Day 16 - Carnival in Rio, Pickpockets and Parades

I was extremely sad to say goodbyte to Petropolis, but I knew it couldn't last forever. After breakfast, we packed up and were lucky enough to get a ride to the bus station (once again, Jean, the owner of the hostel, being amongst the nicest people we've met) before we hopped on an hour long bus ride back to Rio. When we arrived back to Rio, navigating the bus station was a bit easier this time around and we felt a bit less anxious about finding our way. We had to find a city bus in order to get to the apartment we were going to be staying at for the night, and, with the help of some fellow travelers and tourist information, we were able to find our way pretty quickly to the bus stop.

When we first set out traveling, we had originally planned to stay in Rio for two weeks. Since we had cancelled those plans, we had also given up our beds for Sunday night. Looking back, this was a bit of a risky move. Finding a place to stay in Rio for one night during Carnival is definitely not an easy thing to do. Hotels and hostels are more than four times their standard rate and, even so, they still seem to book up months in advance. Additionally (and a bit more worrisome), most require a seven night minimum stay during Carnival. Thankfully, Lauren's sister Brittany is good friends with a girl named Michelle that had studied in Rio during college and still has friends in the area. In fact, this is the same Michelle that we met in Miami during our five hour layover on our initial flight to Rio. Anyway, we hit Michelle up to see if she could pull any strings and get us a room for one night and, miraculously, she was able to find an apartment that was renting out a bed for the weekend.

When we got on the city bus to head to the apartment, we were at the first stop, so nobody was on the bus yet. When you have 30 pounds of luggage on your back, there is nothing sweeter than getting onto a bus and having room to move around and find a place to put your bag. After putting our packs down in empty seats, we were off on (what was supposed to be) about a 50 minute bus ride. I can't really say I had put much thought into what I was going to see during the ride, but even if I had, my expectations would not have come close to the actual experience.

The best way I can describe Rio during Carnival is to start by thinking of Halloween, except imagine that adults are even more excited about it than children. And imagine instead of going around collecting candy, everyone went around collecting (and then immediately consuming) booze. And instead of going around the neighborhood and coming back home, everybody went out on the street and stayed there until the sun came up. And instead of picturing it happening in your neighborhood, imagine it happening in every street of Chicago. That's honestly the best way I can describe what I saw. There were people dressed up in costumes and drinking everywhere I looked. The bus ride ended up taking about an hour and a half because so many people were getting on and off the bus (many drunk and in costumes, we even had one dressed in drag serenading us for a good part of the ride). There wasn't a single stop along the way where somebody didn't get on the bus to head closer to the beach to celebrate. At one point I saw a girl who wanted to get on but wasn't at a bus stop, so she stepped in front of the bus, waving her arms, so she could hop on. Maybe a little dangerous, but highly effective.

When we finally got to our stop, getting off was a bit tricky. At this point the bus was filled to the brim. As I got up and started manuevering ourselves and our packs toward the exit, the bus started going again. Thankfully, others on the bus knew we wanted to get off and started yelling to the bus driver to stop. When we made it off and were safely on the street, it was only a four or five block walk to the apartment.

When we got outside the apartment, there was a gate with a little key pad. Unfortunately, we had no clue how to use the key pad, and we don't have a working phone on us. As luck would have it, two girls who lived in the building walked in only after a few seconds of us standing there trying to figure out what to do, so we just walked in behind them like we belonged there. When we knocked on the apartment door, we were greeted by a man who had no knowledge of us staying in his apartment. My heart sank. There would be no way for us to find another place to stay for the night if this fell through, and I was beginning to think that was exactly what was going to happen.

It turned out that his roommate, the girl we had set up the stay with, had set everything up, yet neglected to tell her only roommate that would be home about the plans. He gave her a call and was thankfully able to get everything sorted out. It was funny because he would go from yelling at her about how rude and inconsiderate she had been, to covering the phone mid-sentence to reassure us (with a huge smile on his face) that he wasn't upset that we were staying there, that he mainly just needed to be an ass about it or else the "Brazillian way of doing things" would end up driving him nuts (as an aside, his Brazillian girlfriend was none too thrilled by his understanding of the "Brazillian way"). He was super nice though, and thankfully he spoke English or things would have been very difficult.

After unpacking our stuff in our room, we decided to go pick up our tickets for the Sambadrome. There was a hotel a few miles north that we had to go to to get the tickets, so we took the subway. Getting there and getting the tickets was very painless, which was great. We had a few hours to kill, so we decided to walk around a bit instead of immediately heading back to the apartment. We ended up going on an awesome walk along the beach.

When we finally decided we should head back, we started looking for the nearest subway station. Unforunately, we had gotten a bit turned around, so we had to do some wandering. We ended up walking straight into the middle of a major bloco, which is basically a block party, but instead of just having a single block's worth of people hanging out on the street, you have a small town's worth of people crammed from sidewalk to sidewalk parading down the street. We didn't realize it at first, but we were about to make our way through a very thick wall of people dancing, singing, shouting, and drinking.

As much as I hate crowds, especially being in the middle of one as thick as this one was, it was worth experiencing. I kept reminding myself that this was just part of experiencing Carnival in Rio. I'm not sure how long it actually took us to make our way through the crowd, but it felt like hours. The nice part was when we finally made it through, we were greeted by an empty subway station, probably the only one in the city. We bought our tickets for all the subway rides we would still need while we were in Rio for the night (smart thinking, as when we went back the lines were out the station and around the corner) and started to head back to the apartment. As we made it out on to the street, I started to do a quick check to make sure I had everything on me. It was at that moment that I realized that I no longer had my phone.

I usually never bring my phone with me when we head out for the day. I don't have cell service or 3G/4G, and we have a camera, so there's really no reason to have my phone on me. However, this time I brought it with me because I had a confirmation email on it for picking up the Sambadrome tickets. I had it in my front pocket, since pockpocketting 101 teaches you that anything in your back pocket is as good as gone. However, with all of the bumping into and squeezing between people while making our way through the bloco, a skilled pickpocketer probably could have taken my shorts off and I wouldn't have noticed.

I was definitely bummed about losing my phone, but it could have been much worse. I could have lost my credit cards, or the tickets to the Sambadrome, or the copy of our passports. It definitely sucked, but it was strictly a convenience item. Thankfully it was password protected, so they wouldn't be able to get into my email account or anything like that. I did change my passwords when we got back to the apartment just to be safe, but I'm confident the phone has had a factory reset and no longer contains any trace that it once belonged to me. I think the toughest loss was the glamour shots I had taken of myself that were stored on there. They were nudes, but were extremely tasteful. Picture something along the lines of Jack's drawing of Rose in Titanic.

We got back to the apartment and showered up and got ready for the night. Even though the parade started at about 8 PM, the guidebook we read suggested not getting there until 10 or 11, as that was when things would start to really pick up and the atmosphere would be at its height. We headed out at around 9 or so, stopping on the way to grab some snacks and drinks from a gas station. We once again had to take the subway. We were told that when we got off at our stop, it would be really simple and all we would have to do is follow the sea of people all making their way to the Sambadrome. Oddly enough, when we got off, everyone seemed to flush out in different directions and it didn't seem like one way had any more people going down it than any other way. I decided we should follow some girls in bunny costumes, since they seemed to be likely Sambadrome goers. Unfortunately, we followed them to a nearby bus station. Whoops! We were luckily able to ask someone which way to the Sambadrome and, after laughing at us, they pointed us in the right direction.

We finally knew we were going in the right direction when we saw a bunch of people in costumes so elaborate that they had to be a part of the parade. We did have to ask a few more times how to get to our section (and by a few more, it was actually about another half hour of stumbling around clueless), but we were finally able to arrive to our sections. The section itself didn't have assigned seating, but Lauren was able to spot an opening toward the middle of the stands where we could go. They ended up being pretty awesome seats, minus the grumpy old man next to us who insisted that every seat within a five foot radius of him also belonged to him (and even pushed Lauren over at one point to emphatically claim his multiple seats).

Crazy Brazillians aside, the floats were absolutely amazing. There's honestly no point in trying to explain them, since words won't do the pictures justice, so I'll just post the pictures.

Most floats had some sort of "show" that the riders would perform a few times during the length of the parade. We had done some research and found out that our section was directly across from the judges. This meant that every float stopped directly in front of us, trying their best to impress the judges across the way, which was awesome. I couldn't get over how intricate and gigantic most of the floats and costumes were. My favorite one was probably the giant water slide. I was pretty jealous of the kids who got to continually go down the water slide during the duration of the parade, especially since it was stuffy and hot inside the stadium.

Even though the parade goes until 5 AM, we decided to head out around 3. We could tell the crowd was getting tired, and so were we. We made our way back to the subway and caught a surprisingly empty train home. Once we were back in the apartment and my head hit my pillow, I was out like a light. It was a quick one day stop back in Rio before heading to Paraty, but it was well worth it and definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

'Til next time.

- Bob

Days 10 through 16 - Petropolis in a Nutshell

Our original plans were to spend the first two weeks of the trip in Rio. The second week was when Carnival was going on, which meant the hostel (and every hostel, hotel, or other form of accomodations in town) jacked the price up by about 4x the standard rate and, on top of that, require that you stay a minimum of seven nights during the week of Carnival (so not even our prior stay at the hostel would count toward this). It didn't take us long to realize how much of a rip off that was, and just how overwhelming a week in Rio during Carnival would be. So instead, we cancelled our second week in Rio and headed about an hour north to Petropolis.

We found a very cool looking hostel online called The Samambaia, and decided we'd spend two nights there and maybe move on to one more town before heading back to Rio for the Sambadrome and a much smaller taste of Carnival one week later. After we arrived at the bus station in Petropolis, we started to look for a place to use the phone to call the hostel, as the owner had said he might be able to provide us with a ride from the station. We were a bit stressed, in a new place, still not understanding much of the language, and not having any success with the phone, when suddenly in pops a man holding a sign with our name on it. You should have seen the smile on Lauren's face when she said, "Hey! That's us!" Jean (pronounced the same as Jean Claude Van Dam), quickly greeted us and introduced himself as the owner of the hostel we were going to be staying at. He had received my last email regarding the bus we had been planning on taking and decided he would just shown up and hope that he'd find us. It was so nice that we didn't need to find a phone and figure out how to use it.

We loaded our backpacks into the back of his car and he said he would be right back. It turned out he had decided to go into the station and purchase some bug spray for us, just to make sure we'd have some during our stay (as it's a mountain town and rain season). We then began to make our way to the hostel. On the way, Jean told us a bit about the history of the city and showed us some of the major landmarks in the downtown area. The city's history all stems from when the royal family (Dom Pedro II) decided to move the seat of the government here during the summer months in the 19th century, to get away from the overpowering heat of Rio. The current Brazilian President still has a summer house here, so the city has never really stopped having a special importance to Brazil. Jean also made sure to show us the different bus stops that we would need to know if we were to come back into the downtown area from the hostel, which was really helpful.

When we arrived at the hostel, Jean let us know that instead of putting us in the 8-bed mixed dorm (similar to the hostel we had just come from), he put us in a private room, as it was vacant during our stay. This was an awesome surprise. Sharing a dorm room really isn't that bad, and you end up meeting and talking to a lot of people, but having a private room is especially nice because you can leave your stuff laying around and don't need to live out of your pack, and you have all of the wall outlets to yourself!

After we dropped our packs off in our room, Jean gave us a quick tour of the hostel. It definitely wasn't the typical hostel. It had a restaurant inside, an upstairs with a living room and a huge room that contained a giant bug collection, a small chapel located on a large second floor terrace, a big pool outside, a playground, a trampoline, a huge backyard, and a pond. After the tour, we unpacked our stuff and went into the restaurant and had an amazing lunch. We had salad, chicken, roast beef, potatoes, rice, and black beans. It was definitely one of the better meals I have had during our trip, especially because it had that home-cooked touch to it. After we filled up on food, we went upstairs to the common area and read/napped on the couches.

After our brief siesta, we took a quick walk around the hostel grounds. They had a lot of awesome animals around, including the ostriches, a bunch of geese, ducks, chickens, peacocks, bunnies, a toucan, and even a couple ponies.

We had a late lunch, so for dinner we made a bowl of stove top popcorn, and around 10:30 local time we went upstairs to watch some of the superbowl. We were joined by Jean and a friend of his, and awesomely enough, he wheeled out a cart with a bunch of different cheeses on it. He fed us different types of cheese throughout the game. We actually didn't stay until the end of the game because it was getting late and was still only the 3rd quarter due to the half hour power outage delay. I woke up in the morning and read that I missed one hell of a 4th quarter, but there was no way I would have been able to stay awake for the rest of the game, so I wasn't too upset about my decision to call it a night.

I won't recount every day, because they kind of ran together and were pretty similar, but we did end up extending our stay from two nights to seven nights, if that gives you a hint on whether or not we were enjoying ourselves. We spent a few of the sunnier days lounging by the pool, which was amazing. Lauren got through a few books and worked on her basic Portuguese (we have Rosetta Stone on the computer) and I did swimming workouts and listened to podcasts. It felt really good to just let all of the stress from back home melt away and feel like we were truly on "vacation."

We did decide one day to be a bit more active and ventured to the nearby National Park, Serra dos Orgaos. Lauren had read about a three day trek you can do in the park between Petropolis and a nearby town, Teresopolis. Although we didn't feel like we were quite ready for multi-day hiking, we thought it would be good to get into the mountains and see how we faired on a day trek. Again, Jean, the owner of the hostel, was way too nice and offered to drive us to the park. He was even the one that suggested that we try the Veu do Noiva route, a pretty easy trail around 3k each way. The main vantage point of the trek is looking out onto a 40 meter waterfall (the Veu do Noiva, or veil of the bride). Another couple, from Holland, decided to come along as well. The husband, Marc, works at the Dutch Consulate, I believe in the Democratic Rebublic of Congo. They had recently adopted a seven month old baby girl there and had taken time off to travel and spend some time as a family, visiting the mother's original homeland in Peru (she was adopted herself by a Dutch family as an infant). They were extremely active, as was evident by them bringing little Florence along on the hike and Ivon, the mom, hiking for three hours, over rocks and across streams, with her infant daughter strapped to her chest in a baby bjorn. It was quite impressive. Little Florence had seen more of the world and done more hiking than I had! The couple was also really nice and very intersting, so we enjoyed sharing the trek with them and appreciated feeling like we had someone knowledgable of hiking on the trails with us (even if it was a faily simple route).

There ended up being quite a few waterfalls to see and we were surrounded by mountains pretty much everywhere we looked. It was gorgeous and probably one of my favorite things that we've done so far. It felt great to make it to the top of the route and relax eating lunch while surrounded by nature. Although, to be completely honest, we didn't quite make it to the Veu do Noiva; we had to stop just before it, as one of the branches of the river you had to walk across was flooded and would have required a bit of a swim. Never-the-less, you'll see from the pictures that we didn't feel like we missed out on anything.

Other than lounging around and hiking, we also went into town a few days, walking four miles to get there the first time and then taking the bus every subsequent time. It was a pretty nice walk, but you can never be sure when it's going to rain, and of course it poured for a few minutes during our walk. Aside from the hiking and the walk into town, it was an extremely relaxing week. We didn't really get a chance to unwind in Rio, as there was so much to do and see, so we used our time in Petropolis to relax and take a vacation within a vacation. I'm really glad we did, because we won't have many opportunities in the next few months to lounge around. Most places we'll be going, we'll either be hiking or sight seeing or there simply won't be a good place to lay and read a book, so I'm glad we didn't try to guilt ourselves into doing more while we were there.

In a way, it was our first big sigh of relief in several weeks. We thought our last days of work would be when the stress would melt away. But then after that, we basically switched over into full-time preparation mode. So then, you think maybe once you get on the plane, that's when you'll have your moment of being able to relax. But of course, being on an airplane is hardly relaxing, especially when it's an eight hour flight. And then you get off the plane and you're greeted with signs you can't read and people you can't understand. And then you get to your hostel in Rio, but you're in a busy city in humid weather and you're trying to figure out how to get where you want to go and how you're going to see everything that you want to see. And then when we got to Petropolis, we had our own room, a beautiful pool, and no itinerary. We were finally on vacation, at least in the traditional sense. The whole week felt like one big sigh of relief.

It was an amazing experience, and I was very sad to leave. It was incredibly relaxing, and it's unlikely we'll be in a similar position on the rest of the trip. When I look back and think that we had originally planned on staying in Rio for seven more days at four times the cost, I am so happy that we changed our plans. It was the perfect week for 25% the cost of Rio. If not for the Sambadrome being on Sunday night, I'm not sure Lauren could have gotten me to leave there. Thankfully the Sambadrome was also amazing, but I'll save that for the next blog post.

'Til next time

- Bob

Last Days in Rio – Days Eight and Nine

After our late night at the beach concert on Friday, jamming out with the locals (or perhaps the better way to put it would be quizzically watching them jam out like it was the 90's and 'N Sync was performing; the best were the 40-something moms that seemed more excited than their teenage daughters), we decided to take our time Saturday morning as we got ready to go to see Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). Although I'm sure Uncle Chuck and my Grandma would appreciate it, I'm not referring to heading to church. Cristo is the most famous site in Rio, a statue that seems to protectively watch over the city from 2,300+ feet above. Sitting atop Corcovado Mountain, it can be seen from just about every part of the city (and you may have even noticed getting a glimpse of it, far off in the distance, in photos we've posted from our sight seeing thus far).

I had read that the lines for Trem de Corcovado (the train that goes from downtown, up the mountain, to Cristo) would be quite long in the afternoon, but that the train itself was part of the experience and couldn't be missed. We decided we would bring our Kindles along and not fret too much over whatever the wait period ended up being. We ended up leaving even later than we had planned, as The Lighthouse Hostel owner, Sylvia, was working that morning and we got drawn into conversation with her. She's a great person and we both truly enjoy her company. She's one of the most blunt people I've ever met and has quite the mouth on her (many an f-bomb have been dropped during our talks), but she's very kind-hearted and I can tell she cares deeply about the experience of her guests. She took the time to ask me if there was anything that could be changed about the hostel and I could tell that she really wanted a candid answer. She said that at times, people will come through the hostel and not say a single negative thing to her, only to post a scathing, awful review when they leave (she also shared some stories of some of the more obscene behaviors of our guests, but you can ask me about that offline). I assured her that I was truly enjoying my stay thus far and that the hostel had met, and even exceeded, my expectations.

She helped us figure out what buses were an option to take to the Trem de Corcovado and we were off. Unfortunately, we did spend some extra time walking down the main street in Ipanema, trying to figure out what bus stop we needed to be at to actually catch said buses. We only found the correct one when we happened to veer off the main street to double check a stop we saw not far away on one of the side streets. It was a very hot day and the bus was sticky and crowded. We were on it for about a half hour when I started to get nervous that it didn't seem that a lot of tourists were on board (and bus lines going to Trem de Corcovado should indeed be overflowing with gringos like ourselves). I made my way up the front of the bus, getting jostled around like a piece of popcorn, only to find out that we were indeed on the wrong bus. Sigh. Luckily, a kind old lady took me by the arm and indicated that I should follow her when she got off the bus. We grabbed our stuff and, after exiting, she showed us to a bus stop and told us what bus to wait for (as an aside, charades has indeed been a very big part of our trip). When the next bus arrived, I immediately heard English-speakers when I stepped on board, so I knew we were finally on our way.

We made it to the Trem de Corcovado train station (probably a bit over an hour and a half after we left our hostel) and found out that the next available train would depart in another two hours. Luckily, we were prepared, kindles in hand, and found a park directly across from the station where we could relax while we waited. After an overwhleming week of sightseeing in sweltering heat, it felt amazing to just lay down on a park bench in the shade and read for a few hours. I was really happy that we weren't like the other tourists that were freaking out as soon as they found out the wait time (do your research, silly gringos!).

When our trip time arrived, we got good seats on the left-hand side of the train (which I had read had better views during the ascent) and started to make our way up Corcovado. Every few minutes, the tree line would open up and you could got an amazing view of the surrounding forest (Tijuca National Park) and even Guanabara Bay below. It was gorgeous. There was also a stop or two along the way where local kids were jumping up to the windows to sell water and fruit. Good to see some ingenuity in the young Brazillians. The train ride probably took about 20 to 30 minutes in total and was worth the wait to experience the slow climb up the mountain and great views.

When we got off the train, we still had some steps before we finally made our way up to the statue. To be honest, after seeing it so many times from afar, I was surprised at how small it seemed up close. At 100 feet in height, it is by no means a small statue, but you almost expect it to be unrealistically tall. Although it was cool to finally see the statue up close, it was obvious that the experience is more about the surrounding views of the city. From the viewing ledge, you can make out just about every neighborhood in Rio and most of the major tourist sights. Although doing Cristo earlier in our stay would have helped orient us to the layout of the city, I think I enjoyed it more to try and find all the places we had seen and experienced over the past week.

Once we got back to the hostel and freshened up a bit, we finally went out for our first experience of Brazilian churrasco (bbq). I am so glad that we decided to splurge a little for one of our last nights in Rio. In fact, although the meal cost a bit more than our usual spaghetti or sandwiches made at the hostel, it was extremely reasonable for an all-you-can-eat barbecue dinner at about R$60 per person ($30 USD). After being seated, they quickly brought us bread, cheese, olives, and a topping equaivalent to bruschetta. We were also told that we could help ourselves to the salad buffet. When I saw all the buffet had to offer, I thought this would for sure be my favorite part of the meal (that is, until I tried the meat!). They had every type of salad imaginable: vegetables, pasta, fruit, dips, and even things like paella, a whole section of mediteranean options (couscous, hummus, tzatziki), and a huge variety of sushi. When we got back to our seats and started to dig into the salads, they immediately started bringing us different meats to try. They used a red-light, green-light card system; if the cards at your table were green, the waiters would stop to offer whatever meat option they had (and they often stopped even if you had the red card showing, trying to convince you that you had to try whatever they had to offer). We had roast beef, sausage, ham, pork, and a few other cuts of beef that were mouth-wateringly delicious. We did, however, pass on the chicken hearts! Even thinking about the dinner now still makes my mouth water a little bit. So good. On top of that (as if the amount of food wasn't already beyond enough), they brought out several side dishes without us even asking; french fries, onion rings, rice, and fried plantains. Easily the best meal we've had thus far and I'm sure it won't be beaten until we make it to an Argentinian steakhouse.

Full to the brim (although we may have left just enough room to stop as McD's for some ice cream cones :), we headed back to the hostel and began to pack up our belongings. We had decided to head to Petropolis on Sunday, a quiet town about an hour outside of Rio, known for its rich imperial history and surrounding mountains. I was a bit nervous about the hostel we found there, as it is a bit outside of the city and sounded almost too good to be true, but Bobby will be writing soon on how that turned out. The bus ride there was really interesting, as we got a different view of the outskirts of Rio (almost all favellas) and then got to experience the winding roads of the mountain-side. Each time the view opened up to show the never-ending mountains around us, I got more and more excited for our get-away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Can't wait to tell you all about Petropolis in our next post!

Ciao until next time,

Lauren

Days Six and Seven in Rio de Janeiro

 

On Thursday we were planning on going to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, but we ended up having a lazy day on the beach instead.  I did remember to put sun screen on my face and my arms, but I forgot to get my legs.  Unfortunately, they got very sun burnt, and are currently on fire.

After sitting (and dozing off a bit) on the beach, we came back home and just took it easy.  We made some more pasta for dinner (a reoccurring theme) and chatted with some of the other hostel goers.  There's a couple here from Australia and a guy here from Ireland, although he lives in London now. The couple from Australia is actually travelling until November, and the guy from Ireland is just wrapping up the final leg of a 5 month long travel.  I can't imagine travelling for 5 months alone, or travelling for nearly a full year. 

Anyway, last night was pretty low-key, except for an incident that happened around 3 AM.  We went to bed around midnight, and there were 3 people still up drinking in the kitchen.  At around 3, one of the guys in the dorm room started shouting that he needed to go get more vodka. He was up in the dorm room with 7 other people, so I just assumed he had gotten way too drunk.  I woke up the next morning to find out that they had all gone to bed at around 1.  We're not exactly sure what happened, but we think he might have been sleep walking.  Lauren said he kept getting up and unpacking and repacking his bag, laying back down, and then unpacking and repacking again.  Oh the joys of staying in a hostel!  Lauren was actually pretty scared because he seemed to be acting a bit crazy, and you really don't know what a drunk person that is acting crazy will do next.  Thankfully, he finally went to bed and that was that.  He was a really nice guy, and he left this morning, so at least we're sure that won't happen again tonight.

Since we didn't make it to Sugarloaf on Thursday, we figured we would take a crack at it on Friday.  After yet another hot ham and cheese sandwich (same thing I've had literally every day for breakfast so far, because it's provided by the hostel), we headed out at around 10:30.  We found out the night before that there are a couple of easy mountains to hike up right around Sugarloaf, so we decided to hike up one called Morro do Leme.  It was about a 20 minute hike, and was pretty easy.  The path was paved and covered nicely in shade.  We saw a few marmosets, which was awesome, and it was a perfect hike.  My legs were still a bit hot, but they weren't awful.  The mountain in the distance is Sugarloaf.

When we got to the top, I set my water bottle down in the shade.  It was very hot, and I was getting tired, so I figured I'd set it down in the shade to keep the water a bit cooler and give myself a nice rest.  Lauren and I sat for a while, taking in the amazing view, and when I went back to grab my water, it was gone. There weren't that many people at the top, and there wasn't anyone that looked "sketchy", but obviously somebody took it.  Not sure if they knew they were stealing it or just thought it was abandoned, but the end result was I was out of a water bottle.  I did love that water bottle, but it was a cheap lesson.  I have found myself getting a bit too comfortable in the past few days, such as leaving my phone out charging on the bed while going to grab a bite to eat.  But this was a cheap reminder that I need to be very careful with my stuff.  As the owner of our hostel told us, people don't wear signs on their heads that say "thief", so just because someone doesn't seem like they're not the type of person that will steal something doesn't mean they are.

Any how, after we hiked back down we were planning on going to Sugarloaf, but my legs were both tired and hot, and I was still kinda bummed about my water bottle.  So we headed back to the hostel to take a cold shower, do some laundry, and relax for a while. At around 5 we headed out with the couple from Australia and the guy from Ireland to see a concert on the beach in Copacobana.  We were told it started at 6, and that it was going to be very popular, so we figured we should get there a bit early.  We hopped on a bus, which was a fun experience. When you get on, there's a separate person that takes your money.  She had her own chair with a big drawer full of money to make change, and a big turn style thing in the middle of the aisle like when you walk into a stadium.  I couldn't believe that the bus required a driver and a separate cashier to operate.

When we arrived, there weren't that many people around so we grabbed a table outside one of the street "concession stands" and chatted for a few hours. At around 8:30 or so there was a pretty decent sized crowd gathering around the stage, so we figured we should head over there and check it out.  It was actually a pretty impressive stage for having been built on the beach specifically for this occassion, especially considering the show was free. 

We stayed for 3-4 songs, but music just isn't as fun when you can't understand any of the words.  It was actually a lot of fun, and the crowd absolutely loved it.  But we hadn't eaten dinner yet, and we weren't sure how much there would be between the opening act and the main guy, so we decided to head back.  After bussing it back to the hostel we reheated some left over pasta for dinner, and then made some stove top popcorn for dessert.  Tomorrow (probably a few weeks ago by the time I get around to actually posting this) we're planning on seeing Christ the Redeemer in the morning and then going to an all you can eat place for dinner.  Oh boy!

All in all it was a fun two days.  Didn't see quite as much as we had hoped to, but we're pretty happy with what we did see, and we don't want to kill ourselves running from sight to sight.  We're going to need to pace ourselves over the course of this trip, so if a lazy day on the beach is what we need to recharge, then so be it!

- Bob

Days Four and Five in Rio de Janeiro

1/31/2013 (Thursday Morning)

Another beautiful day in Rio. I'm sitting outside of the hostel right now, with the breeze blowing through my hair, enjoying the sounds of midday Rio. The little neighborhood cat just curled up in a little ball next to me, which is adorable and makes the day all that more charming. We are off to a late start today, but after a long day of walking yesterday, I feel like it's fair to let ourselves lay back and relax today.

I'll start off with a quick recap of Tuesday, as we have yet to write about it. It was a bit of a rainy day, but that was actually enjoyable. I think we both needed a lazy day and otherwise would have felt bad not doing one big activity. We started out shopping in the gallerias (little mini malls) of Ipanema, looking for a new t-shirt for Bobby. I don't think he mentioned this in his blog post, but he somehow managed to commit the following packing mistakes (and mistake might be putting it lightly): (1) forgot his contacts, (2) did not bring a swimsuit, (3) the only pair of sandals he brought give him awful blisters, and (4) he only brought ONE t-shirt. Luckily, we're not exactly in a third world city and we can pretty much fix all these issues without problem. The contacts may be the biggest obstacle, but as luck would have it, we are about the same prescription and I have both an extra pair of glasses (do you think pink frames would look good on him??) and extra contacts.

One thing about shopping is that you cannot avoid communicating with the Cariocas (locals) and my Portuguese isn't exactly up to par. Luckily, a few phrases will get you by when you are shopping: "Hola" (Hello. Duh.), "Quanto custa?"/"Quanto custa isto?" (How much?/How much is this?), "Sim"/"Nao" (Yes/No), and, the main one (which can't be said often enough as a gringo foreinger), "Abrogada!" (Thank you!). I've found that a smile and several "abrogadas" will get you by just fine around here. I've also been working on taking at least one Brazillian Portuguese lesson a day on Rosetta Stone which will probably start to really pay off just around the time we are leaving Brazil for Spanish speaking Argentina...

Needless to say, our shopping trip ended up being successful. We managed to find a Nike running t-shirt for R$50 ($25 USD); similar to what we would have paid in the states. That might not sound all that exciting, but clothes here tend to be really expensive (up to four times what they would cost in the states!). Electonics are even worse, which is why you have to be super careful with your phone and camera when you are out. As I'm told by one of the hostel workers, the thieves on the beach are like ninjas. She told us to be especially careful when we're making out (apparently PDA here must just be the norm).

After we found Bobby a new t-shirt, the drizzle became more of a steady rain, so we found cover under a cafe awning. We order an espresso duple and cervesa (double espresso and beer), along with pasteis (an assortment of turn-overs: hearts of palm, shrimp, and cheese) to munch on. After the rain let up, we headed for Ipanema beach and, although it was still overcast, it was still absolutely gorgeous with even more amazing waves. Overall, it was a perfect, lazy afternoon.

Yesterday was about the opposite of lazy. Although we did get a later start than we wanted (after showering, breakfast, and some last minute research on our destination we were out the door around 11am), from there we had a jam packed eight hour day. We took the Metra to Catete, a small, commerce-based neighborhood north of Copacopana, to check out the Museu da Republica (Museum of the Republic) which is located in the Palacio do Catete (Catete Palace). Built between 1858 and 1866, the Palace was the home to the President of Brazil from 1894 to 1960 and, sadly, is also well known as the location where Getulio Vargas (President of Brazil by dictatorship from 1930-1945 and democratically elected President from 1951-1954) comitted suicide. His bedroom on the third floor of the palace is kept exactly how it was the night that he killed himself (pretty creepy), leaving a suicide note that read "I choose this means to be with you [the Brazilian people] always... I gave you my life; now I offer my death." Aside from that morbid bit of the museum, the other rooms beautifully display artwork and furniture from the era; with ornate ceilings and chandeliers in almost every room. I can't really comment on how interesting the museum itself is, as there were only about two information cards in English in the whole place (which makes me question why they had any at all??), but overall it was a very nice place to walk around and hide from the sun. The surrounding gardens were also very pretty.

From there, we walked north a few blocks to Gloria, a neighborhood pretty similar in style to Catete. These neighborhoods flourished back in the 19th century, along with the other areas of downtown. After the tunnel was built through the mountainside to gain access to Copacobabana and the other more southern neighborhoods, the rich moved that way and these neighborhoods stopped receiving the same amount of attention; apart from some restoration projects here and there. When we got to Gloria, we were lost for a little bit, but I mustered up the courage to approach a man working in a parking lot and, in my broken Portuguese, asked how to get to the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Gloria de Outeiro (a colonial-era church). He ended up being really nice and directed us to walk around a nearby hill and mentioned something along the lines of "elevator." When we got to the other side, we were surprised to find a free lift that would take us to the top of the very steep hill looming over the neighborhood. When we got to the top, I was so glad that we had taken the time to find it. The views of the bay were absolutely gorgeous and the church itself was endearing. The church was built in 1739 and was a favorite of the Portuguese royal family when they arrive in the 1800's. It was interesting to imagine people from that long ago making the trek uphill (pretty sure they didn't have a lift then) to go to the pretty little church and enjoy the same beautiful views of the bay.

After Gloria, the plan was to head inland (west) uphill to Santa Teresa. I had written out walking directions, but the hostel worker that morning told us we were crazy to walk uphill and that we should walk to Lapa instead (over much flatter ground) and take a bus up. We figured, however, that if we're really going to do some of these longer treks during our stay in South America (like Machu Picchu), we damn well better be able to make it up a hill that people actually live on top of. We made our way up and, even with sun beating down on us full force, it really wasn't as bad as people had made it out to be. Although, I will say that by the time we had gotten to the top, we were both starving and ready to sit down for a long while.

We found one of the restaurants we had read about right away, Sobrenatural, a seafood restaurant that was well known and seemed to be heralded in most of the guide books. At first, we thought we'd look around some more to try to find Espirto Santa, an Amazonian restaurant known for its ecclectic menu, but after another 15 minutes of walking up steep hills and winding staircases, we decided that seafood would do just fine. If it wasn't for the overpriced menu, I think I would have been really happy with our choice. We shared fish moqueca, a stew-like dish that also came with rice and an additional shrimp sauce that was fantastic. The "stew" itself was divided with the fish filet still whole and the vegetables to the side, with the sauce/broth of the stew on its own. At first I was a bit hesitant of the sauce portion of the stew; to me it had the consistency of a chinese sauce with too much MSG used. However, when you mixed everything together: the fish, the vegetables, the sauce of the stew, the rice, and the shrimp sauce, it was actually quite tasty. All in all, it came out to R$160 ($80 USD) total, which isn't awful for a well known seafood place, but a bit much for lunch and more than a bit much for our measly $100 USD a day budget (and that is an all inclusive budget including lodging and transportation). It also, by far, wasn't the best seafood I've had. I guess it taught us a lesson to be better prepared on restaurant locations, especially because we ended up passing Espirito Santa about five minutes later on our walk to the next stop on our walking tour.

At this point, we were walking downhill; a welcome change. We came to a little turn appropriately called "Curvelo" and got to enjoy a great view of the bay far below the plaza. From there, we were headed to the Parque das Ruinas and Museu de Chacara do Ceu. There was a map in the plaza, so thinking I had the map all figured out, we made our way downhill for another 15 minutes before I realized we had chosen the wrong street. Whomp, whomp. So back uphill we went... Returning to Curvelo, we started out again, this time down the correct street (phew!) and made it to Parque das Ruines in about ten minutes. This was the Park of Ruins, a quaint, appropriately named park that was built on the ruins of an old mansion. The best part was that you could still (safely) climb to the top of the building and get the most stunning view of the bay that we had yet to see. Next door, we found Museu do Chacara de Ceu, a modern art musuem that was built as a home for rich and eclecltic Raymundo Castro Maya. He filled the home with Brazilian, European, and Asian works of art and then willed it all over to the state (thank you, Raymundo!). The in-home setting makes the museum that much more eclectic, with a few rooms still set with the furniture he owned, including a dining room that appears to be set for an ever-upcoming dinner party.

From the hill top park and museum, we made our way down the winding hillside streets of Santa Teresa and found ourselves accidentally at the Arcos da Lapa, a Roman-style aqueduct that seems to be randomly plopped into the middle of this neghborhood that is best known for its night clubs. I realized then that we were quite close to the Steps of Selaron, a work of art, of sorts, that our hostel owner had mentioned to us. Supposedly, the artist, Selaron, who had spent years and years covering the steps with tiles from all over the world, had recently been, quite unexpectedly, found dead on the steps of his masterpiece, with no trace of who could have committed the crime or why. This bit of gossip piqued my interest and, even though we were dog tired from the long day of walking, I really wanted to see what these steps were all about. I definitely did not expect the massive and elaborately decorated staircase that we found. I would guess there were 250+ steps, at least, about 15 feet wide, each of them covered in tiles that created an amazing work of art. Even the walls of the surrounding houses were tiled. What stuck with me was what we saw last, a group of tiles at the beginning of the staircase where Selaron had written the story of his work of art, explaining how he was constantly changing out the tiles to create a sort of living art. The last sentence: "I will only create this crazy original dream on the last day of my life!" left me with goosebumps, realizing that the artwork, at last, was complete.

Exhausted, we managed to shuffle our tired feet to the nearest Metra (luckily it wasn't too far and we guessed the right street to find it on) and made it back to the hostel as quickly as our legs could manage. Although we, of course, had time to stop for casquinas mixtas (twist ice cream cones) from our neighborhood McDonald's. A quick sidenote, the McD's in the states haven't had these for years and it's always been one of my biggest gripes and something I miss dearly from my childhood. Needless to say, I quickly learned the phrase to order them. :)

Ciao until next time.

Lauren