Boa Viagem

7/18/14

Friday was our last day in Brazil but we wouldn’t be flying out until 1am that night, so we booked a favela tour for the morning and a hotel room for the afternoon. The favela (shanty town/urban slum) tour took us to Rocinha, which is the country’s largest favela (an estimated population of anywhere between 100,000-200,000 people) and had recently undergone military pacification (i.e. the drug lords were kicked out and the place is patrolled 24/7 by police now) in anticipation of the World Cup and upcoming Olympics. We learned that the term favela actually comes from the late 19^th century following emancipation. When Brazil freed its slaves, it gave them no education or government assistance. So, with no money and nowhere to go, this poor population went to live at the top of the hills, where they could find space to build a house. The word favela is just the name of a plant that used to grow in the hills. 

Today, people who live in the favelas prefer the term “community.” The government still does not offer much in the way of education (public school is only 4 hours a day and only covers the basics) or public services (residents and businesses pay little to no taxes because they don’t receive anything in return), so the community is more or less self-sufficient. People own their own homes and will sell off the “top” (the roof) to someone else who wants to build a home. This continues and the tiny buildings continue to be added onto and the area grows into a vertical maze. [Nick: This arrangement seemed incredible to me. If you sell the right to the construction above your house, then the next person can sell the rights above their house, and so on indefinitely; the original owners at the bottom do not have a say. There are some houses that were 6 or more stories high, but how do they know the bottom house can take all that weight? They are just lucky they live in a country without earthquakes.] They have all the same stores and businesses as any other town (electrical wires are spliced in all directions, as electricity and internet are stolen from the wealthier neighborhoods next door), just not as fancy of buildings and products are cheaper (since they don’t pay taxes on them). The people who live in Rocinha may not have much but the favela affords them the choicest real estate – since the city is wedged in between rocky cliffs, the favelas are built high up on the hills, overlooking Rio and sloping down to a secluded beach. If you haven’t seen it, you should definitely rent the movie “City of God;” it’s not specifically about Rocinha but it’s a striking and beautifully shot film about life in a Brazilian favela, pre-pacification. It’s not to be missed. [Nick: I actually thought Rocinha was surprisingly nice. The main streets were filled with businesses, lots of people, and economic activity. In comparison with many places in SE Asia, Africa or India (OK almost any place in India), the favela was very clean. They obviously had the terrible wiring that comes from ad-hoc construction, but it was nowhere near as bad as in Saigon. I guess that just shows how the Americas are pretty economically advanced compared to much of Asia and Africa.]

After the favela tour, the rest of the day was pretty lax. Nick had the bright idea of renting a hotel room for the day so that we could at least wash up and relax, with a place to keep our bags before our red eye in the middle of the night. It was the right thing to do. We were so wasted from being sick and a little harried from constantly being on the go, we needed a place to nap and just hang out rather than wandering around the city with our luggage, waiting to go home. [Nick: And I got to work out at the hotel gym on the top floor of the hotel with a beautiful view of Pão de Açúcar mountain. That hour or so on the treadmill was the only exercise I did in 6 weeks!]

And home is looking really good right now. We truly enjoyed our trip to Brazil and all the excitement of the World Cup (best World Cup in history!), but six weeks away from home is a long time and we’re both looking forward to our own bed, our favorite restaurants, getting back to the gym (eating heavy meals and sitting in front of a tv 4+ hours a day is no way to live a normal life!), and seeing our friends and family. Would we do an entire World Cup trip again? Probably not (certainly not to Russia or Qatar) but I would definitely go to a few games, especially in the early stages when everything is still exciting and anticipatory of how all the teams will qualify. We couldn’t have done the trip without our friends Fe and Filipe – they welcomed us into their home, included us in their family, helped us navigate this amazing country, and made the trip that much better for us. I think Nick certainly found a kindred soccer spirit in Filipe ;o) The best part of it all was Costa Rica – we never would have dreamed they would do so well and we were there to participate in all of it!! It was awesome; a true jogo bonito. :o)

[Nick: Brazil was an amazing country and a great host. They really pulled off the World Cup very well. Even though the media is going to be filled with doomsday scenarios for Rio’s 2016 Olympics, I think this shows they can totally do it. I definitely want to return but next time I want to do more eco-tourism (a few years back we went to Iguazu Falls; definitely one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen; you should go) and see the Amazon and maybe some beaches that are not right in the city. Fe, Filipe, Camila and Isabela along with the rest of their family really helped us learn more about Brazil, its people and way of life; we got along so well and had a lot of laughs. I wish they lived next door (well there are a lot of people I love and wish they all lived next door). I agree with Cat that as far as going to other World Cups, I think “been there done that”. I don’t think that there is much in Qatar to see and, while I would like to visit some of Russia, definitely a World Cup would not be the time. However, if the World Cup is in the U.S., Mexico or maybe Europe I would go. However, I will not get tickets again that depend on the results of the early games (well maybe in the U.S.). I realize that I dodged a bullet with Costa Rica qualifying first in their group so I did not have to change any reservations; that would have been hell trying to make last minute plans. Overall, it was a great experience in the greatest soccer country, visiting all new areas we had never seen, Costa Rica being the darling of the tournament (8^th best in the world!), and getting to share it with amazing friends and their family; truly an irreproducible, once-in-a-lifetime experience to cherish forever.]

Casi, Casi

7/17/14

We didn’t want to leave Rio without spending a little bit more time at the beach. Sigh – if only we had longer, I would have loved to spend an entire day or two relaxing on the beach after the whirlwind that this trip has been. But alas, we just had one morning to make the most of it, so we strolled along Ipanema and Leblon beaches for a few hours. It was a gorgeous day and the white sandy beaches were picture perfect against a background or crashing waves and tan bodies (good lord, the amount of butt cheek on display was staggering). If only Southern CA beaches were this warm and inviting! [Nick: But both need nice Costa Rican water, which is much warmer. I only wish I could make L.A.’s water warmer.]

Bikini vendor

Sarong vendor

Favela near the beach

Leblon Beach

Leblon Beach to the left

Leblon Beach to the right

We grabbed a cab to take us to the base of Christ the Redeemer (and got a nice drive around the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas), where my French, of all things in Brazil, came in handy to get us on the tram up to the top of Corcovado Mountain. I have to say, Christ the Redeemer looks A LOT smaller in person. Granted pictures taken from helicopters have the perspective to make the statue (98 ft high) look large and looming over the expansive city, but still; I pictured it to be much larger in my head. The views were spectacular though. Seeing Rio sprawled out from high above during the daytime was really beautiful, with the beaches and the mountains spread all around you. The only bad thing was this horrible sinus infection – at a mere 2300 ft in elevation, the sinus pressure was really intense and, unfortunately, impossible to equalize my ears. Ugh, I had being sick!

Corcovado Tram

Pão de Açúcar & Botafogo Beach

Rio Centro

Pão de Açúcar & Copacabana Beach

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas

Maracanã Stadium

Corcovado (meaning hunchback) is part of the Tijuca National Park; a secondary forest (originally cut down for coffee and sugarcane) that was restored in the late 19^th century and all that remains of the Atlantic rainforest in this area (46 sq. miles). Sadly, I would only get to see a small sliver of it from the top of the Christ. This definitely isn’t our normal type of vacation where we go tramping through nature and seeing wildlife. (The World Cup is more of an urban jungle trip, I suppose.) And sadly, even though we are in Brazil – home to the world’s largest rainforest – we didn’t have a chance to see any of it. Boo. Oh well, another trip, another time. We were treated, however, to a bit of wildlife (we have seen lots of caracara in the cities, which was really cool!) as we waited for the tram and a capuchin monkey spent a good 10 minutes checking out the pale, hairless primates taking pictures down below. Unfortunately, several people with GoPro’s on extender arms (which, along with mohawks, seems to be THE accessory at this year’s World Cup) would shove their camera too close to the animal and frighten it. Stupid people.

Our second to last night was probably our splashiest night. We figured we only had a little time left in Brazil, so why not. We decided to splurge and go to a churrascaria for dinner, followed by a samba show. The dancing was more than just samba, though; the show included a review of bossa nova and an amazing capoeira performance. As expected, the costumes were outrageous – beyond Vegas with much less fabric and more sequence, if that’s even possible! – with a big carnival finish (we finished the day with even more butt cheek on display but this time, it was doing all kinds of fancy things up on stage!). It was well worth it except for the very awkward intermission where they had an emcee bring people up on stage to sing songs from their home countries. One American couple and a Peruvian man had had way too much liquid courage and it was difficult for the emcee to get his mic back.

Up and At ‘Em

7/16/14

We only have three more days left in Rio de Janeiro and, sick or not, we don’t want to waste them. So it was time to rally and squeeze as much sightseeing in as we possible could before Saturday. We took a free walking tour around the Centro, one of the oldest parts of the city comingled with the newer financial district. Our tour guide was a very nice man but it was his first time giving a tour in English and it was hard for both parties to understand each other. [Nick: There was a German couple with us on the tour. At one point, they asked if we could understand much of what the guide said. It was hard for us to understand him but I can only imagine what it was like for them, as they had good but not fluent English.] He did an okay job though and we got to see a lot. We passed by the Municipal Theater (modeled after the Paris Opera House, of course); walked up and down the Escadaria Selaron (a Gaudi-esque tiled staircase designed from miscellaneous scrap and donated tiles); visited Igreja Sao Francisco da Penitencia (another gold-laden church) in stark contrast to the Municipal Cathedral (a Chichén Itzá-like concrete pyramid, voted ugliest building in the city); strolled under the Arcos da Lapa (an 18^th century aqueduct), grabbed a snack at Confeitaria Colombo (a time-capsule of an 19^th century bistro that was the first restaurant in Rio to have running lights or Coca-Cola – I’d have to look up which one came first); witnessed two traffic accidents (which was odd since Rio is has significantly less traffic than other places we’ve been); and visited the surprisingly unornate Paço Imperial (the last residence of the Portuguese crown between the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and the site where Princess Isabela abolished slavery in 1888).

Municipal Theater

City Hall

Cat & Nick at Arcos da Lapa with the Municipal Cathedral in the background

Municipal Cathedral 

Confeitaria Colombo

Igreja Sao Francisco da Penitencia

Escadaria Selaron

Escadaria Selaron

Escadaria Selaron

Paço Imperial

But we weren’t done there. After a break, we briefly visited the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, which wasn’t very interesting except for a few copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, on the other hand, had a seriously fantastic modern art exhibit. There was also an extensive Salvador Dali exhibit that was well worth the visit. [Nick: This was another amazing exhibit that was free to the public. It is great to see these exhibits accessible to all Brazilians. The Dali exhibit was more extensive than the one we saw in L.A. a few years earlier that had cost something like $40 a person.]  All in all, not a bad day of sightseeing for people who were immobile 24 hours earlier.

Dali Exhibit

Ever since the world trip, Nick has said he doesn’t think there’s any better place than the U.S. for food simply due to the fact that you can get a variety of almost anything, almost anywhere. And I’m starting to agree with him. The fact that we were roaming around the streets and stumbled upon a mostly empty Arab restaurant between row after row of bars, was a very welcomed sight. I have never been so excited for lentils and hummus! [Nick: The U.S. does have the best food in the world. Or at least large cosmopolitan cities like L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, D.C., N.Y., etc. First, there is cuisine from around the world, which is pretty authentic. Mexican food in L.A. or Chicago is a lot more like Mexican food in Mexico than is Mexican food in Argentina, Cambodia or Brazil. The Vietnamese food in L.A. is exactly as good and authentic as the best Vietnamese cuisine we had in Saigon (though in Saigon there are even more dishes to choose from). However, what I got when I ordered pizza in Vietnam would be unrecognizable in Italy. Second, the quality of ingredients is really high in the U.S. Though, I think this is a recent thing even in the U.S., as people have become much more conscientious about their health and competition is so high; people eat out so much that quality has become a huge deal in U.S. food.]

Even the mannequins have that Brazilian look