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