Rio de Janeiro

Wow, what an amazing city!! A place full of energy with a tremendous buzz. And lots to offer too. Copacabana and Ipanema are the most famous beaches in South America and provided great views of the famous Brazilian bubblebut. The views from Corcovado Mountain and Sugar Loaf were also beautiful. And football at Maracana was unforgettable.


Christ Statue

No trip to Rio would be complete without visiting the Christ Statue atop the 700 metre high Corcovado Mountain. The monument itself is 30 metres high and was built from 1926 to 1931. We stayed for the afternoon and I got to take photos as the light changed.

As a vantage point, the Corcavado Mountain provided us with superb views of downtown Rio de Janeiro, the bay, Sugarloaf Mountain and Copacabana and Ipanema Beaches. Here is the famous view of Sugarloaf (afternoon and twilight).

Sugar Loaf

The Sugar Loaf mountain, together with the Christ of Corcovado, is one of Rio de Janeiro´s most popular tourist destinations and provided us with breathtaking views of the entire city. To get to the top, we took two cable cars, using a smaller hill as a stepping stone. The cable car is the setting of one of my favourite James Bond movie moments when Bond and Jaws fight it out in "Moonraker". Thankfully Jaws did not attempt to chew through the cablw while we were in mid air.

We saw this very cute tiny Marmoset monkey at the top of Sugar Loaf. It was smaller than my hand.

Maracana Stadium

Elation, hysteria, drum rolls and ear splitting cries. And that was before the two competing teams (America vs Americano) had even emerged onto the field. Watching football at Maraconi Stadium certainly was an experience we will not forget. The stadium was built to host the 1950 World Cup and can accommodate 200,000 people. This is where some of the greatest players in the history of football have played, notably Pelé, who scored his 1000th goal here.

Copacabana Beach

Rio has over 400 kms of beach front to offer but of all, the 4 km stretch that is Copacabana must be the most famous. We enjoyed several walks along the beach, taking in the atmosphere.

Volleyball is a very popular sport on the beach and after watching a bit, I have decided to change my career prosects. Becoming the coach of the Brazil womans volleyball team is now my highest career aspiration.

There was some very impressive sand art on the beach. This one, celebrating the Brazilian bubble butt, was the most popular by far. The huge sand castle was maybe less titillating but no less impressive.

I found I could not sit on Copacabana without Bary Manilow's song going going round and round in my head. And it was a tad irritating for Ally as the only words I knew were "Her name was Lula" and "Copacabana". So to remedy that, here are the words for all prosperity. I look forward to giving a hearty rendition when Russell arrives.

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar
Across a crowded floor, they worked from 8 till 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....they fell in love

(Copa Copacabana)

His name was Rico, he wore a diamond
He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancin' there
And when she finished, he called her over
But Rico went a bit too far, Tony sailed across the bar
And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....she lost her love

(Copa. . Copacabana)
(Copa Copacabana) (Copacabana, ahh ahh ahh ahh)
(Ahh ahh ahh ahh Copa Copacabana)
(Talking Havana have a banana)
(Music and passion...always the fash--shun)

Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in the dress she used to wear, faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she's lost her mind!

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....don't fall in love

(Copa) don't fall in love
Copacabana
Copacabana

Lady in Red

Ally loved the shopping in Rio. If it werent for the prospect of lugging things around for another 3 months, her credit card would be smouldering. Here she is in her favourite new purchase - a very gorgeous red dress. I approve!

Favela Tour

We had the privilege of doing a tour of a local Favela - the equivilent of a South African township. 20% of the population in Rio lives in these crowded areas. The favela we visited clings to a steep hill in Rio and we taxied to the top on motor bikes and then walked down through narrow alley ways taking in the sights and contrasts. The people were amazingly friendly - it was incredible and humbling to see how positive people can be in the midst of such terrible poverty.

The neighbourhood is ruled by local drug gangs. We saw several of them standing gaurd at strategic points in the favela. If police arrive, they send up fire crackers to ensure everyone is warned of the police presence. The drug gangsters seemed friendly too and waved us past - but did not want their photos taken for obvious reasons.

Some photos of the Favela. Hundreds of tiny homes clinging to the hill with narrow alley ways in between, many with filty water running through them.

There was some amazing graffiti in the favela - one of the many grass roots effort to to improve the environment.

We visited some inspiring initiatives in the favela, including a school. The kids loved having their photos taken and then seeing themselves on the screen. Here is a collage of some of the kids we met during the tour.

Russell's welcome to Rio meal

Russel arrived in town (from Cape Town) to great celebration. He will travel with us for a month much to our delight. He wanted to try the local Brazilian stew so we took him to a restaurant recommended for local delicasies. For a laugh, we ordered bull's testicles too (yes, we fancy ourselves as "Fear Factor" contestants). The testicles (see top photo) had the consistency of calamari and tasted of garlic - not to bad actually. The stew, ironically, was another matter. It was a pot of boiled guts, lungs and heart and smelled absolutely awful. One taste and we nearly hurled. So we filled ourselves on bull nuts and gave the stew a skip!

Excerpt from Ally's journal

In truth we were worried that big bad Rio would be too much for us. We had heard so many horror stories about people getting mugged and having everything stolen that our anxiety when arriving was very high. After all we would never arrive in the middle of Jo berg bus station and then catch a bus to a seedy part of town to stay in a cheap backpacker. But that is what we did (well we took a taxi from the bus station) and I must report that all has gone well so far. We are very careful to not let our guard down but everyone we have met has been so helpful and wonderful.

The evening we arrived we went down to the Copacabana beach and sat down to take it all in. For me it was one of the surreal moments that we are in one of the greatest cities of the world and there we were sitting so casually.

I must admit that I was fully prepared not to like Rio. The Lonely Planet describes it as the most beautiful city in the world to which I took umbridge. Cape Town in the most beautiful!! But looking down from Christ Redeemer and seeing the views of the green jungle covered hills, beaches with the city intermingled I have to concede that Rio does beat CT when it comes to a view from a mountain (but that is all!). The photos simply cannot do it justice. We sat on the top of Corcavado at a cafe for about 3 hours just taking it all in. I found the Christ to be impressive - it is the biggest art deco sculptor in the world. He stands there for every-ones past dreams and future hopes. It certainly makes one think.

When we were at the top we saw a group of Amazon natives in full dress arrive with camera crews trailing behind. They were interviewed and photographed - what for I have not idea. But there were two women who looked so unhappy and out of place that it made me cry. I just wanted to give them a big hug and put them back in there village and never have them be bothered by the hurley burly life we live in the cities. We would never survive in an Amazonian village - there are no movies.

In the city, we found a great shopping mall that had super movies and sushi. We saw a wonderful movie called An Unfinished Life. It was about relationships with people and had a happy ending so I was in my element.

The next day we went up Sugar Loaf. We had congratulated ourselves on saving loads of money by not doing the tours from the hostel and actually catching the local buses. All the conductors have been very helpful and always remembered to tell us where to get off. Sugar Loaf is where a scene from Moonraker was filmed and I found new admiration for the actors. To fight on top of one of those cable cars would take nerves of steel - it is an extremely long drop."

The engineer who first thought up the design of cable cars to get to the top was thought of as a total eccentric and completely mad. But he persevered and in 1912 charged 2000reals to get to the half way point. By then they thought he was a genius and he had more customers than he could take. Pays to follow your dream!
We stayed up there to watch the sunset behind Christ Redeemer. We sat in chairs and just watched the sun sink. Dusk is my favourite time of the day. On our wanderings, we saw the cutest little monkeys. A lady fed them crackers and they only wanted the sweet one. They obviously have a sweet tooth like another monkey I know.

Both of us have been shopping and I bought myself a red dress which I think of as my Marylin Munroe dress.   We also had haircuts and I had my hair blow dried straight. G said the he felt he was taking out another women I looked so different! We went to a restaurant over looking sugar loaf, the beach and the city below. It was very romantic and special.

No trip to Brazil would be complete without attending a football match. We decided against going on a tour seeing how easy it was to do ourselves. So we caught the metro and arrived at Maracana station. As we left the station we were pounced on by hawkers selling ponchos. We make a mistake by hesitating and I landed up with two ponchos in my hand which the guy thought I was going to buy. The only thing that saved us were three security guards that looked like they had been breast fed concrete as babies.

After battling the hurdle of buying tickets (people hussled us right outside of the ticket window) we went into the stadium. G was searched and patted down but they did not seem to think that I would bring in anything dangerous!?! We had met a lovely Danish couple and felt safer in numbers so we found a seat and started to take in the atmosphere. Large crowds wearing read arrived and started singing along with drums, whistles and horns. We thought it prudent to support whatever team they were supporting.

As the players ran into the field there were loud cheers and the opposition team received equally loud boos. One could really feel the power of the crowd. They could go from elation to downcast in just one kick of the ball so it was a constant roller coaster. Unfortunately the red team did not play so well so the crowd was downcast and turned a bit angry. Particularly when close to the end the winning team were taunting them with victory songs. The police had a hard job stopping them from meeting. When it announced 5minutes from the end those with small children and many of the women made a race for the exits and we took that as our cue to leave. The security presence was extremely strong with metro police even riding the trains to make sure there was no trouble. This was just a small match I would hate to think what a big one would be like. But it was great fun and it made us wonder why we never went to a match in the UK."

We collected Russell from the airport with much excitement. We then went and had a celebratory dinner at an all you can eat by weight restaurant. The food in Rio is fantastic and has given me some inspiration for recipes. For example: rocket, mango, pineapple, chickpea and celery salad. And salmon with passion fruit sauce.

We booked to see a favela tour – ‘favela’ being the name for the slums in Rio. We drove to the entrance at the bottom of a hill in the midst of two very high class areas and were then driven into the favela up a steep road on motorbikes, holding on very tight indeed. The philosophy of the bikers seemed to the tighter our grip, the faster they should accelerate. At one stage, Russell thought he was going to loose his knees, so tightly was a corner taken.

Our tour consisted of walking down the favela’s main avenue right from the top of the hill back to the entrance at the bottom – a steep and narrow distance of 2 km. In places it was only wide enough to go single file. Along the avenue were little shops and bars (with seats cramped in the narrow avenues) and entrances to the homes (most consisting of just one small room).

In the 80’s the houses were all made of wood but as part of an initiative to improve conditions, the structures were all rebuilt using unpainted concrete blocks. All the electricity poles had hundreds of spaghetti like wires coming out at all different directions – due to many of the residents creating their own illegal connections. We were astounded when we saw someone working on one of these poles with nothing but a ladder and his bare hands. I would demand serious danger pay.

There is absolutely no privacy in the favela and we could see right into the rooms. Sometimes the residents get TV’s and cell phones for status but have no money to eat. There goes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory.

Our guide was very clear with us that we were not to give the kids food or money. Through the tours they are trying to get the kids away from a hand out mentality by encouraging them to sell trinkets. Needless to say we are now several bracelets heavier. But we did have kids trailing behind us the whole time in hope that we would weaken and hand out sweets or money.

The filth is hard to describe. I think the insides of the homes are quite clean but all the rubbish is simply thrown out the windows. The places in the streets where water runs down are especially putrid with all manner of organic and non organic rubbish – and the kids play in this water. For me it just seemed so obvious to have a neighborhood clean up but I guess that would only work if everyone had the same values. We know how hard it can be to get along with neighbors in a 1st world environment.

Along the way we stopped at a day care nursery which the money from the tours helped build. They take in children from 6 months to 6 years and have a doctor and psychologist. We saw a new arrival – a baby – that had been starved of attention and had very little food with zero medical care. Our tour guide was very cross that parents in the favela would neglect there kids but it seems it is usually drug related. People will do anything to escape their circumstances. Such neglect always gives my heart a squeeze but at least a small difference was being made.

The favelas are controlled by the drug gangs and they sort out any issues that one would normally go to the police for – as they don’t want the police there. I am not sure what kind of justice they give out but I can’t imagine they do not show much mercy. So paradoxically it is quite a safe place - except for vicious periodic gun battles between gangsters and police.

What was most incredible to us was despite the conditions, we were met with nothing but smiles, waves and greetings from the local - particularly the gorgeous children. Amazing and humbling.