Kiribu

Once again I didn’t have a hostel lined up for Rio but I got a good tip from an Australian girl that there was always some room in Ipanema ‘hostel alley’. The italians didn’t have a place to stay either so I grabbed a taxi with them and headed over to Casa 6 Ipanema which happened to have a whole 6 person dorm freeing up that morning. However check in was not until 2pm that afternoon so we decided to not waste any time and took advantage of the dry weather to go to the Botanical Gardens.

It’s amazing that such a big green space in the middle of the city is just dedicated to flora & fauna considering the city is surrounding it on all sides, also you can barely hear the traffic and city noise, you wouldn’t know you were in a big metropolis. Since my camera didn’t manage to recover from being submerged in river water I had to rely on the Italians to take some cool shots of the flora & fauna. Saw huge butterflies, parrots and toucans flying about all over the place. The Italians particularly liked the herb garden. It was pretty cool since all the herbs and plants were separated into which part of the body it would help cure.

We went back to the hostel, checked in and had a snooze since we barely got any sleep on the night bus from Ouro Preto. We then got some food in the Ipanema neighbourhood. It is pretty chic and reminded me a lot of Greenwich Village (New York) at night-time.

The next day the Italians had to move on and I was left to explore the city on my own. My first goal was to replace my camera and get myself plugged in to the communication network with a Brazilian SIM card (or chip (pronounced Schippee) in Brazil). I bought a camera and the SIM card was easy enough to get. I soon figured out that placing a text or a phone call in brazil is not easy. If you are not in the same state, or even with the same carrier in some cases, your 8 digit phone number soon doubles in size. It took me a few days to figure it out and basically in Brazil you need to store about 3 versions of the same contact number so you can be sure that at least one will get through. Armed with a camera I could now appreciate how pointless a trip could be without one. Not only is it good to have a picture of all the nice stuff you see it’s also good for piecing together what you did and who you meet etc.

Soon enough it was free Caipirinha time at the hostel and I then went for food with a German girl who had also just arrived and was going to teach in a German school for 3 months. I decided I should actually see something of Rio even if the weather was going to be rubbish as I didn’t fancy hanging around doing nothing. I booked a tour through the hostel to see some of Rio the next day.

At 10am the Tour guide picked me and a few others up from the hostel and we set off to see Rio. First up was the Tijuca National Park. It is a big park with waterfalls and everything right in the heart of the city on the side of the Corcovado mountain. Lagoa district just above Ipanema is probably the nicest and most expensive part of Rio. The huge lake has a marina, social sports club, beautiful residences and chique restaurants. We then headed towards the main hangliding hotspot, or landing spot, by the beach. This area has some of the most sought after property in Rio, lots of famous people live in these guarded apartment blocks. Funnily enough they are almost directly opposite one of the biggest Favelas in Rio. 5 star Favela, the guide called it. It shows how incredibly huge the gap between rich and poor is and how close they live together.

From here we continued through some tunnels, Rio has lots of tunnels carved into the surrounding hills, and up we went into the forest of the Tijuca national park, on the way up we stopped by the house of Oscar Neimmeyer, Brasil’s most famous architect. We tried to get in and tour the house but apparently it was only available after 1pm and cost 10 R$ to enter. After about 20 minutes of driving we reached the park entrance and walked through the forest, a tiny trail through the trees, no sense of city life from here. The park was originally used by farmers for cattle and mainly coffee and bananas. We went to the waterfall which is actually quite tall and the resulting river used to run down under the Lapa viaduct until it was used to pump water into different parts of the city. We were also shown the Brasilwood, or Pernambuco, the national tree.

We headed back in the van and up Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue, visibility was getting worse and once we reached the top we all couldn’t help but laugh at the amazing view of Rio. Thick white cloud. As for the statue itself I got a really nice picture of his feet! To help matters the statue was under the process of being renovated for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. We managed to get a better view further down the mountain before we headed for lunch. We headed down the otherside to Santa Teresa, a really lovely artistic old part of town that hosts many street parties and has a nice traditional tram running through its streets. Lunch here was nice but very expensive, rice, black beans, and chicken… Feijao.

After lunch we headed further down to the edge of Lapa, one of the more dangerous parts of town. The tour guide had done this for 15 years so he knew everyone. Visually it is an absolutely stunning city, beautiful buildings, beautiful landscape, wildlife, plants, ocean and beaches. It has everything.

I was determined to see the Pao de Acucar, or Sugar Loaf, before leaving Rio since it is a must do. So I headed out on the bus bright and early as supposedly this is the best time to view it. You go up on two cable cars. The first mountain is a half way point and the views were already brilliant from here, I was lucky in that today there was not that many clouds, although I was told the weather can change extremely quickly up here. I saw some Macac monkeys in a tree and there were also some vultures floating around. I was eager to get up to the highest point so quickly went on up to the next cable car. There weren’t too many people yet as I was there around mid day. There is a small park with different view points around the rock, it is a 360 degree view of Rio and the surrounding areas and oceans. Also I could actually see the Christ Statue on the Corcovado without clouds on top!

As it was a friday that night, many of the hostel people went to go out in Lapa, most Fridays and saturdays there is a street party in the Lapa neighbourhood and it truly is fantastic, They have live music, food stalls, drinking stalls and then the dance bars and clubs too. A friend I met in Salvador was actually living in Rio and we managed to meet up in the crowded streets. The fun was still going as most of us got a taxi and headed home at 5 in the morning. Amazing.