Rio de Janeiro

After a 7-hour bus ride delayed by holiday traffic, I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday evening. At the bus station I met up with Raquel’s friend Leo, who had offered to pick me up show me around the city. After a quick driving tour, Leo and his wife took me out to a great pizza place then dropped me off at my hostel. I am so appreciative of the incredible hospitality that I have received from so many people here in Brazil! My hostel is located in one of Rio’s best neighborhoods, Ipanema, one block from the beach. This is where the famous bossanova song Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema) was written.

Praia Ipanema

Monday the weather was cold and a litle rainy so I opted to postpone my tour of the city and instead did a “favela tour.” The favelas are Rio’s infamous slums (read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela). I was initially hesitant to do such a tour for a couple of reasons: 1) Favelas are notoriously run by drug dealers so they aren’t considered the safest areas 2) The idea of touring a slum seemed incredibly elitist. After being convinced that it was  must-do by the folks at the hostel, I discovered why it was such an incredible experience. After being picked up at the hostel, we arrived at the bottom of Rocinha, Rio’s largest favela with over 200,000 people. One by one we traveled to the top of the favela via local transportation, a 5-minute ride on the back of a motor-bike taxi. From the top, our guide led us down through the narrow streets of the favela, stopping along the way at a local artist’s “studio,” a small store with food and other products, a quick samba show in the street, and a non-profit organization that offers childcare to locals in the favela. Using my limited Portuguese, I spoke to a few of the people we met. All of them said that the tours were a great thing because it meant that people were learning about the problems faced by people in the favelas. Other than occasional stares from guys that apparently kept watch on behalf of the dealers, I never felt unsafe. Nor did I feel elitist, since everyone in the tour acted with great respect.

Rocinha Favela

Tuesday it was 80 degrees and sunny. In the morning, I went for a solid run along the beach. After lunch I headed out on a city tour. The first stop was the famous Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue, which is located at the top of a mountain called Corcovado. The statue itself (a realy big Jesus) was pretty cool and the views of the city were great. Next, we headed to the charming old-town neigborhood of Santa Teresa, then visited the enormous, and extremely bizarre, Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. After a stop by the famous Lapa Steps, we finally headed to the famous Pão de Açucar (or Sugarloaf) mountain. We took two cable cars to the top, which offered incredible views of the entire city.

Cristo Redentor

Catedral de São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro

Lapa Steps

Pão de Açucar

Wednesday was pretty chill. I went for a run and hung out around the beach and hostel until the evening, when I went to a soccer game of Vasco da Gama, one of Rio’s top teams. The environment was really interesting. Despite the fact that nearly half the stadium was empty, the fans near us played drums, waved enormous flags, and chanted and sang during all of regulation. Unfortunately, Vasco lost 3-0 so the fans were not very happy. Thursday morning, I woke up at 6:30 to do a day trip to Angra dos Reis, a city south of here with a large number of beautiful islands. I basically spent the day on the boat, eating, drinking caipirinhas, and enjoying the views of the islands. We stopped a few times and I got in the water once, but it was pretty cold, even though it was about 75 degrees and sunny outside (such a harsh winter!). Thursday night, I met some crazy Brazilian guys from the hostel and ended up going with them out to bar on the beach in Copacabana then a great club until late this morning. After a couple of hours of sleep, I had to get up to check out of the hostel. Rio has been absolutely incredible. I will definitely come back here at some point.

Angra

The Brazil/Portuguese part of my adventure is coming to an end now. I’m headed off to Buenos Aires in a few hours. Hopefully when I get there my Spanish will come back to me and I won’t speak too much Portuñol!