Brazil 2015: Part 1 - Rio de Janeiro

Day 1 – Sunday, June 21. Departure day. We had a 12:15 departure from PDX, so we didn’t have to get up early. However, we had been gone Friday night and all day Saturday at the wedding which was a couple of hours southeast of home, so by the time we had gotten home and finished packing it was 2 AM. Karen’s parents took us to the airport and wished us a fun and safe trip. Our first flight was from Portland to Houston, and then we had a flight from Houston to Rio de Janeiro. I had a pleasant surprise getting lunch before we boarded the first flight. MOD Pizza at PDX had "Dads eat free" because it was Father's Day. After an early lunch we boarded our flight to Houston on time, but then sat at the gate for ~45 minutes as the plane had a flat tire. That was a first, having the plane be jacked up while they changed the tire. Other than that delay the flight was uneventful. They made up most of the time, although being late was not a problem as we had an almost 3 hour layover in Houston.

Like with the PDX to IAH flight, our flight from Houston boarded on time, but we sat at the gate for close to 45 minutes while they investigated a “mechanical issue”. Finally they announced that the “mechanical issue” was a burnt out light bulb and did not need to be fixed prior to departure. So, we thought we would be on our way and departing about 1 hour late. The pilot then announced that since we were still at the gate they would be allowing some additional passengers to board that had missed the original boarding due to late arriving flights. Finally, after a delay of ~1:15 we were on our way. The only consolation was that the flight was not full and we had two middle rows to ourselves, so had an empty seat between us (the 777-200 had a 3-3-3 seating configuration). That made spending 11 hours on the plane slightly more palatable.

Day 2 – Monday, June 22. Rio de Janeiro. We arrived in Rio at ~9:30 AM local time. Rio is 4 hours ahead of Portland. Despite the late departure we arrived close to on time in Rio. After going through immigration and claiming our baggage we were met by the local guide in Rio, Patricia. She informed us that we would not be able to check into our hotel until ~2 PM, so she suggested that we do the tour that was planned for the afternoon immediately after leaving the airport.

We started our city tour at the Sambódromo, where the samba schools perform their competitions during the Rio Carnival, and learned about many of the different aspects of Carnival. I was not aware that there is a very large competition, where the top sixteen schools perform at the Sambódromo over a two day period. Each school performs for over one hour and are judged by a panel on their performance. We then stopped at Maracanã Stadium where the finals of both the 1950 and 2014 World Cup took place. This stadium is where the opening and closing ceremonies will be during the 2016 Olympics, as well as the finals for soccer. Next up we visited the modern Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, a unique conical shaped concrete structure. It was rather ugly from the outside, and while very simple inside it had beautiful stained glass windows. From the Cathedral we did a walking tour of downtown Rio, learning about some of the history, enjoying the architecture and stopping at the traditional Colombo Coffee Shop for some refreshments.

We got to our hotel ~2:30 PM. For our 4 nights in Rio we stayed at the Tulip Inn Copacabana, a nice small hotel with views from our balconies of Copacabana Beach which was right across the road from the hotel. The Copacabana area will be host to several of the events at the 2016 Olympics, and is one of four different Olympic zones. Beach volleyball will be on Copacabana Beach, just down from where our hotel was. The triathlon will start from the south end of the beach, and other events will be in the area, such as rowing and canoeing that will take place in the lagoon a short distance away. It was interesting to see where some of these venues will be and we look forward to seeing familiar landmarks when we watch some of the Olympics on TV next year.

View from our hotel balcony

After checking in and having a short rest we headed across the street to the beach. We walked along the beach for a short time as the sun was setting - nothing spectacular to see when you are on an east facing beach. While we knew what the daylight hours were going to be, it was still a shock to have sunset at ~5:15 PM and have it get dark shortly afterwards given that we were used to it being light until 10 PM at home. Rio is at latitude 22.9° S, and hence it was close to the shortest day of the year during our visit. We ate dinner at an outdoor beach side cafe. There are lots of these fast food type places along the beach. After you cross the road from the hotels, there is a separated bike path, a wide (~30-40 feet) paved sidewalk, and then the sandy beach. Every few hundred feet there are these outdoor cafes between the sidewalk and the beach serving anything from snacks to meals. They have covered seating, but no walls. It was nice to sit and enjoy the twilight and people passing by as we ate our dinner. There are also a lot of elaborate sand castles along the beach, with the artists looking for donations. Even though it was dark by the time we left to go to the hotel, there are lights on the beach, and people were still playing volleyball as well as doing other activities on the beach. We saw some people playing regular volleyball, but most were playing soccer volleyball – same rules as regular volleyball but no touching with the hands is allowed. It was amazing to watch them play. Most were very good, and they would setup the plays just like in regular volleyball, the difference being the plays ended with a head spike”.

Day 3 – Tuesday, June 23. Rio de Janeiro. We woke to a beautiful sunny day, which was a pleasant surprise as Monday had ended cloudy with a few sprinkles of rain. We were signed up for a half day tour to Corcovado & Tijuca Forest in an open-air, Hummer style jeep. It was not supposed to be a private tour, but there ended up with no one else in our group. The driver and our guide for the day, Dominic, picked us up at our hotel at 9. The driver made his way through the city with Dominic pointing out many of the sights and giving us some history, and then we turned onto steep narrow roads to our way up Corcovado Mountain. This mountain is located in the Tijuca Atlantic Forest - the largest urban forest in the world and is home to the famed Christ the Redeemer statue which was recently elected as one of the 7 “New Wonders of the World”. The views from Corcovado were amazing, and the statue is much larger up close than I had envisioned. The statue is 38m tall, or ~125 feet high. After leaving Corcovado the tour continued up Paineiras road, with views of the city along the way. We stopped and did a 10 minute hike up to Cascatinha Falls. We then continued on the winding roads through the forested park, stopping at the pagoda-style gazebo at Vista Chinesa outlook before descending back into the city.

View of Rodrigo de Freitas, the lagoon

Corcovado Mountain on left, lagoon on right

Cascatinha Falls

View from Corcovado Mountain, with Sugar Loaf on right side

Christ the Redeemer statue

After returning to our hotel, we walked to a restaurant for lunch, and then walked to the south end of Copacabana Beach to the historic Fort Copacabana which was completed in 1914. The fort has some impressive cannons, including some 305mm guns that could fire 23 km, or over 14 miles. We went through the fort, and had a snack at the Colombo Coffee Shop (owned by the same company as the historic one in downtown that we had visited the prior day). We then returned to the hotel to change clothes and get some towels to return to the beach. We stayed on the beach until it got dark, returning to the hotel to change again and then go out for dinner before retiring for the night.

Fort Copacabana

Fort Copacabana, sight of Triathlon start

Matthew and Elizabeth on Copacabana Beach

Day 4 – Wednesday, June 24. Rio de Janeiro. It had clouded up late Tuesday night and there was a fair amount of rain and wind overnight. It was cooler and windy in the morning when Patricia met us at the hotel, and although it looked like it was going to rain a lot we only had a small amount of rain. The main attraction for the morning was going up Sugar Loaf Mountain. This monolith, along with Corcovado Mountain and Christ the Redeemer Statue are the most iconic landmarks in Rio.

Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) rises up from a small peninsula at the entrance of Guanabara Bay. Its name is said to refer to its resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined sugar loaf. There are two cable cars to get up to the top. The first takes passengers to the top of Urca Hill, which rises 215 meters above sea level and offers spectacular views of the entire bay and its islands. From Urca Hill, passengers continue in a second cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf which rises 395 meters above sea level and offers a 360 degree view of the entire city including Botafogo and Copacabana Beaches, Corcovado and downtown Rio. Unfortunately with the clouds we could not see the very top of Corcovado. Up on Urca Hill there were a lot of Marmosets, a very small type of monkey. We saw one caring a baby that was especially cute. However cute they were, they were very aggressive in trying to steal the snack that we had bought and were trying to eat. While there were tables and chairs to sit at we stood as they would jump down on the table and try and take your food.

First tram up to Sugar Loaf

View from top of Sugar Loaf - Copacabana beach in middle left

View of station on top of Sugar Loaf

View of downtown and Corcovado Mountain

Marmoset with baby

After we finished the Sugar Loaf tour, Patricia took us on a tour of the Santa Teresa neighborhood. It is located on top of the Santa Teresa hill, by the center of Rio, and is famous for its winding, narrow streets which are a favorite spot for artists and tourists. We went up to the top of the hill and visited a residence that had been turned into an art museum, and then worked our way back down the hill, stopping to see the sights and to do some shopping. One of the most interesting things we stopped to see was the Escadaria Selarón, also known as the Selaron Steps. The steps are the work of the Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who claimed it as "my tribute to the Brazilian people". He started tiling steps near his home in the neighborhood in 1990, and continued until his death in 2013. There are 250 steps measuring 125 meters long which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. We found many from US states and cities, but could not find any from Oregon.

Escadaria Selarón

Santa Teresa Aqueduct

View of city center from top of Santa Teresa Hill

We also drove by several favelas. This is the name that Brazilians use for slums. These slums are largely inhabited by people who have moved to Rio from other parts of the country in look of work. They exist in most areas of the city, and are huge, many with tens of thousands of residents. The building of structures in the favelas is not regulated, and as a result there are structures packed in very closely, and if there was to be a natural disaster the loss of life would likely be very high. Also, while infrastructure and basic city services to the favelas has improved in recent years, a significant number of residents do not have running water or working sewers, resulting in very unsanitary conditions with such dense population.

A favela

At the end of the tour we had the driver leave us in Ipanema, which is a beach and neighborhood south and west of Copacabana. The ladies went shopping while Matthew and I planned to go down to the beach and then walk back to our hotel along the beach. However, when we got about a block from the beach it started to rain and the wind was driving the rain into our face. So, we retreated a couple of blocks further inland away from the wind and walked back the ~2 miles to our hotel. Karen and Elizabeth were fortunate that they were inside shopping during the rain, so they had a dry walk back to the hotel. For dinner we went to a traditional Brazilian barbecue restaurant that Patricia
had recommended. It was about 15 minutes walk from our hotel. The restaurant had a salad bar and some other buffet style foods, but the main attraction was barbecued meat that they would bring around to the tables on skewers and slice off what you wanted. We had all sorts of meat, from traditional beef, chicken, and pork, as well as more exotic items like ostrich meat, which by the way is quite tasty. They had live music and dancing for entertainment, and after eating way too much we walked back to our hotel.

Carving off meat at the barbecue restaurant

Day 5 – Thursday, June 25. Rio de Janeiro. We woke to cloudy skies, but the wind and rain from Wednesday was gone. Our primary activities for the day was bike riding along the beaches, and doing some adventure activities at Catacunmba Park, so it was good that the weather had improved. We were met at our hotel at 8 by our guide for the day, Clide. The first portion of our activity for the day was biking. Clive drove us over to the lagoon where some of his employees had bikes ready for us. We rode from the lagoon over to Leblon beach with Clide and then Ipanema Beach (famous for the “Girl from Ipanema” song). At our various stops Clide told us about the area, and gave us his perspective on Brazil, the good and the bad. He is a first generation Brazilian, with both of his parents emigrating from Poland, and he has an interesting perspective on the Brazilian economy, and life in general based on his personal work history. He currently owns the company that was giving the tour, and employees about 35 guides and 100 support people. However, this is his second career, as he retired from being the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company with over 20,000 employees. He says he really enjoys working with people and enjoys the work life balance that comes with owning and running his small company versus his previous large corporate job that required lots of travel and responsibility. We were fortunate to have him as our guide as he provided good insight into Brazil, and was very open in his discussions with us, sharing insights into the Brazilian economy and political system.

All of us, with Ipanema Beach in the background

After we finished the bike ride we went back over to the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon and went to Catacumba Park. The park was formerly a “favela” (slum) that was removed in the 70’s and nowadays it is a reforested urban area with sculptures places amidst a garden. There is part of the park that is an “action park”, with a canopy walk (going tree to tree on cables, swinging log bridges, etc.), zip lining, and a rock wall climbing. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the park Karen was not feeling well and ended up getting sick to her stomach. The other three of us did the canopy walk and the zip line, and then headed back to the hotel early so Karen could rest and recover. Clide was great in helping us make the most of the situation, and he was especially helpful in encouraging Elizabeth who was very apprehensive on the first part of the canopy walk. With his encouragement and support she completed the entire course! After returning us to the hotel, Clide gave us his personal phone number and encouraged us to call him if Karen did not improve and we needed help in finding a doctor, or anything else. While I am sure his other guides are likely good, we were fortunate to get Clide, both for his compassion and encouragement, but also his insight into Brazil that he provided. I would highly recommend anyone spending time in Rio to consider an excursion with his company. In addition to urban biking tours in Rio they do other bike trips in Brazil. You can find information at: www.bikevipclub.net.

Getting ready for the canopy walk

Elizabeth on the first obstacle

After we got back to the hotel, the kids and I went out for lunch. Elizabeth then went back to the hotel, and Matthew walked with me for a bit before he also returned, I kept walking and went down to the far north end of the beach, a walk of ~2 miles round trip from our hotel. Even though it is one uninterrupted beach, the south 75% is referred to as Copacabana Beach, and the north 25% is Leme Beach. In addition to the bike path, walk ways, and beach side cafes that I previously mentioned, there are several large life guard towers along the beach, and there are work out stations to do pull ups, stretches, etc. at regular intervals along the beach. Every time we were out on the beach regardless of the time of day there are people running, biking, playing volleyball, and doing various work outs. We saw several people with personal trainers putting them through workout regiments along the beach. Later that evening the kids and I went out to dinner, and then went for one more walk after dark on the beach. Karen mostly slept (or tried to sleep), and by morning was recovered from what ailed her (we think it was something she ate), although she was still tired and weak.