Rio de Janeiro

As with Buenos Aires, I´m glad I´m writing this blog at the end of our time here because big cities take a while to get the ´feel of´.  When I first arrive in a city I have a feeling of ´how on earth am I going to get to grips with this?´ and get a bit overwhelmed with it all (read: Lisa gets a bit grumpy).  Brad rightly told me to sort myself out - we were in Rio for God´s sake!  I find it hard to imagine we´re ever going to get our bearings.  But we always do.  Rio is the fourth largest city in the world and I´m sure you could spend many weeks here and still discover something new.  After nearly a week here we did our best to ´conquer´ Rio and we liked it more and more.....

First of all, the weather was not on our side.  It rained pretty much constantly and cloud threatened the views from the famous Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue accessed by cog train up a mountain and from the top of Sugarloaf mountain, both vantage points that give really nice views of each other, across central Rio and it´s many lovely beaches, such as the famous Copacabana and Ipanema.  The poor weather kept the beaches relatively quiet and just meant that it took us slightly longer to do the things we wanted because sometimes we just simply had to escape the heavy rain indoors.

Despite us not seeing it at its best, it was clear to see that Rio is quite beautiful - loads of white-sand beaches, surrounded by lush green peaks.  The Portuguese monarch actually lived in Brazil when it was conquered by the Portuguese - the first New World colony to have a European monarch on its soil.  That´s how nice he thought it was.  The Brazilians say that ´God is Brazilian´.  That´s how proud they are of their heritage.  Rio was the capital of Brazil until the 60´s when it moved to Brasilia.

The centre of town is quite unspectacular, the highlight was some lively pedestrianized shopping streets.  The architecture of the high rises is quite uniform.  This is just really the business centre though, which is often not the nicest area of a city and is deserted at weekends.

The highlight of Rio is it´s beaches.  Lots of football and volleyball (played with hands or feet/head) is played here by women in skimpy (dental-floss) bikinis and men in speedos.  The various beaches have markers (posts) along them that have come to be characterised by the type of people that hang out there: the gay bit, the part where the hot people hang out, the area where the favela (slum) kids play.  All the beaches are clean and well-maintained.  Most of them have waves that crazily are big just at the shore-line and are ´dumpers´.  There are nicely paved promenades punctuated with frequent kiosks selling snacks, juices and caipirinhas.  Most sell coconuts that are taken intact from the fridge, a chunk cut off the top and a straw stuck in.  There´s about half a litre of coconut water in each of these.  These are young coconuts - not the smaller, rounder ones with lots of coconut ´meat´ inside and hairy outsides.  It´s not just a touristy thing - the locals drink these too and it´s meant to be really good for you.  Fruit juices are king here too - with the amount of fruit that grows locally, the choice is amazing.  There are tons of juice bars all over the city.  They also sell pastries, typically filled with ham and cheese.  These places are like the Brazilians equivalent of a Spanish tapas bar - people stand at the bar and order a pastry or two and a juice.  We tended to do the same for a cheap snack.  I had been advised to sample acai juice (pronounced ass-say-ee).  It is divine -black cherry-coloured berries retrieved from the freezer and blended to make a really thick juice that can be eaten with a spoon and is so sweet and almost chocolately-tasting.  I couldn´t believe that something that tastes so good is actually really healthy.

The hostel that we stayed in was pretty dire in some respects.  We changed rooms 3 times in the 6 days we were there due to booking confusions, from a 6 bed dorm (with bathroom) to a 10 bed one, finally to a 4 bed.  For much of the time there was one working communal toilet and 3 (cold) showers.  On a more positive note, the breakfast was a bit bizarre but good - ham and cheese rolls, cake, juice, tea/coffee, fruit and .....jelly!  The caipirinhas served in the bar were good, the barbeque night was surprisingly a success and we met some really nice people -some of whom we will hopefully meet again when their planned itineraries bring them to Melbourne.

We went on an organised tour (the only recommended way to do it) to the largest favela (slum) in Latin America, called Rocinha.  About 130 thousand people live here alongside some of the richest suburbs of Rio.  The limits of the slum have been forced to extend upwards onto the surrounding mountain sides, like a very poor version of La Paz (capital of Bolivia).  It´s become so big since it´s beginnings in the 1960´s that it has been recognised as a district in it´s own right and, like with any large settlement, has different degrees of wealth - some people live in wooden shacks on the most inaccessible parts of the mountain side and others have painted walls to their homes and internet access.  Although no police presence (conflicts are sorted out internally), the slum does have hospitals, schools, shops, electricity, even roads.  This is the only favela that tourists (openly) visit, and the only one that tours are offered for.  Our guide was one of only four that lead the tour and seemed to make an extra effort to be friendly and slap on the back to every local we passed.  I guess you wouldn´t want enemies here!  Efforts are being made to integrate favelas like these with the rest of Rio - we saw evidence of this in the schools assisted by foreign volunteers and local artists working in studios creating images to sell.  We were told stories of the shoot-outs between police and local gangs in surprise ambushes and of the drug trafficking that exists here.  A tour bus drove us to the outskirts of the favela, then local boys on motorbikes took us each on a hair-raising journey up to one of the highest points from which we walked down.  We gave a bit of money to kids making jewellery and playing percussion on makeshift drums.  A kid of no more than three years old posed for us - wearing just y-fronts and a little orange T-shirt he did some Michael Jackson moves, gyrating and grabbing his crotch.  It was so funny and wrong at the same time.

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Lapa is one of the bohemian areas of Rio, a vibrant neighbourhood where antique shops exist alongside old colonial buildings and samba bars.  Friday night is the night here.  I have never seen so many people out partying in the streets, like it was NYE or something.  There are little stalls selling drinks and snacks everywhere, even enterprising people selling stuff out of their car boots.  We had a really good night out watching people dance samba (lots of very camp blokes) and drinking really good and cheap cairpirinhas (two was all we could manage), soaking up the infectious atmosphere.  Cariocas (Rio natives) really know how to have a good time.  They´re so enviably comfortable in their bodies, whatever their size and shape and love to dance like they have no inhibitions.  Little girls unconsciously dance the samba, completely unaware of how sexy and suggestive the moves are - it´s like people here were born knowing how to dance.  Brad went to a football match at Maracana stadium (the biggest in the world) and said that even the men dance in the stalls.  Most men (straight men at least!) from anywhere else wouldn't be caught dead dancing like that.

Despite changing our minds about being in Rio for Carnaval, we were quite happy to hear that we could watch dress rehearsals for the main parade in the actual Sabodromo (a venue built specifically for this purpose).  The Sabodromo is basically a 600m wide cat walk with stand for spectators along one side and a judges´ booth and private boxes on the other.  The venue has a capacity for 30 thousand people. I previously thought that during Carnaval, the parades are all around you.  You actually have to know where to look though - the blocos (groups) all have specific areas in the city where they perform, and all spectators are encouraged to join, sometimes having to wear certain colours or purchasing the team T-shirt.  However, the main parade in the Sabodromo consists of 12 samba schools competing for the top prize.  Each has an hour and 20 minutes to parade and be judged on factors like choreography, costumes and time-keeping.  We watched one of these schools perform.  There were sections of drummers, samba dancers wearing jewelled g-strings, bras and big head dresses, stunning drag queens in the most beautiful dresses, women wearing big hooped skirts, bands - all dancing and singing to their team anthem.  When the beginning of the parade had reached the end of the runway, you could still see performers all the way along until the other end.  Thousands of performers of all ages, shapes and abilities.  Some were seriously talented musicians and dancers, others just parading making the same basic moves.  They all looked like they were absolutely loving it though and the crowd was going wild, some wearing the team colour of red and white.

Rio ended up being a place we would both love to come back to - but can we have blazing hot sunshine and blue skies next time please!