Rio de Janeiro and Rafa

When we sailed into Rio at 6 am I was just a mite disappointed, perhaps because I'd been looking forward to it for so long.  Well I was up too early and I hadn't had my coffee, but everything seemed just a bit smaller than I had imagined it to be.  Pretty - but not overwhelming.

Sailing into Rio

Then I realised the best was not from sea level but from above.  Yes, Rio has an awful lot of tourists and the development underway for both the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 means that the usual traffic chaos was even worse.  They’re putting in tunnels and removing traffic bridges, revamping the Sambadrome for the Marathon, and sprucing up the somewhat daggy port.

Sambadrome entrance

There’s two must dos in Rio – the Cable Car to Sugarloaf (396 metres) and visiting the Corcovado where the Christ the Redeemer statue sits.  We were fortunate to have a gloriously clear day – though 38 degrees.  

Entrance to Sugarloaf cable car

Waiting in line is no fun anywhere – think the Eiffel Tower – and in heat it’s worse.  But it was worthwhile – even if it took ALL DAY to do those two things. 

View to Sugarloaf from Cable car

Copacabana from Sugarloaf

Obviously, Sugarloaf is all about the view; the misadventure from the James Bond Moonraker movie never happened and the cable car that has just celebrated its centenary without a mishap.  It was the third in the world to start operating and certainly the most famous.

Old cable cars

The Corcovado Mountain (Portuguese for hunchback) (710m) had its little railway operating for 50 years before the Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue was built in the 30s.

Train to Corcovado

 Whilst now probably Rio’s most iconic landmark, it’s actually only 38 metres high, plus base.  It certainly attracts the faithful and it was regardless of your religious affiliations, worth the visit.

Cristo Redentor

Naturally we saw the famous favelas which house about 40% of the city.  There’s been a bit of a push to clean these up – well at least provide water, sewerage and electricity and a regular police presence – of late and certainly Rio’s dangerous crime has dropped considerably.  We were hardly approached by beggars or 'aggressive' street sellers.

Favelas in Rio

Brazil is also noted for its precious and semi-precious gems and three jewellery companies had been on board since Buenos Aires to try and sell their wares to us via incentives such as cocktail parties and free tours.  We weren't interested – we didn't want our trip to Rio compromised by their sales pitch, so on the evening of Day 1 and for all of Day 2 we hired a private tour guide I’d found via Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor to show us a different side of Rio.  Oi, Rafa!!!  Rafa is a Carioca: that is a native of Rio but has lived and travelled to places as diverse as South Africa and Canada - and he was used to the Australian 'sense of humour'

We are sooooooooooooo glad we did find Rafa as our guide; he was fantastic – here we are outside the hip Carioca de Gema music bar.

Are we having fun yet?

 This little gem has live music of a number of Brazilian styles played by different musicians each night.  For our night we had a guy to whom we were introduced called Richa aka the Pavarotti do Samba.  He and his 8 piece band were gooood, and played classic samba and bossa nova numbers.  There was not a feather in sight – it was just all about the music with and audience from 18 to 70 dancing along and singing.  Fantastic!!!

Live Samba - with no feathers

The next day Rafa took us to many places that were a bit more off the tourist track such as the city of Niteroi with the world famous (and  recently deceased) Oscar Niemeyer designed MAC museum. 

We hadn't been drinking!

 The building is allegedly more interesting than its contents – but was designed to exactly mirror the angle of Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.

MAC Museum with Sugarloaf

The Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea were inscribed on the UNESCO heritage list in 2012 which really incorporates the whole of the city landmarks.

Vista Chinesa

The amazing Parque da Cidade and within it the Tijuca Forest (handplanted as it had been coffee plantations, but nevertheless, the world's largest urban forest) was set aside as a reserve in the 1880s partly to protect Rio's water supply.  It's home to various monkeys – you’ll see one on top of the jack fruit in the centre if you look carefully.

Marmoset with Jackfruit; Tijuca Forest

Within the forest is an additional lookout called the Vista Chinesa plus the paragliding platform Serra da Tiririca.

Paragliding Serra da Tiririca

We saw Copacabana and Ipanema beaches – certainly full of life.  Interestingly there’s an island opposite Ipanema covered in guano called Cagarra (poop) and Ipanema actually means stinky water in the local Tupi language – so ‘poop’ island faces ‘stinky water’.  H’mmm, just the place for a honeymoon…

'Stinky water' meets 'poop island'

Great views, graffiti 

Up close and personal with 'dental floss'

Was it something I said?

and restaurants, such as this Bar Miniero about to celebrate its centenary in the hip ‘Montmartre’ of Rio, Santa Teresa abound.  Here’s Rafa with his friend Marcone.

Marcone and our guide Rafa - thanks for showing us your Rio!

We were exhausted but it was all worthwhile.