When My Baby Smiles at Me...
What an assault on the senses Rio de Janeiro is!
This must be one of the most beautiful looking cities in the world (and yet still the work-hour commuters heading home do not smile!).
I can only imagine what the bay and islands looked like to the first sailors to arrive here. They must have thought they'd found a verdant paradise. I got a great view of it this morning as I went to the Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain) which offers 360 degree views of the harbour, city, and ocean.
These days there is far more city than jungle, spanning from downtown and the old city around Praça XV (which I loved) to the long white beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. But not all of the jungle is gone. There is also an opportunity on Sugarloaf to explore some of the steep lush walks on the summit, which provide quite a relief from the relenting sun (31 and blue skies today), and a chance to spy the ever so cute and agile Marmosets (a little monkey the size of a squirrel - with a long tail, who predictably steal food from people's bags).
Of course for the modern traveller, it is not so much the sight as the smell of Rio that first assaults the senses! Which is not surprising given how many people (11.5 million in the central city area) are crammed into the little bit of flat spaces (Copacabana has the most dense rate, apparently). And the mountains haven't prevented the growth of the Favelas (shanty towns) along their slopes. My hotel room looks out over probably one of the less shanty ones (I'm guessing the people that service all the hotels might be based in these), as the houses look simple but solid, and it has its own funicular. Tourists are advised to only enter with a guided tour that donates money back into the Favela (and obviously with a guide that is known to them). I am content to see it from my window, and it does provide some pretty lights at night.
And in terms of touch, I have the sorest of feet from pounding the marble mosaic pavements. I've not been to Portugal, but this is my third former Portuguese colony to visit, so I think I have a good idea of where the black and white patterns are sourced from! They must be very slippery when wet...
I have read much about the Brazilian's love of music and dance, but other than one rather enthusiastic taxi driver and his radio, I haven't experienced this aspect of Rio yet. I am really feeling the loss of being able to communicate - as bad as my Spanish was, I can't say I found a single Chilean taxi driver who wasn't happy to chat and ask questions and answer mine (remember I did that airport run 4 times!). I am mute, misunderstood and frustrated without any Portuguese. I managed to find a couple of young people to help me navigate my way through the Metro to get home (my station (Ipanema) was closed for renovations but there was a free replacement bus from two stations before - I nearly stayed on the train and would have been stranded!).
My tour starts on Saturday and will take in Corcovado (where Christ the Redeemor statue overlooks all), so I have been entertaining myself with other things. After Sugarloaf, I decided to go and look at the Museums in town. I have what I now discover is an old guide book - as it recommended that a good place for a cheap city lunch when seeing the Museum of Fine Arts, is the cafe across the road in the Municipal Theatre. The cafe it seems has been closed for a while, but the Theatre does tours. I signed up for the 2pm one (then again through miscommunication hung around waiting as I thought I had to be there at 1.30pm when I could have gone and got some lunch!). But the tour was worth the delayed lunch. The theatre is spectacular. Built by 1908 "in the French style" it is the most lavish thing I have seen (many European theatres of this calibre have been lost through two world wars). And this one was almost lost too - being magnificently restored, gold leaf and all, only four or five years ago.
I may as well have been in the museum for all the art it contained. Murals, stained glass windows, mosaic floors, sculptures. Magnificent! And I saw where the cafe was - on the ground floor, and done in a Mesopotamian style - but they now have years of cleaning the grease off the tiled walls from the cafe. Guess I can't begrudge them closing it, after all... My only regret was to not think to ask to use the bathroom while there, just to see if it was as beautifully designed.
After the tour I grabbed a takeaway ham and cheese pastry (the staple of South America), then doubly regretting not using the theatre bathroom, stopped for an espresso (and then to use their facilities) at a rather Parisienne looking cafe on cobble stones, under a yellow awning and overlooking the square with the theatre, museum, and national library. I had abandoned my Museum plans - for some reason there was now an entry queue that went around the block (I'm quite sure I didn't see one when I arrived...)
So, I continued down to the old port area of town (it took me a while to work out why everyone was walking in the same direction - ferry connection from the buses and metro!) and Praça XV. As if it was trying to make up for missing out on the museum, I came across an amazing art installment in the old bank (which I think is an art space now). See the picture gallery for this and other things mentioned in this post.
The whole area here is riddled with cobbled laneways and lovely grill work or shuttered windows. Of course since its renovation it is quite touristy with the predictably expensive restaurants filling the narrow streets with their tables. I have so many more photos - but I might try and upload them to Picasa and then direct you all there. I have only picked those that accompany my story on this blog. One last thing I have noticed - there are a few sites where someone is demonstrating or on strike here. I think the photo I captured is the teacher's strike. They have certainly picked a stately building for their protest (I would hope it is the Ministry of Education?).
I am now completing this blog at breakfast as I was too tired after walking so many kilometres yesterday. Today I will take it easy and explore the beachfront. I hope to post a few pics of Copacabana life tonight or tomorrow. Oh - and to locate me - my hotel is in the middle of the left-most point in this blog entry's picture. The long stretch of sand to the left is Copacabana, hidden behind the point is Ipanema. My hotel is conveniently in the little peninsula between the two!
Cheers for now from beautiful Brazil! xxx
