DAY 206
We were told it was way too late to buy the precious new year night metro ticket but that was not true. The subway works all night long during New Year's eve but you need a special ticket from midnight to 5am. Or you have to wait until 5am to hop on the regular subway. We're too old to stay up until 5am so we buy the ticket ;)
We arrive at the beach around 7, there's already a decent amount of people but it'll get worse quickly. 7-8 cruise ships are anchored right in front of the beach. They'll be looking at the fireworks from "behind". Everyone is trying to preserve his space by building a little fence of sand around it but as it get close to midnight, it becomes useless. It's just too crowded. We prepared a very healthy meal for New Year's Eve: a salad! Ok with potato chips and sausages ;)
There are concerts going on on the beach too but we chose not to be too close to them. We seem to be in the family area. We thought it was already crowded but 10-15 min before midnight it gets so much worse... The city has 450 years and the fireworks in this honor are impressive, and last forever.
One local tradition is to make offering to the very vain Goddess of the Sea, Yemoja. It'll be flowers for us, she likes them ;) Then we jump over 7 waves for good luck. Everyone around us is doing the same. There are even people swimming in the water! Leaving around 2pm, the beach is still Very decently crowded. The ride back home is easy with our magic tickets!
DAY 207
Happy new Year!
DAY 208
First moving in Rio today. It's a short taxi ride away so no big deal. I've had issues with my tablet for a few weeks and finally there's a Microsoft store not too far away. It's in a big mall a bit outside the city so we head there. The outside of Rio are much better than what we saw so far in Chile, Bolivia and Peru where it was a bit scary. The Microsoft store however is small and does not even sell tablets like mine so they are of no help :/ The problem I have is with the keyboard, it does not recognize it anymore and I tried everything I could. I can still use it without so it's not blocking, just annoying.
One of the things to try in this country is to go to churrascaria. It's an "all you can eat" meat restaurant. There's a strategy obviously to "maximize" the experience. First, mostly ignore the buffet. Then when they go around with the different meats, save yourselves for the best pieces. We don't follow exactly the strategy (we tried some sausages and chicken) but have our share of meat for easily a week ;) Out last piece was a ridiculously good piece of red meat, yummy!
DAY 209
Next to our new home, we have two shops that will change our lives. A Guerin bakery and the officina del gelato. That means good bread for our morning "tostada de tomate" and delicious ice creams whenever we feel like. And it's hot in Rio in January so we feel like it quite often ;)
We were not very efficient again today and arrive on the late side to the botanical garden. There's a long line and we almost turn around. To our surprise it closes 1 hour later than what the website says so it was the rightdecision to stay. We walk about for quite some time, snapping pictures of all the beautiful plants they have, cactus, millions of orchids, bamboos, lichens, medicinal plants. Sadly they end up kicking us out and after a walk along Ipanema, we stop at a bar for yet another well deserved caipirinha.
DAY 210
Back to visiting churches. I'm reading "the name of the rose" right now and the story takes place in a Benedict monastery just like São Bento, the one we're about to visit. As expected it's very richly decorated but it works better than in other ones we saw though where it's just too much. There are only 3 monks left there.
Next up is Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo. It's a former cathedral (I didn't know they could get demoted!) with a rococo interior. It's the only one who saw the coronation of kings and emperors (Portugal and Brazil) in the new world. It's small. And next door is the parish of the same name with the exact same style. It's narrow as well but just not as high... Strange.
Next door is the Imperial palace. It has some basic history of Brazil but the expositions are sadly not opened. Though we learn that the French (them again!) tried to mess up with Brazil with its corsairs in the XVIII century. To stay consistent with today's theme, we then head to Church San Francisco/Convent San Antonio. It has the weirdest entrance ever. It's on a hill and we wonder how to get there. Eventually we find a tunnel leading to an elevator. A few minutes later here we are... First time I enter a church that way for sure. To be fair, there's a path going uphill but it's closed. Franciscans are the other ones involved in the "name of the rose" so I even stay consistent with my reading ;) They are the opposite of Benedicts, living in poverty. The church has seen better days clearly, the altar and the heart are decorated but the rest is very simple. Once again two churches are side by side (odd) San Antonio and San Francisco. The 2nd one is closed but we're told it's nicer which should not be complicated.
We saved the sugar loaf for sunset but when we arrive there, there's a 1h+ wait time... We pass, we have many days left in Rio not to have to wait in line that long ;) We checkout the beach next to it but it's dirty and very meh. The only plus is the view of the meat loaf from it. On our way back home we pass by the sugar loaf cable car and surprisingly the line is mostly gone. It's down to 30min they say so we decide to give it a try. Bad idea... 1h to get to the first hill and then another endless line to get us to the sugar loaf. 1h40 later, here we are... It's a bit Disneyland up here but the views are amazing. Rio at night where the different neighborhoods are clearly divided by all the hills is magical. We enjoy the whole 45min of it then we have to go back down and wait in line some more. The visit took us 3h20, a bit ridiculous... We'll remember it definitely. Thankfully we catch a cab right away.
DAY 211
Another unmissable, while in Rio, is the Corcovado. We saw it yesterday from the sugar loaf but even with my decent zoom it was a bit too far away...
Thanks to Internet vouchers we have none of yesterday's craziness. We pick up our tickets at the booth after a few minutes in line and are left waiting for our 10:40 train stress-free. Much better! The train goes slowly uphill through the jungle... sound familiar? Madagascar, yes. Except this one lasts only 20 minutes and it's more than enough ;) Unsurprisingly it's a shit show up there with everyone jockeying for position to take the essential selfies but the views are great if you can find in yourself to ignore the throng around you. To help achieve that, you have birds and even a bird-man (with a delta wing) out there, flying. We still spend 2 hours up there... I can't explain how we did this without throwing anyone off the cliff.
After that, following Melly's advice, we head to Santa Teresa. It's a neighborhood that literally sits on a hill. It even has steeper streets than San Francisco; hard to believe! It's a cute bohemian neighborhood with old houses and fancy restaurants. One house, in the parque de la ruinas, has been transformed into a very groomed ruin, prime playground for photographers. The house used to belong to a Brazilian heiress and was a meeting point for artists and intellectuals until the end of the 40s. To exit the neighborhood, we use the escadaria Selaron, a steep stairway with tiles all over the place; On the walls, on the stairs. It's a very touristy spot too, especially at the bottom. II suspect it's the only part of Santa Teresa that the majority of the tourists sees ;)
DAY 212-214
2nd moving in Rio. We're still in Copacabana but closer to the French bakery and Italian ice-cream shop :D It's our last few days in Rio and we dedicate them to the beach. During the day we hang out on the beach in Copacabana and Ipanema and at night we head back to the beach to have a bite in one of the many shacks on the beachfront. One night, we have a tango duet playing close by, a taste of things to come! The beach in Copacabana has more space but the waves are ridiculous, especially in the center of the beach. Ipanema is better but with much less space so it's overcrowded.
DAY 215
It's time to leave Rio already. It's hard to believe we arrived here 11 days ago! Our next stop is Salvador de Bahia. The transfer is seamless and we're welcomed on the beach there by live music. Our first action is to head to one of the renowned restaurant by the beach and have an orgy of seafood; Crabs and shrimps and delicious caiperinha... welcome to Salvador!