Sept 17-25
Rio! I immediately fell in love with this city and could have stayed there for so much longer if only I weren't rapidly burning through money!
First off the big tourist spots...
CHRIST REDEEMER
The Christ Redeemer statue has been standing 30m high since 1931, overlooking the coast and the city.
The day we picked to go up to Christ started as a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in sight... But of course by the time we reached the top all you could see was fog.
As we patiently waited, the skies would occasionally clear for a few brief moments. Eventually it cleared for about 20 minutes, giving us enough time to take in the view and get some good snaps.
SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN
We had great difficulty finding a day to go up Sugarloaf when it wasn't covered in fog.
On my very last day the skies cleared and I finally I managed to get up Sugarloaf! You have to take two cable ars to get up to the top. The first one took me to a slightly smaller mountain, where I got a view over the city as well as a view of sugarloaf.
The second cable car took me all the way to the top of Sugarloaf mountain, where I was treated to panaramic views of the whole city, including the downtown area, Copacobana Beach and the Christ Redeemer. Pretty epic!
DOWNTOWN
The downtown area is covered in really wicked street art. My personal favourite was a Brazilian take on Mona Lisa.
The main highlight of the downtown area was Lapa Steps; beautiful mosaic-covered stairs, using tiles from all over the world.
Back in the 90s an ex-pat was inspired by the street decorations from Carnivale and decided he should add some permanent colour to the city, thus began creating his masterpiece. Taking six years to finish, the steps became famous before they were even complete. People would bring tiles from all over the world to be added to the enormous collection. The spot is stunning at any time of day, but particularly cool at night time when people from all walks of life hang out there to have a few drinks.
Lapa is also famous for its arches, located at a square that (yet again) is a popular spot to drink at night!
Another interesting spot downtown was the cathedral. From the outside it's a rather odd-looking cone and from the inside the stain glass windows give it a bit more beauty.
COPACABANA
At the Copa..Copacabaaaana!!
Our hostel was located in the Copacabana area, famous for its beach. The beach was huge and absolutely covered in people over the weekend. At the back of the beach, away from the water, there were volleyball courts and soccer pitches set up. The Brazilians play a slightly different version of beach volleyball...where they don't use their hands! The hit the ball with their head, chest, feet, knees... Super impressive to watch.
Along the path by the beach there are little restaurants & bars, some spectacular Rio-themed sandcastles and many street vendors. But why go to the little stalls, when they can come to you? There were constantly people walking along the beach selling everything from juices and beers to sarongs and sunglasses. You never even need to leave your towel!
FAVELAS
The favelas are the poorest neighbourhoods in Rio, located on the mountainside. We did a tour of the favelas in the daytime and then visited again one evening for a party!
Given it's ideal location on the side of a mountain, some of the views were pretty stunning. The "streets" in the favelas were narrow walkways, covered in litter and poop. The smell was inescapable. Many of the buildings looked to be falling apart, though there was some impressive street art.
During the tour we visited a local bakery, some craft stalls and a daycare centre. We saw a couple of local guys perform using home-made drums. We also stopped by an art gallery where we had the opportunity to buy some beautiful paintings (which I was super keen on, but resisted temptation because there's no way a painting would survive my travels) We weren't allowed to take pictures of the artwork, but the workshop was pretty sick too.
We came back to the Favelas one evening to partaay! First we went to a square where there were people selling all kinds of food and drink, as well as a DJ up on stage. Most of the people there seemed to be teenagers, but there were also some older people and a handful of kids (strange, given it was clearly a place to drink..and it was about midnight!) then we went into a club, which was unlike any club I've ever been to. And I loved it. All the women were booty-shaking, while the men danced in sync! There always seemed to be one guy who led the pack, with two or three other guys following along with his moves. Adorable. Brilliant.
ROCK IN RIO
Rock In Rio is an enormous music festival held in Rio every year, for the last 30 years. We had been searching for tickets online for weeks without much luck, but somehow managed to score last minute tickets for the opening day of the festival!
Queen was the headline act, just as they were at the first Rock in Rio festival 30 years ago. Adam Lambert performed in place of Freddy Mercury...and he was incredible. Such a great performer.
During a tribute song for Freddy, a girl behind us starting sobbing uncontrollably and singing at the top of her lungs, showing off her incredibly tone deaf voice. Six songs later our ears were in pain. Laura bravely approached her and told her she needed to sing a little bit quieter because we'd paid a lot of money to hear Queen, not to hear her. Awkward. Luckily she got the hint...phew.
At one point, between acts, a dance crew treated us to a pretty spectacular Queen medley dance. On top of Queen, we also saw OneRepublic and The Script.
The festival set up was pretty sweet, if very crammed with people. There was a wicked roller coaster and even a zipline going across the main stage area.
An aaaaaamazing night.
SOCCER
The Brazilians are crazy for soccer - or Futebol, as they call it. Taylor and I got sweet seats for the Fluminense V Gremio game at Maracana Stadium. The stadium once held a record 200,000 people back in 1950 for the Uruguay v Brazil World Cup. It was refurbished for the 2013 World Cup and now has seats for 78,500. Almost as big as the G!
However, the stadium was not nearly full for the game. I don't reckon there would have been more than 15,000 people; a crowd size which would feel small at the G... But the noise these people make is out of control! Had I only heard (and not seen) the crowd, I might've believed the stadium was full. They just keeeeeep on cheering all throughout the game. Non-stop. Makes for a great atmosphere!
Though the score was 0-0 it was still an exciting match and a whole lotta fun!
NIGHTLIFE
The nightlife in Rio was out of control! In Lapa (the downtown area) there were drink stands spread across the main square. For a very small price you could buy caprihanas of any flavour. And these were ridiculously strong caprihanas...so only a few were needed! Every night of the week this square was choccas full of people, as were all the surrounding bars. We explored not only the caprihana stands in the square, but also the bars an clubs; every single one of them outrageously fun.
FOOOOOOD
Oh, food.. My favourite part of travel! Many of the restaurants in Rio are 'per kilo' which is like a buffet, but instead of all-you-can-eat, they weigh it and you pay per kilo! These places would have everything under the sun...which sometimes caused over eating! Oops.
Two local foods became quick favourites: tapioca and brigaderos. Tapioca is a pancake-type-thing (gluten free!) that can be made either sweet or savoury. Sweet tapioca was like a slightly chewy pancake and savoury tapioca was probably the closest thing I'll get to pizza over here!
Brigaderos are little balls of "chocolate covered in chocolate" (direct quote from a local!) They were very sweet and rich, but incredibly delicious.
So far Rio is my absolute favourite city in all of Latin America, no competition. There's beautiful sights, endless beaches, delicious food, hot sunny days, outrageous nightlife and decent shopping. Just...everything! I will be back one day, Rio ❤️
