Fabulous Rio -- the final stop on our tour of a small corner of this vast country. We have seen and done a lot, but feel we have only scratched the surface of this huge and multifaceted city. Here is a short list of places seen, food eaten, experiences and impressions:
- Our first day, after a bus journey down from the misty mountain town of Petrópolis, we walked along the famed promenade of Ipanema. We admired the surfers riding huge waves rolling in from the Atlantic, the variety of barely clothed body types and skin colors, the array of people peddling all kinds of food, drink, clothing, jewelry, sunglasses etc. At the end of the beach is a statue of Tom Jobim, composer of one of Brazil’s best known songs. “The girl from Ipanema”. (Weirdly, when we visited the statue a few days later it had been repainted with a different color of clothes)
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| Ipanema Beach |
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| Tom Jobim |
- We take the Metro everywhere we can. It is clean, safe, very frequent and FREE for people over 60. We easily qualify…
- Our local public garden has hosted two street markets while we are here. One for fruit, vegetables, and fish in amazing quantities and varieties. The other for crafts, clothing, jewelry and, of course, food. Every outdoor activity appears to involve live music. Most play cover versions of 70s and 80s American rock, though a few are more traditionally Brazilian.
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| Hot pepper stall |
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| Flowers at local market |
- We took the Metro to the center of Rio and walked up into the funky and very hilly neighborhood of Santa Teresa, where we climbed and admired the huge tiled staircase, the Escaderia Selaron. It is covered with thousands of colorful tiles collected by the artist from all over the world. At the end of the staircase after even more hot and humid climbing is the weird Parque das Ruínas, a ruined house in a small park that has been converted into a more or less safe art gallery and viewpoint.
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| The tiled Escadaria Selaron |
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| The Parque das Ruínas Art Museum |
- Our hotel, the Ipanema Inn, has a deal with one of the vendors on the beach to provide beach chairs and umbrellas, and we have spent several late afternoons sitting on the beach, watching the sun go down behind the hills, and marveling at the non-stop parade of entrepreneurs selling their wares.
- Carts with vats of boiling water for hot sweet corn. They strip off the kernels, douse them in butter and hot sauce, and serve in a small plastic bowl.
- People with tiny charcoal braziers that they use to grill cheese, shrimps, sausages, and skewers of meat and fish beside your beach chair.
- Sellers of sunglasses, towels, beach blankets, skimpy bikinis, hats, and colorful beach dresses.
- Drinks of every variety from highly alcoholic capirinhas, beer, sodas, mate tea, and multicolored fruit juices garnished with fruit slices.
- Many of the vendors are colorfully or eccentrically dressed and have elaborate sales pitches. They are all extremely good-natured and cheerful, though it looks like a hard way to earn a living. And they all take credit cards or cell phone touch and go payment!
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| Shrimps and sweet corn sellers |
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| Sunglasses anyone? |
- We had been warned and read about how dangerous Rio is with street crime, purse snatching etc, but we have seen very little evidence of this. There is a healthy police presence, and like in many big cities there are people sleeping on the street.
- One of the “must see” excursions in Rio is the cable car to the top of the Sugar Loaf mountain. On Saturday, we walked to the cable car station, and were dismayed to see the huge crowd of people waiting to buy tickets and an equally huge crowd waiting to board the cabins. We reckoned on a 2 hour wait at least. But again, our age came to our aid — we were whisked into the “priority” line, given personal guidance on buying our half price tickets, then hustled to the front of the queue for boarding. It was a magical ride up the mountain in two stages with clear, sunny views in all directions over the strange city of Rio with its fabulous clean beaches, precipitous mountains, tropical forests and every sort of housing imaginable from tumbling, poverty-ridden favelas to glistening tower block condominiums, and all these elements mixed in together.
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| Rio from the Sugarloaf Mountain |
- On Sunday, we visited the ancient monastery of Sao Bento (Saint Benedict), where the monks and choir sing the service in Gregorian chant. The church is elegant and plain from the outside, but inside is a riot of Baroque carving and gold leaf. We managed to find two places to sit in the packed church and sat through the sung readings, the credo and other parts of the mass. The singing was very fine, though they could have used a few more tenors, and we were well sprinkled with holy water and anesthetized with smoke from the censers. However, when one of the four priests started a very long sermon in Portuguese about the evils of abortion, we decided to give up our seats to others and refill our lungs with fresh air outside.
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| Sao Bento’s plain exterior |
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| Sunday Mass in Sao Bento, with incense |
- We spent a couple of hours in the Museum of Tomorrow, an incredible modern structure beside the ocean that resembles a white spaceship preparing for takeoff. Using art and science, technology and imagination, it projects a message of sustainability for our doomed planet’s survival. The exhibits are interactive and fun for all ages, educational and creative.
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| Museum of Tomorrow |
- The ride on the funicular railway up to the famous Cristo Redentor statue on Monday was fun. We were lucky to have clear views, though drizzle started and nixed our plan to take the jungle trail back down to street level. We spotted capuchin monkeys from the train, and identified many of our favorite “houseplants” in the jungle.
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| Cristo Redentor |
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| Rio from the top of Corcovado before the rain started |
- The afternoon rain cleared for us to take a four-mile wind-blown ride along the promenade on bikes borrowed along with helmets from our hotel. The wild waves and looming storm had already chased many beach-goers away, and we watched big machines shoveling tons of new sand onto the beach.
- Today’s visit to the Botanic Garden made up for missing out on the jungle trail. We saw more capuchin monkeys, toucans, parrots, orchids, Amazonian water lilies, waterfalls, flowering trees and insects, including hives of non-stinging bees. Sandy counted 22 bird species.
- Our food experience in Rio has been varied and interesting. Our hotel serves an excellent breakfast which sets us up for the day. A late afternoon gelato in one of the innumerable ice cream shops, or a cup of puréed frozen açaí or mango keeps us going till dinner. We have not gone to any purely Brazilian restaurants which tend to be heavy on meat, and have had some great meals in Italian, Japanese, Lebanese and French leaning places.
- Brazilians, like so many others, are obsessed with their cell phones and use them for everything — calling a cab, making payments, maps, and selfies everywhere.
Tomorrow, we will squeeze in some more sightseeing before flying to São Paulo for the overnight flight from 75 degree F Brazil to 45 degree F Bala Cynwyd. We’ll miss this lovely country and its friendly people and hope to return soon.
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