Brasil - Rio de Janeiro
RIO DE JANEIRO
26th December 2018 to 3rd January 2019
26th December 2018 - Boxing day!
We ‘assembled’ this holiday’s crew in Paris Charles de Gaulle and after a long uneventful flight (with the exception of a non stop vomiting child for 10 hours - luckily sitting nowhere near me), we landed in Rio on Boxing day. There is something to be said about flying on Christmas day: yes, both my flights were packed full of people, BUT, the were so few flights that the airports were quite pleasant experiences.
No one travelled particularly light...as witnessed by the photos!
We all piled into a minivan and made our way through very heavy traffic. It was hot and humid but unfortunately cloudy.
Copacabana!
The hotel Rio Design, will be my home for the trip and although the staff are kind and helpful, the photos of the rooms looked better than the reality. Extra points for the hotel on water pressure though...the shower was awesome!
Gabriela, who is our ‘local’ link on this trip, invited us all for lunch at her family home. Her mother lives here in Rio and they visit every year. The view from their home is awesome as it is on Copacabana pretty close to the fort. You can see the whole bay and the Sugar Loaf.
After a long leisurely lunch the ‘girls’ went to buy food and drinks for the boat trip tomorrow, and the ‘boys’ took the kids to the beach. We ended the afternoon all together on Copacabana in a chiriguito drinking Kaipirina and people watching.
Me and ‘my’ family for the trip had a little tapas before collapsing in bed. We were all shattered from the travelling.
Hopefully the sun will make an appearance tomorrow...it makes such a difference on the colours!!!
27th December 2018 - The boat ride
We spent the day on a very comfy wooden boat. The idea was to do a little sightseeing from the sea and have a little swim in the ocean. The only downer was the clouds...still there...making everything grey.
We had brought our own lunch (bought yesterday on an trip to a local supermarket) but briefly toyed with the idea of buying fish from one of the fishermen on the docks and barbecueing it on the boat. However, as the area of sourcing could not be clearly determined (there was talk of worms etc) we abandoned the idea.
Once anchored across from a beach next to the sugar loaf, the kids and some of the braver parents, took turns in showing off their diving skills from the upper deck with diffrent degrees of success. The darkness of the water did not entice me to dip my toes and I just watched.
After a debate on wether it was acceptable to drink alcohol before 12, we, ‘the grown ups’, had a beer as the sun attempted to make an appearance...and failing miserably.
Having drank and eaten, we then cruised as far as the corner where Ipanema starts and then made our way back to the docks.
Shopping!!!
As it started to drizzle, we decided that it was the right kind of weather to do a little shopping. We went to a huge mall in Leblon by underground! A new experience for me. Rio has a similar system to London and adopts an oyster like approach to ticketing. It’s all seems brand new and although the statios themselves are not airconditioned, the trains are (much to my relief).
After a slightly painful experience at Starbucks where coffee was sprayed everywhere, the shop that was taken by assault by everyone (including us) was the Havajanas shop.
The group then split and some of us ended up eating in the mall. The ordering was a bit of a challenge and it took three orders of beer to get just the one round...
On the way back we drove past the Christmas tree all lit up in the lagoon...it’s huge!
Hopefully, the sun will make an appearance tomorrow as we are hoping to spend the day relaxing on the beach at Ipanema.
28th December 2018 - Ipanema
Awesome day at the beach today! Our first experience of life on Ipanema.
It turns out that despite the lack of sun yesterday, me and my two charges are a tad sunburnt. My face is so bad that horrible bags have formed under my eyes (more than normal anyways :-)!). So we set off only after we had massaged in copious amounts of factor 50 protection.
We did the local thing: hired some beaten up chairs and umbrellas and hang observed with amusement the infinate number of vendors patrolling the beach. You could buy pretty much anything here: from electronics to food (tere are even people working around with tiny lit up barbecues so that they can grill cheese for you) , clothing, glasses, hats and of course, beer and cocktails. One of the most fun things to do was to jump into the surf like waves...and so I joined the kids (finally) in the water. It’s my first swim in the ocean for a long time!
Despite trying some interesting delicacies on the beach (even some dried up shrips that seemed to have seen better days), we felt we could not skip lunch. So off we went for one of the hottest walks down Ipanema to Astor. We had an infinate numbers of pastels (a bit like panzerotti) washed down with caipirinha. The place is worth a visit although the staff is not quite the obliging lot we would have expected.
We eventually made it back to our spot on the beach only to find that our chairs and umbrellas had been taken over and our stuff had been piled onto one chair. Our umbrella man took a while tomfind us replacements but it all worked itself out as I cooled down in the sea.
The day was soon wasting away and after going back for a quick shower and a change, we abandoned the kids for a grown ups only dinner in an amazing place overlooking the racecourse (at the hippodrome). The place was very nice, the food not bad, but the service, for a place of this standing, could be worked on.
Tomorrow we go on a jeep safari into the Titjuca forest and maybe pop our heads round a favela...a little more adventurous that we have been used to so far here in Rio :-).
29th December 2018 - The jeep
Adventurous morning! We met up early today for a trip to the favelas and the forest. We started up with Rocinha (the biggest favela in Rio). The inhabitants are reportedly 150 thousands, bu5 the reality could be completely different as not all people are registred by the government. I visited Rocinha 6 years ago and the one remarkable difference is that now, some foreigners (together with locals), are opening up B&B places and bars on the frinnges (for now) of the favela. Not a lot else has changed though since the last time I came...mountains of rubbish are still to be found everywhere...which does not bode well for cockroaches (and we came across a few) and rats in general. We visited the top of one of the barracks where the view from the roof was amazing. The heat and humidity throughout our walk through the narrow streets was awful. Imagine having to sleep in it! Although it seemed that you could, as we came across an old lady asleep on the window sill next to us (everything is pretty much on display in the heart of the favela). We moved on from Rocinha to the forest of Tijuca. We took an uneventful walk and saw a small waterfall. Although driving roind on the jeep had been cooler, amongst the trees it was hot and sticky. Ludovica was hoping to see snakes amongst other things, but, we didn’t come across anything even remotely dangerous. That is until we drove to the Chinese view point (amazing view of Rio by the way). We bumbed into a small family of monkeys! The guide had a banana with her so we tried to get all three monkeys to come and get a piece...successfully I might add! Although one of the smaller ones did struggle to find her way down but accellerated her descent when her/his brother/sister attempted to make it down past her!
The club
The afternoon was spent in a members only club (the Jockey as it is part of the race course) by a pool...you could see the corcovado from there. A few hours of total relax and funtime with the kids in the water. The sun came and went, but, when it was out it was scorching! We left this lovely oasis late...after a Caipirinha corrected with maracuja (it took three spoons of sugar to make it drinkable so I do not suggest making the same request).
We then flagged down two taxis and made our way back to the hotel for a quick shower before making our way to the Churracheria Palace for dinner. We loved the place. Excellent meat and salad bar...and a pretty decent Caipirinha!
On the walk back all around us we could see the preparations going on for the big new years eve reveillon as well as chiringuitos and street vendors of all sorts. And after two days of shopping for a brazilian flag pareo, we also have found the sweet spot for the price of this item: 25 reals! So we walked on for a bit longer. There was music, drinking, dancing...BUT, at the same time, you came across people sleeping on the streets on cardboard in the middle of all of this...young people mainly, some with infants. The poverty is palpable everywhere in Rio, but the remarkable thing is how it’s just part of the schemes here...accepted if you like, part of the panorama.
...so all in all quite a mix of a day...falling asleep was not difficult as we were all so tired...
30th December 2018 - Relax...take it easy...
A lazy sunday today...or so we thought!
We had arranged to meet up with our co-holidaymakers at 12 to go for lunch at a place that Gabriela wanted absolutely to go to but would not take bookings. As it turns out, the place was so tiny that even though they only had a couple of tables occupied, it was impossible to have lunch there. We ended up going to an old historic restaurant by the lagoon, bar Lagoa. By the time we sat down for lunch, between the heat and the humidity, we were all, shall we say, a little sweaty. However, we sat away from the aircon outside. We were also withesses to an accident, as a car was pulling out and another one drove into it...but fear not, no injuries. So far I have not talked about the driving here in Rio. There’s a lot of switching between lanes and braking at the last minute and so I am actually surprised this is the first car accident I have seen here. It’s always an experience to sit in the front seat in a taxi!
After lunch we walked to Ipanema and set about finding a spot on the beach and someone that would rent us a couple of parasols so that we would not melt under the sun. It was a challenge. It was sunday and it was the 30th of December, and the beach was packed. But not just the beach, the water too. I would not like to speculate as to the numbers, but, the beach was chocka and the sea was so crowded that there was no real spot or way that you could take a swim. We found a ridiculously small spot and we set up camp. People watching was interesting as there was all sorts around us...of all different background, etnicity and habits. We even found some italians!
We made our way home really late and decided to walk all the way back. The road had been reopened (they close three lanes until 7pm on a sunday to allow people to walk about more easily along this stretch) and therefore the sidewalk was a river of people too.
We have an early morning tomorrow as we are visiting the Sugar Loaf, one of the symbols of Rio, so we after toying with the idea of finding brazilian sushi, we ended up having tapas round the corner from the hotel like on our first night.
31st December 2018 - Garota de Ipanema
Early morning start! We got ourselves tickets to see the sugar loaf mountain. It was a beautiful day, so the view from the top was awesome. There was however a little mishap with the reader of the bar code at the first turnstile and it took a while to sort it out. You normally expect a little flexibility in latin countries, but the ‘guardian’ of the gate refused to count the tickets and would not let us through, until he had found the ticket that had not been scanned! And we unfortunately had to repeat the painful scanning experience five or six times.
We spent the rest of the day on the beach, frying our bodies a little more. The water of the ocean provided the only respite. BUT, we never miss lunch of course, and there were very few vendors working the praya today. It may have been because of the partial road closures or the fact that it was a half day...we will never know :-). So we decided to brave the sun and the heat and go to the Garota de Ipanema bar/restaurant. This is where the famous song was written. We achieved two objectives here: we found a spot for all of us AND the kids ate on a different table about 3 or 4 tables away!
Just outside as we were leaving, a group of boys were doing the capoeira (not sure wether you ‘do’ or ‘perform’ the capoeira). We stood a while watching them as they were literally blocking a lane of traffic and cars and buses were swerving to avoid them.
...and back we went to the beach until thick clouds decided to make an appearance (by then it was nearly time to go anyway).
New year’s eve!
We celebrated new year’s eve at Gabriela’s family home on Cooacabana. We all dressed in white, just like the 2 million or so people crowding the streets below us all the way along the 4 and a bit kilometers of the beach. The view was awesome. As the countdown started, the whole beach counted along and cheered as the fireworks went off. There were big cruise ships in the bay, hundreds of smaller boats, people on surfs that had swam out closer to the firework platforms, others simply standing in the water, sitting on the beach, eating and drinking merrily. The one other thing they do here to welcome in the new year, is to throw flowers in the sea to say thanks and to make a wish for the new year. And so this is it 2018...happy 2019 to everyone!
1st January 2019 - Take it easy...
New year’s day! We seemed to do nothing but eat and drink today. We met late morning to drive to Santa Teresa to a restaurant built on different levels on the hill...almost like a tree house. I ended up in one of the taxis with the speediest driver. He drove his taxi like it was a scooter swerving at the last minute to avoid obstacles. And he drove the whole time with his right hand on the hand brake. You had to wonder if he was thinking of doing a sliding stop at any time :-)! Still, we made it there. Santa Teresa is a neighbourhood that used to be chic to live in. Unfortunately, the favela’s growth have made it an unsafe area of Rio. But, you can see it used to be something special. The old buildings still remind you of what it used to be like. The restaurant itself was awesome. It was built into the hill. The food and Caipirinha was pretty special too (I may have had one drink too many). By the time we left and got back to Copacabana, it was late afternoon and so we decided to just hang around the beach infront of the hotel and relax. Some played burraco, some talked, some played footie...the beach was pretty crowded.
We disbanded as we have an early start tomorrow to see the one thing everyone sees when they come to Rio: the Corcovado.
My family unit still managed to go for a little dinner at a brazilian sushi place in Ipanema. Ordering was an experience and we all had a bit of a laugh. Incidentally, the hostess checking us in had lived in Bologna for five years when she was a child (the daughter of a sicilian father and brazilian mother).
I am really looking forward to tomorrow...I have been before, but if the weather is clear is will be pretty awesome!
2nd January 2019 - Cristo Redentor
Our last full day in Rio! Today was dedicated to visiting the Corcovado. The one thing you go and visit if you go to Rio...
It’s quite something, and although today’s weather was supposed to be awful, we ended up with another very very hot and sunny day. It was funny to see the lengths people went to to take a photo with the Christ :-). Luckily we had set off bright and early and by 10am we were done with the sightseeing and spent the rest of the day at the Jockey Club by the pool. There are worst things to be doing...
Record of the day in ‘pastels’: 60! (the equivalent of a spanish empanada and our main staple since landing in Rio).
Our last dinner was at Xian near the domestic airport. Amazing view and awesome place altogether. After two rounds of Caipirinha the laughter was flowing, although, truth be told, we have been having a laugh all the time even without. We are quite a mix of characters.
Tomorrow is our last day before we catch our flight back in the afternoon...back to real life and a temperature difference of about 30 degrees...
3rd January 2019 - Going home!!!
Last morning in Rio before driving to the airport! Having said our goodbyes last night, all we had to do was to pack and do some last minute shopping...at least for me. Some of us had been buying and bargaining throughout our holiday :-).
It was the hottest day yet...
Our last meal was at our favourite tapas bar just around the corner from the hotel. There’s nothing like a little spanish jamon and sangria.
And that’s it...the taxi ride was seemless...no traffic. There was a little discussion as to the charge over our luggage, but having taken taxi rides in Naples, it is nothing to write home about.
So I’m signing off...’till next time: happy new year everyone!
