Brazil - Rio De Janeiro

After a few days of the jungle, Rio De Janeiro provided a nice change.  Named by the Portuguese explorers who mistook the bay for a river (Rio), and discovered it in January, hence the “River of January”.  We are stay in Copacabana, and it is just full of lively activity, and luckily not the mosquito type either!  

We have spent nearly every evening just walking the beach, enjoying the atmosphere with a huge caipirinha (a very Brazilian drink of just cachaça, sugar, and lime - simple but delicious). There is no better way to end the day, with family, a drink and our feet in the ocean. 

So whilst in Rio, we did many of the typical tourist activities:

• Christ the Redeemer.  We took the train up the mountain.  The train was built in 1884, long before the statue was even envisioned, and hence used to transport all the material to build the statue.  The statue itself was completed in 1931, and took 9 years to build. It was designed by a collaboration of a local engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and artist Carlos Oswald and with the help of a French/Polish sculptor Paul Landowski created the work.  The statue is mainly built from reinforced concrete (from Sweden), and is covered in small soap stone triangles.  Apparently the original triangles had the names of the donors ingraved on the back side before being attached.   The view from the top would have been spectacular, but unfortunately the top of the mountain spent the whole day (with its head) in the clouds.  Still, the Christ statue was very impressive at 30m high and 28m wide.

• We took a cable cars up Sugarloaf mountain.  There is actually two cable cars to get to the top, the first one to a smaller mountain and then a second to Sugarloaf itself.  The view from both was amazing, looking across all of Rio and into the bay, and also across to Copacabana beach. Apparently, it was first climbed by a woman before they decided to set up a cable car system to make it more accessible… thankfully, as the climb would have been a bit hectic!

• In the middle of Rio, there is the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading (Portuguese: Real Gabinete Português de Leitura).  It is an amazing library buit in 1887 by a group of Portuguese immigrants and political refugees, to promote culture among the Portuguese community.  The interior is incredible, following a Neo-Manueliene style, which would make it fit perfectly in a Harry Potter movie.

• The New Cathedral, built between 1964 and 1979.  This probably makes it one of the most modern Cathedrals to be built, and essentially provided a blank canvas for Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca.  He styled it on Mayan architectural style of pyramids, and it shows.  It is made out of concrete, but there are four floor to ceiling (75m height) stain glass panels that join up on the ceiling to form an enormous Greek cross.  The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Sebastian.  St. Sebastian is the patron saint of Rio, and is thought to have been seen by the Portuguese when they retook Rio from the french in 1558.

• Carnival Dance Show.  As Rio is famous for its carnival, we wanted to treat girls to a fun experience, and so we went to a dance show.  It showcased various types of dances in Brazil along with a range of costumes that can be found in the different regions.  The girls love both the costumes and the dance routines!  Even though it was late at night, the girls had a blast, and even managed to go on stage and dance with the professionals at the end!

For a bit of non-typical activity, we took a Samba class with a real professional.  Even Mish joined in with his creaky hips.  The lesson was with the fabulous Carnival Queen Ty, and she ran us through the basic steps of the Samba. After an hour of practicing the basic steps, we advanced to learn a set sequence of steps.  That was a lot harder, as not only did we have to remember the foot work but also to incorporate the hand motions, not to mention doing it all in rhythm to the music! In the end even Mish managed to complete the routine without stomping too much(ish).

To top it off, the Samba Queen took us to one of the local Samba clubs.  She was opening the party up, and thought we would enjoy tagging along.  It was a fantastic experience, with the locals in a super authentic setting.  The music was super loud, the ambiance was extraordinary and we all joined in with the dancing, and were thankful that we had the lessons beforehand so that we did not stick out like sore thumbs (or complete tourists).

We also had a Sunday in Rio, and we decided to go local and head to the beach in Ipanema and Copacabana.  Along the way we stopped by the Copacabana Fort.  It was impressive with its domed cannons and fortress tunnels.  The rest of the day was exploring the streets and enjoying the beach.  Caipirinha’s on the beach, splashing in the waves and corn on the cob, was a great way to end our stay in Rio. 

With a dance in our step we bid Rio adieu, and hopefully we will come back one day to experience the Carnival in person!