Rio Day Three Neiro

We woke up around 9 and, after a quick luke-warm shower (it's too hot to take hot showers here), grabbed some breakfast from the hostel. For the 2nd day in a row, I had a ham sandwich and a piece of fruit. As we were heading out, it started to drizzle, so we grabbed the rain coats that Joey graciously offered to lend us. When we arrived, I was surprised to find we were actually at a full-blown bike shop and not just a place that rents bikes. I didn't look around too much, but I did see a few bikes for R$4,000, which is about $2,000 USD. I'm not sure how much the average bike here costs, but I can't imagine too many people here plunking down $2k for a bike.

It took us about 15 minutes to communicate with the man in the store that we wanted to rent bikes for the day. After we requested one with a basket so we could carry our stuff, he made a call, and a few minutes later a man came around the corner walking a bike on each side of him. He handed us a small slip of paper that had the cost and what time the bikes needed to be back. They were R$80 for the day, but we only had 2 50's and a 20 on us, and he didn't have change, so he gave it to us for R$70.

Thankfully, everyone bikes on the sidwalk in Rio. I've always been afraid of biking in the streets of Chicago, and at least there they have dedicated bike lanes in the streets. Not sure I would be able to bring myself to ride my bike in the street here. But as luck would have it, I wouldn't need to.

We started off toward the Botanical Garden. It took about 20 minutes to get there from the bike shop, and was R$6 to get in. I'm not much into walking around looking at plants, but this place was pretty cool. There were a bunch of very cool trees and a few neat waterfalls as well. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.



We were starting to get hungry, so we hopped back on our bikes and headed to Parque Lage where we were hoping we could grab a bite to eat. Lucky for us, right as we walked up there was a little cafe that also served food. We got an amazing Italian sandwich and bruschetta, Lauren had a coffee, and I had a Coke Zero. I have yet to see a Diet Coke here; I'm pretty sure Coke Zero is basically their version of Diet Coke. After we ate, we were walking away when I glanced back and realized we were right up against the side of a mountain. Our table was literally right inside that arch in the middle:



I almost felt like I was looking at a scene from a movie. It was just so incredible, it was hard to me to realize that it was actually right there in front of me.

We had planned on heading back to get in a bit more biking before they needed to be returned, but figured we should walk around a bit since we were there. Sadly our camera died shortly into walking around, but it was amazing. There were so many gigantic trees and awesome waterfalls. I actually thought it was better than the Botanical Garden. Sadly, the pictures don't do it justice because the camera died before we really got into the good stuff.



We decided to hop back on our bikes and get in a quick lap around the lake. On our way, we finally stopped and bought a coconut from one of the street vendors. As someone who loves coconut, I was very excited to try coconut water, but it was actually disappointing. It pretty must tasted like water with a hint of soap. I can't really figure out why it's so popular here. I also can't figure out why it tasted nothing like coconut. Might just be one of life's great mysteries.

After we kinda enjoyed our coconut water, we headed back to the bike shop. I have no clue how, but Lauren knew more or less right where to go. I have trouble getting around Lansing without getting turned around, so I have no idea how she knew which way we needed to go. Right as we got there, it started to rain, so we were finally able to put our rain coats to good use. We walked back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit. Lauren then went to the grocery store and got stuff to make pasta. We had peanuts and brazil nuts for an appetizer, and then pasta and bruschetta for the main course. It was a delicious meal on the cheap.

After that we stayed in the rest of the night. It was a long day of walking and biking, so it was nice to call it an early night and get some much needed rest.

And that was our day. Definitely the most active and my favorite day so far!

- Bob

Day Two in Rio de Janeiro

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely great. Any jet lag I had from a crazy few days of travel had fully subsided and I was really excited to be here, just beginning our adventure. We slept in a bit, which I'm sure helped with feeling so great. After breakfast (provided free from the hostel - bread, ham, cheese, and fruit) and taking our time getting ready, it was about noon and we were ready to set out for the day.

We spent most of the afternoon walking around Lagoa (official Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, but I honestly had to look that up because everyone just refers to it simply as "Lagoa"). The salt water lagoon (which looks like a normal lake) is about 7.5km or 4.6 miles in circumference, so it made for great exercise for the afternoon. It was packed with families, runners, bikers, old people, and young (and, again, tons of dogs!). It made for great people watching.

One of the things that we've noticed about Rio is that everyone seems to be extremely active and the government seems to support this athleticism. Along the beach yesterday, there were several metal structures that acted as a place to stop and work out or stretch (with parts made specifically for pull ups, chin ups, etc). Today, on the lake, there was actually a playground that was built to mirror a fitness facility. Both young and old were stopping in their walks to utilize the various recreational structures.



One of the most popular things for locals (aka Cariocas) and tourists alike is to chill out and drink Coco Water straight from the coconut shell. We haven't tried it yet, but it is definitely on our to do list. We must have passed 20-30 different stands today.

We failed in terms of directions. We were going to check out the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Garden) and Parque Lage (a park where Snoop apparently filmed one of his music videos), but somehow totally missed both of them, even though they were only a block off of the lagoon. Our plan for tomorrow is to rent bikes and go back and take our time hanging out at both.

After making it around the lagoon, we swung by the grocery store and grabbed a simple lunch (bread, ham, salami, mozarella, and chips) and came back to the hostel to eat and relax. It was probably about 4pm by the time we went back out and we decided to check out the Hippie Market and see what the beach was like in the afternoon.

The Hippie Market is located in the plaza about a block away from us on Sundays only. The craftmenship at the various booths was very impressive. I think I'm used vendors in Chicago trying to sell knock-offs and junk to tourists; this really showed off some great artisanship. It made me wish I had a larger pack or stronger back so that I'd be able to bring home some of the treasures you could find there - a bit of everything including jewelery, clothing, furniture, sculptures, and paintings.



From there, it was back to Ipanema Beach. I don't know it it was because of the rainstorm last night or if it was normal, but the waves were absolutely insane. Hardly anyone was swimming, it was so crazy. There were a few brave, lone surfers seeing if they could manage to stay afloat - they honestly made me think I was going to witness my first drowning.



Some other cool sights from the beach included hands-free volleyball and a crazy amount of food vendors (coco water - of course, hot dogs, corn, popcorn, churros, and plenty of beer straight from coolers that people were carrying). We walked all the way down to Copacobana, but at that point we were pretty exhausted and decided to head back toward the hostel before we saw too much of it.

We found an awesome restaurant on our way back and feasted on feijao (bean soup), pastel de camarao (shrimp empanadas), and a carne asada sandwich that was to die for. The steak sandwich was about four (thick) layers deep and had some awesome sausage literally cooked into the middle of it, plus some scrumptious melted cheese topping it off. Great dinner after a long day.

Full with a great meal in our bellies, we've made it back to the hostel for another low key evening. Looking forward to renting bikes early tomorrow morning and heading back to Lagoa to actually find these elusive gardens and park.

Talk to you all soon!

- Lauren

First day in Rio de Janiero

And so our South American adventure begins... We arrived in Rio de Janeiro this morning at about 5am. The flight went fine, but it was an old airplane and some tv screens on the seat backs would have been much appreciated. Honestly, after so much anticipation and a crazy sleep schedule the last few days, it made it pretty difficult to sleep on the plane regardless. The nice part about getting in so early was that the queues in customs were literally non-existant. It took all of about five minutes to get our passports stamped and make it completely through customs. When we got outside, we of course had the initial feeling of "Crap, we have no clue what we're doing...", but it turned out the random man that approached us was genuinely trying to help us and quickly pointed us in the direction of the bus we needed to take downtown.

The bus ride itself was oddly exciting. I have looked at so many pictures of Rio over the past few months and I was anticipating that there could be something I recognized around any turn. Speaking of turns, the bus drivers here are a bit crazy! My stuff was getting thrown around and I definitely noticed a few red lights were run along the trip. Although, we later found out that it is legal for cars to run red lights after 10pm! Good tip to know and totally explains why the #2 cause of death for tourists is getting hit by a car! The other thing that was really interesting about the bus ride was that we got our first view of the favellas. I mean, I have seen pictures of them before, but I don't think anything can prepare you for the sight of them. In addition to these shanty houses being stacked one on top of the other (which you expect), there were often whole sides of the houses that were missing a wall all together!

We probably made it to our hostel, Lighthouse, at around 7am. The night time security guard barely spoke English, but was able to communicate that the staff would be back at 9am and that we were welcome to leave our packs behind while we busied ourselves over the next two hours. Trusting people when you travel is always an interesting balance of risk vs. reward and a lot of times is the result of a gut feeling, but the thought of hauling around 30 lbs on our backs in a city we barely knew definitely made our guts much more inclined to believe the hostellers were amongst the most trustworthy people we could come across.

After finding a corner to unload our bags, we made our way to Ipanema Beach. What a gorgeous view. I mean, there was definitely some trash that had washed up overnight and, I won't lie, I almost immediately saw a cockroach (luckily that's the only one I've seen thus far and I think was a bit of a fluke), but the view... Amazing. We walked down to Arpoador - a little rocky bit of land that juts out into the ocean - and got to do some fun early morning people watching. A group of twenty-somethings showing off their rhythm on plastic garbage drums, an old man doing Tai Chi that looked like he'd done a bit too many drugs in his time, a portly older man getting ready to surf that you'd never believe could even make it as far as standing up, the most ridiculous hardcore makeout session right in the middle of the public area (and they were older than us!), and even what seemed to be a pretty legit photo shoot of a model on a motorcycle. Oh, and of course, a ton of awesome dogs that probably appreciated the beach, waves, and general surroundings more than we ever could (made us wish little Catherine was at our side).

After stopping at a grocer to grab some breakfast basics (bread, salami, mini croissants), we made our way back to the hostel and hung out until our room was ready. The owner, Sylvia, took the time to sit down and go over all the highlights of the city with us. We definitely have our work cut out for us to make sure we get to experience a little bit of everything over the next two weeks. The hostel itself was pretty much what I expected - a decent community area (where I currently sit blogging), an open kitchen where we can cook for ourselves and will be key to keeping our budget down, normal dormer of 4 bunk beds (8 beds total), and two tiny, tiny little bathrooms. I'll tell you though, as long as the staff continues to be as helpful as they've been so far, I don't think we'd switch it out for a private hotel room.

After napping and catching up on some much needed sleep, we checked out the nearby block party and grabbed a bite to eat. The block party was a bit of a misnomer; the main street along the beach looked packed to the brim and the party continued about three blocks back off the main beach strip. If this is almost a full two weeks before Carnival, I really can't imagine what it's going to be like when the true Carnival block parties start up. For dinner we kept it cheap and simple - pastel de carne (basically a deep fried beef turn-over) and something similar to Caldo de Faijao (bean soup) that ended up being more of a side dish with beans, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and cornmeal. Yum! We both thought it hit the spot.

A sudden downpour brought us back to the hostel and, so, here I sit. Looking forward to calling it an early night (maybe after a quick search for an ice cream cone!) and more fully exploring the city tomorrow.

Ciao for now!

- Lauren