Traveling to a city like Rio de Janiero has always been a dream. It just seems like such a foreign, tropical, cultural haven – a now trendy locale given that the city is really being boosted in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Rio is only about a two-hour direct flight from Montevideo, but it wasn’t that easy finding a reasonable ticket and nearly impossible to find one that was non-stop. Like the difficulty of getting to Iguazu Falls, we really had to work to make it there (my new business plan idea: train routes in this region connecting the various countries in MERCOSUR; it has to be one of the most impossible regions to travel around in the world!) By chance Pedro saw a random Brazilian airline, Gol, in the Montevideo airport – I looked it up online and found a relatively reasonable ticket to Rio (with multiple stops but at this point, we didn’t care how long it took!) After realizing they didn’t accept Visa online (what?!) we trekked to the airport to pay, where we realized they don’t accept American Visa at that airport (what what?!) After multiple calls to Gol and 3 payment rejections our inboxes were finally flooded with multiple flight confirmations. Minutes after receiving them our office informed us that one of our bosses would be coming to Uruguay that Friday (the day we needed to take off) and that only ONE of us could take that Friday off (what what what?!) We were ready to fight, however, especially after how hard we worked to make this trip possible, and we won! I gave a sigh of huge relief – or was it frustration? - once I got on that plane at 5am on Friday morning with Pedro by my side.
Once in Brazil, we could feel an immediate change in atmosphere. The warmth of the air and the people was an exciting welcoming, and our taxi driver tried to point out some of the main landmarks on the way to our guesthouse. Sometimes I can really understand Portuguese and sometimes it is downright impossible. So we just smiled and nodded and gawked at the enormous city composed of harbors, ports, lakes, beaches, mountains, tall buildings, and old monuments. We wound our way up into one of the most trendy, bohemian neighborhoods of Rio, called Santa Teresa, where our guesthouse was located. The owner and his two huge dogs were there to greet us, and they all showed us our room (one of three in the antique-style mini-mansion) It had an amazing balcony and hammock directly overlooking Sugarloaf mountain, one of the signature landmarks of the city. Both sunsets that weekend were spent with homemade cocktails on that balcony – so amazing! The lodging was one of the most unforgettable parts of the trip – the cute pink guesthouse was elaborately decorated and extremely unique, not to mentioned nestled in a perfect location next to funky restaurants, bars, and shops.
View of "Pan de Azucar" (Sugarloaf Mountain) from our balcony
First touristic thing on the list was the true icon of not only Rio de Janiero but of all Brazil: The Christ the Redeemer statue. Standing 160 feet tall, the awe-inspiring statue of Jesus always gives me chills when I see it in movies or photos. It is honestly one of the main reasons why I was so magnetized to the idea of seeing Rio. We had to take about a 25 minute train ride up the mountain to be at the base of the enormous statue, and spent a lot of time up there taking pictures not only of Christ the Redeemer but also of the amazing views showing the city of Rio in all directions. Every five minutes a helicopter would swing by extremely close to us for big-money-spendin’ tourists who want to see the statue and city on a whole different level (I was not pleased as I was wearing a flowy skirt that didn’t really want to cooperate with the wind). After getting the most important “to-do” scratched off our list, we headed back to Santa Teresa for some happy hour passion fruit cocktails on the balcony! Every Friday night in Rio there is a street party in the district of Lapa, where rows of seedy but insanely fun bars and dance halls line the streets. Cars are not permitted in this district on Fridays, and hundreds of people come out to walk the streets with giant beers in hand, hopping from one Samba dance bar to the next. The rest sit and enjoy dinner and drinks in different “Botequims” that overlook the madness. Botequims are small, simple drinking establishments that jut out into the streets of Rio – people sit outside for all hours of the day enjoying the warm weather and drinking cheap Brazilian-brewed beers and caipirinhas. Pedro and I chose a random one and ordered some caipirinhas right away. The national drink of Brazil, the caipirinha is a dangerous combination of lime, sugar, ice, and cachaca (sugarcane fermented and distilled). They leave you feeling good after one, drunk after two, and done for the night after three, so we sipped them slowly and soaked in the Friday night scene in Rio de Janiero before joining the party late into the night.
Christ the Redeemer is one of the "new" seven wonders of the world
Saturday was designated to exploring one of the many beaches that Rio has to offer. Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are the some of the most famous in the world, where hundreds of thong-clad women and beer-guzzling men relax in rented chairs one next to the other on sunny days (it is literally impossible to even find a spot of sand, but that’s half the fun). Most of the beaches have not only beautiful oceans but also mountains views which also add to the their inimitability. We headed to Ipanema beach, rented a couple chairs, bought some beers, and parked for a morning of people-watching and sun-soaking. There wasn’t a dull moment: just watching the vendors walking around trying to sell everything from home-made sandwiches to bathing suit tops to sarongs to blocks of cheese (which are fried right in front of you with a personal, travel-friendly fryer) to iced tea, was entertainment enough. We bought a “Coco loco”, which is agua de coco served straight from a freshly-opened coconut and a Brazilian woman scolded me because my feet were turning bright red and she thought I hadn’t put any sunscreen on them. Next we headed to a cheap, outdoor Brazilian restaurant for lunch and struggled ordering some “typical Brazilian stuff” in Portuguese. We got random juices, some sandwiches, and an Acai-and-granola. Acai is a fruit grown mostly in Brazil and Peru, and the frozen pulp of the nutritious berry is eaten everywhere in Rio as a dessert or filling snack. It is supposedly all the rage in health stores worldwide, universally acclaimed as the #1 “superfruit”, so I took in as much as possible!
That afternoon we took the teleferico (cable car) to the top of Pan de Azucar (Sugarloaf mountain – the mountain we had a view of from our balcony) to capture more breath-taking views of the city. We snapped more pictures of the city from above, and I loved being able to see the Christ the Redeemer statue from afar. Also visible were some of the many favelas surrounding Rio. Favelas are “shanty towns” in Brazil, and Rio has the second-highest population of them after Sao Paolo. However, Rio’s are considered the most well-known because of their placement. They cover many of the high hills overlooking Rio’s rich and touristic neighborhoods, and from almost any area in the city you can see the vast amount of colorful shacks shoved together. Some are considered the most dangerous areas of the world, home to numerous drug rings, child murderers, and gangs. Many police don’t even enter these neighborhoods due to pure fear of being killed for no reason, and these settlements play a grave role in Rio’s history and culture. Another infamous aspect of Rio is the amount of prostitutes and transvestites that roam the streets night and day. On the way home from Sugarloaf mountain our taxi driver was lost and stopped to ask directions from a woman wearing a trendy one-shoulder dress. “She” pointed us in the right way as Pedro’s whispered to me that the “she” was most definitely a “he”. As a (relatively) naïve, unexposed American I purely didn’t think that at all, and the taxi driver started cracking up when Pedro told him I wasn’t convinced. At night we saw copious amounts of nearly-naked men and women prostitutes, which added even more to the transparent looseness that defines the city.
Beautiful view of Rio from Christ the Redeemer Statue!
That night, we walked to a recommended Amazonian restaurant, where everything on the menu is cooked with a vegetable or meat from the Brazilian Amazon. I could have chosen everything on the menu; it was so special and unique. We enjoyed a nice, long meal on the restaurant’s back porch, sipping on a pulpy cocktail served in an Amazonian gourd. We had a two-person shrimp and coconut dish that filled me to the brim, but nothing was going to stop us from enjoying our last night in Rio with a lot of Samba dancing! We headed to a Samba club in Lapa that someone had recommended, immediately ordered caipirinhas and transformed into real “Cariocas” (what Rio citizens call themselves) – dancing and drinking with the locals until I could no longer move. Samba is Brazil’s leading national expression and although my musical inexpertise doesn’t allow me to fully explain the rhythm and beat, I can say it is a Latin way of dance that suggests you are truly in the middle of South America.
Sunday morning we went to breakfast at the usual spot (the guesthouse provided coupons for a breakfast of cheese, bread, and coffee at a local hole-in-the-wall convenience store that was immensely popular for those who wanted to sit outside the store all day and night ordering liter after liter of beer). Then we walked to the famous Lapa steps – they were constructed by a Chilean artist, named Selaron, who fell in love with Brazil years ago. First the steps were made up of simple, colored tiles, but now Selaron spends his days painting the tiles with images from around the world. The steps have been featured in many magazines and promos for Rio, and the artist calls the steps his “great madness”. A quite crazy man, he called Pedro and I into his art shop only to talk crap about the Spaniards and how Picasso didn’t even spend any of his time in Spain, but in Paris. Then once he realized Pedro was from Colombia he started talking even MORE crap about Colombians, especially the “Paisas” from Medellin (Pedro’s hometown). The cruel Spanish adjectives he was using to describe the people from Medellin were insanely insulting, and Pedro had to just walk out so not to punch the guy in his old, deranged-looking face. Someone from Medellin must have really pissed him off earlier in his life…
A painted tile on the Lapa steps artfully describing life in a favela
After that it was back to reality, back to Uruguay and work. However, if anyone ever asks me what is the one place I recommend he or she to go, without hesitating I will say Rio de Janiero. It is a crazy, upbeat, passionate, colorful dream – one that I hope is a repeat.
