interesting to see, but as a touristis site, it was very crowded, sometimes a bit of a battle to get in or out. The amusing site was to see all the visitors doing the exact same thing: posing in front of the Cristo with their arms stretched out horizontaly, whilst a companion was framing the picture whilst lying down on the floor.


We stayed there approx. 2 hours and headed back down with the train, this time accompanied by live samba music all the way down, people were clapping and getting up to dance, which by now is a normal thing to witness. In general people sing and dance a lot here. It is quite common to hear people singing on the streets, in public transports or even in restaurants, not in an offensive way. Anyway, how could merry singing ever be offensive? Especially when there is a lack of European type stress round these parts. Stress, if it was to be present, would appear in different form.
We hoped onto a bus and went straight to the botanical gardens, which is the 4th largest in the world. The plants were exotic and beautiful and the trees were yet gain very tall! It was really impressive and relaxing to be there. We had lunched and a little siesta which was perfect.


There were too many flowers and too high trees for me to put all the pictures up, but here are some to give an idea. On the first picture you can see Nathalie. and also the height of the trees. The other three are pink !




We left the Botanical Park and on our way to the Lagoon, met Silviu, an aerodynamic physicist from Romania. He had a lot of information on Rio and we walked with him to the Lagoon and after an hour's walk, reached the neighbourhood of Ipanema (which is similar to Copacobana, except younger and newer, and probably safer) for some tapas. On the way there I experienced my first Acai fruit juice - Nossa! It was delicious!

Fruits play an important part in Brazilian diets. There are many fruit juice stands with a lot of passion fruit, mango, acai, coconut, pineapple, melon, and surprisingly, black grapes. They love black grapes! After this we headed home at around 8pm and got ready to go out with Nathalie's Italian friends.

That night we went to the neighbourhood of Lapa, a young, dynamic party neighbourhood of Rio. It was great! We were warned that the neighbourhood is not safe and that we need to take extra care of our belongings. Entering Lapa, I immediately understood why. The party was not contained, but neither was it chaotic (for Brazil) - it was on the streets! The place was packed with young people with music blaring out of clubs and bars which were invisible, hidden behind the crowd of young dancers. Beer sellers on the streets (Barceloneans can imagine what it is like - except times 10!) and food stands selling barberqued meat and cheese. We walked up the streets, which felt quite unsafe I have to admit. There was little street lights, yet the roads were full of local people. We clearly stood out.
Nico, an Italian who loves Brazil and Rio showed us around and took us to the entrance of the favella. It was a long and high stairway which definitely did not lead to heaven. It was lighten closer to the Lapa street and gradually grew darker until there were no street lights at all, but big trees and a legendary reputation for drugs and violence, not forgetting abject poverty. Nico assured us that we could take a picture, but I did not want to take my shiny silver camera out and take a picture of these people as though we were in some animal zoo (although now I wish I had). There were a couple of people hanging around the stairs and a police patrol car, so it was supposedly safe, but I didn't feel quite that way. We left those famous stairs and headed to where the party was happening - it was time to dance!
We got some beers and listened to live samba music from bands playing under the 'railway airches' of Lapa. The streets were buzzing and everyone was happy and having a good time. Suddenly the reality of the favellas and all the problems and brewing civil war surrounding Rio melted away, leaving place to music, singing and dancing. I, yet again, attempted to shake my tush - rediculising myself yet again! Those Brazilians definetly know how to dance! Although, we got to admit that it is a completly different rhythm and beat to anything I have ever know. We then went to a salsa club, where I felt much more at ease, we ate from the street stands and headed home - we had to be up early, as we were going to the beachtown of Buzios the next morning...

Saturday 10th January 2009
BUZIOS! Beautiful, gorgeous BUZIOS! The Sant Tropez of Rio de Janeiro - peninsula with over 20 (almost) virgin beaches. The town is residential and mainly dedicated to local fishing industry and tourism. Many have summer beach houses here, and I don't blame them!

We took the 11.15am bus from Rio to Buzios and arrived 3 hours and 56 reales (less than 30 euros return) later. Isabela's family have a beach house there were we could stay at. As soon as we arrived, we dropped the bags off and headed straight for the beach!

The closest beach was that of Geriba. We got tanned and listened to the live music being played at one of the poussadas. They played 70s and 80s classic rock, which made us both very happy to hear.



At night, we went to a bar-restaurant called 'Bora Bora' with Isabela's mum's friends - Carolina and Tina. It was in a beautiful setting, and as the name suggest, decorated to give a relaxing yet funky atmosphere. We were there for pretty much the whole evening and night until a big bright full moon came out to enchant us even more.





We then walked around the centre of the village to witness more shopping (shops close at 9-10pm ish), more live music, more dancing and a bunch of family holiday makers. It was time to crash and sleep. The next day - Sunday 11th January, we wanted to go to town to organise our budget and exact travel plans, but we instead went to another beach - the famous Brigitte Bardot beach (Buzios was popularised by her in the 70s). We had lunch on a terrace, which was extremely pleasant (as always and as everything is). Nathalie headed home and I went to the beach of Joao Fernandinho, a little creek on the other side of the peninsula. This beach is hidden between the trees and is much more tranquile than the other beaches. There I relaxed and perfected my tan with a hint of red.

That night we relaxed at home and took advantage of the peace and quiet in Buzios, in comparison to the city life of Rio de Janeiro. I could easily spend all summer in Buzios - there are so many unspoilt beaches, music everywhere and t is extremely relaxing. I did not want to return to Rio (poor me!) after only two days in Buzios, but there are still many other places to visit and time is precious. We have two more weeks in Brazil before heading to Argentina...

Monday 12th January 2009

No rest for the wicked! Yet another early start for Sherine and Nathalie with a 6.30am taxi ride to catch our return bus to Rio at 7am. We pretty much slept the whole way through and woke up to the noise, pollution and chaoticness of a city. We had some missions to do in town (buy plane tickets, lenses, USB pendrive, dentists...) and at night we met with Isabela's dad for dinner. We had the best pizza in town at 'Barz' and came home. Now we must decide whether we are going to Ilha Grande (virgen island which is fully booked) or Teresopolis (mountains to go rock climbing). We would like to do both before heading to Bahia by the end of the week... let's see what we can manage to do!

4 comments:

sara sani said...

amazing! keep enjoying brazil!
barcelona is still so cold!
besos

blondie in barcelona said...

ahhhhhhh i'm dreaming of your brazilian adventures...the sun+sea+nature, the music, and acai!!! misses+kisses desde barce! ~Holly

Sandra said...

neeeena, que bien vives !!!!

Unknown said...

Loved reading about ur trip so far! Looking forward to reading more. Take good care of yourself and hopefully see you soon xx