Welcome to the journey around South East Brazil!
As soon as we arrived in Rio de Janeiro, after a 24 hour trip from London to Lisbon/Sao Paolo and finally Rio, we took a cab and went directly to the apartment. The apartment was located in one of the smartest areas of Rio - Ipanema - only 4 blocks away from the ocean. Ipanema beach is one of the best destinations in Rio. The weather wasn't promising, it was cloudy and chilly, only 27. I was actually happy that there was no sun. The apartment which I was offered by my aerial yoga student's parents was in the heart of Rio. It was nice and spacious, a refurbished two bedroom flat with a large living room. Located in a very convenient area for food shopping, going out and the beach for swimming and sunbathing. Ten minutes walk from the ocean on one side and in the opposite direction ten minutes walk from a stunning Lagoa lagoon.
Ipanema
Lagoa
On the second day, the weather likely was not the best. Still 28C but no sun. We took a walk around the lagoon, which took a couple of hours. At first in the gentle rain which became more intense as we walked into a music festival by the lagoon. It was a perfect time to taste a unique local food and listen to great music. We had a calorie-laden acarajé, which is a deep fried patty of crushed black-eyed peas, palm oil and pureed onions, then refried in yet more palm oil and then sliced open and stuffed with dried shrimp and vatapá – a rich and spicy puree of prawns, bread, cashew nuts and other ingredients. Originating in Bahia, in North-East Brazil, where the flavours have strong roots in African cooking, acarajé is at its best when made on the spot, served piping hot from the vat of oil, with a liberal dash of chilli sauce. I also loved the tapioca the Brazilian crepe. style. http://southamericanfood.about.com/od/snacksstreetfood/r/Tapioca-Brazilian-Crepes.htm
On another occasion, we tried dessert Acai, which is made of frozen hard berries, blended and served with some fresh banana and strawberries on granola. It is used as an energy booster by people in the Amazonia region. In Rio, surfers use it to maintain their energy levels and now it sold all over Brazil, especially on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. It is served by well-built men running up and dow the beach all day long and screaming 'Acai Acai'. You can hardly rest on the beach for a moment before you have to deal with salesmen who constantly offer you everything. If not food, drinks. If not bikinis, pareos and so on. You can find everything on the beaches of Rio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A7a%C3%AD_na_tigela?wprov=sfsi1
One day we went by Uber (16B$/4€from Ipanema) to see the Christ the Redeemer - art deco statue, the symbol of the Christianity, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. We visited Chichen-Itza in Mexico, last year. Christ the Redeemer in Brazil this year. The Great China Wall and Machu Picchu not yet. Petra in Jordan five years ago. The Taj Mahal in India six years ago and the Colosseum in Rome so many times.
Entry was 25B$/8€. The view over Rio the Janeiro was stunning, but the weather was so-so. Sometimes the clouds would come down and we found ourselves surrounded by clouds. There was not much free space to stand on the ground beneath the 30m statue and it was too tall to capture on a photo camera screen. So people lay on the ground, taking pictures of their friends and relatives, trying to get the Christ statue in the background of the photo. The statue is at the peak of the Corcovado mountain in the Fijuca Forest.
The statue was created between in 1922 and 1936 by the French sculptor, Paul Landowski (sounds very Polish.) Built by the Brazilian engineer, Heitor da Silva Costa, in collaboration with the French engineer Albert Caquot. A Romanian sculptor, Gheorghe Leonida, created the face of the statue.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)
The weather on that first week of our stay wasn't great, so we did a lot of sightseeing which was a great introduction to the city. The other big location which was quite nice to visit was Sugarloaf Mountain.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarloaf_Mountain
Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro
We walked all the way from Ipanema beach, through Copacabana Beach, University of Rio and finally after two hours of walking we reached the cable car to take us up to Sugarloaf Mountain (75 B$/21€). The cableway from the ground base all the way up to Pao Acucar and Urca Mountain is 1200m long. Sugarloaf Mountain is 400m above sea level and from there you can see Guanabara Bay and the rest of Rio De Janeiro. If the weather was nicer we could have enjoyed a spectacular view of the city and the sea, but it was a bit rainy and cloudy so the view was limited. Still, it's a very much recommended to visit, even if the price to get up there is high, the view is worth it. We also could see there some monkeys who were very friendly with tourists. They could transmit some diseases, so it was recommended not to feed them, as they could bite.
We descended, walking for 45min through the rain forest, following the road, to catch the local bus to Downtown (3.80B$/1€). It took a two-hour bus ride to get back home and we got a chance to see the whole city. It is full of contrasts. The gap between rich and poor is so big as to seem catastrophic in terms of economic balance. We saw proof of this when we visited some favelas. One of which was Rochinha and another one Vidigal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocinha
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidigal,_Rio_de_Janeiro
Actually, they both were immersed in a beautiful natural setting in the mountains with a stunning ocean view, a great contrast with the skyscrapers the dominate the other side of the city of Rio De Janeiro. The people were nice, the prices of food were more or less similar to those in more civilised parts of Rio.
In Richinha we had a nice big lunch with the whole chicken, rice, black beans, salad and a litre of freshly squeezed orange juice, in total for two people we paid 60B$/20€. Another time we walked into favela Vidigal near where we were living. It was located by the ocean, next to one of the best beaches of Rio, Ipanema Beach. It was next to the Sheraton hotel with its impressive pool and spa facilities that overlook the local beach full of kids from the favelas.
Rochinha
We had some fried cheese and meat empanadas with sugar cane juice (6B$each /2€). You could drink as much as you wanted for only 1€. It was a really good value for such a good treat! In the area where we were living it would cost at least three times more. This is a measure of the inequality between the places and how people are treated.
After a couple of days, we met a Polish tour guide who was on a sabbatical year in Rio. He had been living in Belgium for the last twenty years. He speaks eight languages fluently (German, Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Russian). Now he is experimenting with photo and film journalism while travelling around Third world countries. He is interested in social issues. He took some yoga photos and video shots of me on Vidigal beach. The kids were laughing when the waves were hitting me while I was doing yoga. The ocean was quite rough.
Our Polish friend Sebastian (https://www.seba.website/ )invited us to participate in a local music and dance event in the heart of Rio (15B$/4€). A night at Forro de Lapa was great - lots of dancing until the sunrise indoors and later outsides. People would dance in the streets and the spirit of music and dance was there, nobody could have mistaken this country from any other. This was Brazil!!!
https://www.facebook.com/seba.stianski.5015/posts/1817508535191465
I slept like a baby for 14 hours but sadly missed another great gig:
https://www.facebook.com/seba.stianski.5015/posts/1817979685144350
With the help of our Polish friend Sebastian, with his girlfriend Camila, we learnt about what happens behind the scenes, the corruption in the government of Brazil, the issues with the recent Olympics and the violation of human rights. His sense of humour and creativity is quite visible right here:
https://www.facebook.com/seba.stianski.5015/posts/1822340814708237
Now off to North East - Arraial do Cabo - the archipelago of ones of the most wonderful Brasilian beaches!!!
