Rio De Janeiro

STAGE 4 of 6: Wednesday 10th to Sunday 13th April

Once again, I am lost for the right words to describe the amazing experiences we are having here in South America, but I’ll give it a go. Things here are so different from Australia, but also quite a bit the same.

Profoundly contrasting cultures, landscapes, lifestyles, values, and levels of wealth have shaped our perceptions and thoughts over the last five days. For instance, in a single day, we spent the morning walking through a Favela, (shanty town) where more than 25 per cent of the Rio population live. Then in the afternoon, we sailed across the bay of Rio de Janeiro (Guanabara Bay, the world’s largest bay and another recognized wonder of the world), observing grandiose mansions, extravagant speedboats and yachts, and beaches and bars frequented by the city’s elite.

WEDNESDAY 9th APRIL

We arrived at Rio De Janeiro’s Galileo Airport on Wednesday evening, a few minutes early at around 6:30pm, picked up our bags, easily found the Uber pick-up spot and sped (quite literally) to our Airbnb accommodation in Botafogo, a suburb just south of the city centre and close to Sugarloaf Mountain. Ubers are cheap and easy, but also, they very much like to get to their destination quickly🏎️. The app said the trip would take 40 minutes, but we arrived in less than 30. I would have taken a photo of the speedometer hitting 120 km/hr in an 80 zone only I was too scared to open my eyes for long enough 😉 .

The Airbnb was just ok. It had two bedrooms with small double beds, one bathroom (plus an extra toilet), aircon in the bedrooms only, small threadbare towels and no kettle. On the positive, it did have a washing machine and fast internet.

THURSDAY 10th APRIL

Dave’s Birthday!

Today was all about Dave, of course!

We started the day with a visit to Sugarloaf Mountain, another Moonraker filming location. James Bond (and Holly Goodhead) are again being chased by Jaws, this time while riding the mountain’s famous cable car. We had booked tickets for 11am, but after a reasonably early (and delicious) breakfast in a cafe in Copacabana, we had arrived closer to 10am but were easily able to join the queue and get on the two-stage cable car after a very short wait. The views from the middle and top were extraordinary, and a great way for us to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the bay and city of Rio.

We walked about 3km back to our accommodation (toes are improving, thanks to those who have been asking), picked up some groceries along the way, then Dave and Will headed off to the Navy Museum while Emma and I took the opportunity to rest a bit. Well at least we tried to rest, but the noise from the jackhammers right below our apartment was loud and inescapable!

Dave’s birthday dinner choice was Outback Steakhouse, an Australian-themed restaurant with outlets all over the world including three in Rio. I’ve actually never been to one in Australia, but we did go to one in Japan a couple of years ago, and actually they are not too bad, and it’s amusing seeing what others think is typically Australian.

FRIDAY 11th APRIL

As readers will all know, there is no better way I like to understand a culture, than through its food.

Will, Emma and I had booked a food tour today with local company Eatrio which I highly recommend if you ever get to these parts. Marcella was our guide, and she was absolutely fantastic – full of life, obsessed with food and seemed to know all the locals – the perfect combination.

Rather than try to remember everything – here is a list that the company provided us afterwards of what we did over the five hours, plus a heap of photos that I took along the way:

• Street Market: Caldo de cana (sugar-cane juice with fresh lime juice), Tapioca (tapioca pancakes), Manga Palmer (large, sweet mango with no strings), Pitaya (dragon fruit), Caqui (aka persimmon), Parmesão de Minas Gerais (Parmesan cheese from Minas Gerais), Fruta do Conde/Pinha (sugar apple), Folhas de Vinagreira (sour leaves of the Roselle plant)
• Tacacá do Norte: Açaí (fruit pulp of açaí berry, slightly sweetened with guaraná syrup), Suco de Cupuaçú (juice of the Amazonian fruit which changes flavour as you drink it)
• Armazém Senado: Cerveja Original (popular bottled beer)
• Labuta: Bolinhos de tapioca com queijo (tapioca croquettes with cheese), Brigadeiro (chocolate and condensed milk sweet, served on a spoon)
• Braseiro: Pastéis – queijo/costela (crispy fried pastry filled with cheese or beef rib), Croquete de milho cremoso (sweetcorn croquette)
• Cultivar: Pão de queijo (Brazil’s famous tapioca cheese bread)
• Bar do Mineiro: Frango a passarinho (Brazil’s bar food classic of crispy-fried chicken), Feijoada (iconic dish of black beans, sausage, pork and beef, served with collard greens, rice and orange slices), Guaraná (sweet fruity soda made with an Amazonian spice), Caipirinhas (Brazil’s national cocktail)

It truly was an unbelievably good experience and yes, we were stuffed to the eyeballs!

Not wanting to miss the most well-known attraction in Rio, we decided to squeeze a visit to Christ the Redeemer statue in on Friday afternoon. To get to there, you catch a ‘rack train’ that pulls you up the very steep hill.

It was a bit crowded, but not too much. I’m glad we travelled at this time of the year. Peak season is January, which would be both too crowded and too hot for my liking. Today’s temperature range was 21-28C, but with high humidity is about as hot as I like it to get.

The jackhammering started this morning just after 8am and was still going strong when we got back from the food tour, so I decided to find somewhere else to stay for the next three nights. When we arrived home from visiting the Jesus statue (as they call it locally) we packed our stuff and moved across to a beachside apartment at Copacabana Beach. The apartment is really lovely, has stunning views and importantly a large bathtub where you can also get a view of the beach… heaven for a bath-loving person like me!

SATURDAY 12th APRIL

Today was the day of extremes I mentioned earlier. Will had researched the best way for us to see the Favela’s without being disrespectful to the locals and being able to support the communities who live there. A guided tour was booked, where all proceeds go to the community we visited – in this case Favela Santa Marta.

Pedro led the four of us plus four others through the area, first taking us by a cable train to the top of the area which houses around 8,000 people, then slowly walking back down to the bottom of the steep hill. Much of the time we weren’t allowed to take photos, but here are a few to give you the idea.

One of the reasons they don’t allow photos is that the gangs that control the area are often carrying guns (both handguns and sub-machine guns!) and they don’t want those images getting out. Please note, at no time did I feel unsafe. Pedro did an excellent job of explaining the complex culture here and we all learned a lot. We visited the house of his mother and had a taste of a banana cane spirit. By the time we got to the bottom a couple of hours later my legs were like jelly from the steep decline and I was left with a lot to think about!

We had lunch at the restaurant which is directly below our accommodation, then at 3pm headed to the Urca area, a very upmarket waterside suburb not far from Sugarloaf Mountain, where we boarded a 43-foot sailing boat with 12 other tourists for a three-hour tour of the bay (Gilligan was absent 😉 ). It was a glorious sunny afternoon, drinks and snacks were plentiful, and the sunset was so beautiful to witness as it sank over the city.

Saturday night’s dinner was also very close to our accommodation, this time at an Italian restaurant where I ordered a prawn and mushroom risotto. Not the best version I’ve ever had, but tasty and very good value, with meals and drinks for the four of us costing less than A$120. Considering this was a moderately upmarket bistro, that’s pretty cheap.

The kids are both a bit unwell with colds, but they decided to go out for the evening while Dave and I took the opportunity for an early night. They were home by 11:30pm which was way earlier than I expected, so I had a pretty good night’s sleep, helped by the knowledge that there was no hurry to get up in the morning as we had a restful Sunday planned.

SUNDAY 13th APRIL

Sunday’s are supposed to be a day of rest… so that’s what we have planned for today. I’m writing this at the table that overlooks the front window and has great views of the beach, which is a little distracting as there is so much going on down there! On Sunday’s they block of the street in front of our apartment so people can walk, run and ride along the waterfront. We will pop out sometime soon and get some lunch and try to find some much-needed socks for Dave.

Will and Emma have already gone out for a bit more exploring, and the plan is to meet back here before 5pm when we need to leave to head to see Fluminense play Santos at the famous Maracanã Stadium which holds over 150,000 people. The stadium was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup, in which Brazil was beaten 2–1 by Uruguay in the final, in front of a still standing record attendance of 173,850 spectators. I’m expecting the game to be quite an experience, but as we fly out early tomorrow morning (to Cusco, via Lima), I’ll leave that story to my next edition.

Thanks for having us Brazil, I won’t forget you in hurry!