Fred's
world tour
Week 3 – Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
13th until
19th of October 2012
In brief:
- Partied on the streets of Lapa, drinking Caipirinhas until the early hours.
- Explored the bohemian district of Santa Teresa.
- Walked down the famous 'Escadaria Selaron' (Tile staircase of Selaron) and met the creator.
- Take the funicular to 'Christo Redentor' (Christ the redeemer) and awe at the views over Rio.
- Watch the sunset over Rio from the 'Pao de acucar' (sugarloaf mountain)
- Delta hang-gliding over Rio and land on San Conrado's white sandy beach.
- Run and stroll along the beaches of Flamengo, Botafogo, Copacabana and Ipanema.
- Take a motorbike tour of two favelas (hillside slums) including where Michael Jackson filmed the music video for his song 'The don't really care about us'.
- Take a beginner's class of samba.
This week started with
a short flight from Florianopolis to Rio de Janeiro's domestic
airport of Santos Dummont. It was a hairy landing approach dodging
the famous hills of Rio but meant I could walk straight into
downtown. I was unfortunately welcomed with cloudy skies and more
rain later as if its been following me from Buenos Aires. Still, I
was excited and rearing to see the highly recommended 'ciudade
maravilhosa'. It was named after the Portuguese arrived in January
1502 and they though it was at a mouth of a river hence 'Rio of
January'. All hostels were booked up because it was a national
holiday so I managed to find a not-so-good hostel in Santa Theresa.
It was in fact a blessing in disguise because the other backpackers
at the hostel were a great. We all had a disco nap and walked down to
Lapa the party centre of Rio which happened to be just down the
hill.... a very steep hill. Lapa was crazy, streets closed off,
people were partying everywhere, clubs lined the road and stalls
selling the very best caipirinhas for £1.5!! With clubs open until
8 or 9am it was hard to stay until the end because I didn't bring my
sunglasses unlike all the locals in the know! Five in the morning
was late enough for me. I didn't want to waste the next day.
Unfortunately because
breakfast at hostels are only served until 10am it means no lie-ins
for us. Then again it was a good excuse to kick start the day and
'carpe dium' . The view from the hillside hostel for breakfast was
great and this view was only going to get better as we walked uphill
and round the bohemian neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. Artistic
graffiti paintings covered the walls, tram tracks lined the road
(currently not working due to tragic death a year ago) and quaint
restaurants gave it a great authentic Brazilian atmosphere. From
parque de Las Ruinas we caught our first view of the 'Pao de acucar'
(sugarloaf) on a beautiful day.; Then we walked down the selaron
stairs. These stairs are the creation of Chilean-born artist Jorge
Selaron whom has spent decades collecting tiles from 60 countries
around the world to decorate this stair case. To this day he sits
there next two his own house selling art and continues to add touches
to the staircase. He is so at home on the stairs that when I got a
picture with him he was picking his toes :-) . to finish the day we
cooked our own food and sampled a few tipples at local Santa Teresa bars.
The next few days Mark,
Johanna and I did some of the big name sights of Rio. Took the
funicular to the Christ the redeemer statue which is currently one of
the seven wonders of the modern world. The views were great and I
don't think I have ever taken so many photos from one place before.
Also what I didn't realise is that there is a tiny, cute little
chapel inside the base of the Christ.
We also walked around the
famous beaches of Copacabana and ipanema which was very beautiful and
a surreal experience. Including going to the cafe where 'the girl
from ipanema' was written by Tom Jobin. Going up to see the sugarloaf
by cable car was pretty special. What was even better was seeing the
sunset from there and also waiting to see Rio at night all lit up.
I
also managed to convince Jo to come and go delta hang-glide with me
over Rio. The flight was short but very special seeing rio from the
air and being able to land of the pristine beach of San Conrado.
On
the thursday I spent time seeing the sights at the centre, met up to
have lunch with a friend's friend which is always fun. I then managed
to cross the bay by boat to Nicerio to see the MAC (museo de arte
contamporaneo) a flying saucer shaped art gallery designed by the
famous Oscar Niemeyer.
The boat back dodged some planes landing at
the Santos Dummont airport which made for an interesting trip. On my
return I saw the impressively modern/odd shaped cathedral right next
to the Lapa viaduct arches and I also booked myself in for a Samba
class on Friday. Not at the same place I don't think God would
approve! :-)
Friday would mark the
end of one week in Rio! I didn't think I would stay here this long
but i've enjoyed every minute of it. Jose has persuaded me to stay
the weekend. Afterall Friday and Saturday nights are the best in Rio.
However before that all kicks off I had organised to have a motorbike
tour of two of Rio's Favelas (hillside slums). This guy was
recommended by Mark the guy from Holland. The operator is an English
speaking favela resident with a motorbike and the 'know how' of the
area but otherwise that's it. No tour operator licence and no
website. This could go either way and thankfully for me it went
really well. The first Favela was the most dangerous one 3years ago
and it also happens to be the one where Michael Jackson filmed the
music video for his song 'they don't really care about us'. The
production crew for the video had to pay off drug dealers to get
permission to film there! In the last few years Rio's favela
'passifying' initiative has slowly but surely been clearing out the
drug gangs from the 300 favelas and Santa Marta is one of them. It
was an eye opening experience. It had areas of colourful art, dingy
cramped spaces and some very smelly streams flowing through it. The
government had installed an elevator to get to the top seeing as its
also the steepest favela in Rio. We took that and then meandered our
way through, pass the Michael Jackson statue and murial. The rest of
the day involved going some good city viewpoints and also a city park
with amazing geology.
After this there was
the Samba class in downtown. Despite the instructor only speaking Portuguese I was able to get a grasp of the basics by copying and so
it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable lesson. I'm not quite
ready for Carnival yet but maybe soon.
To finish my week we
went out and sampled Rio's nightlife once again.
The plan for the coming
week is to stay in Rio until Monday then get to the Iguazu fall on
the border with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
View Fred's World Tour week 3 - Rio de Janeiro in a larger map
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