We finally and safely arrived at our hostel for a couple days in Rio de Janeiro - Chill on the Beach Hostel, but it was an adventure of sorts getting here. Landed around midnight the night before and took a taxi to a hotel in the Gamboa - Centro neighborhood. Definitely drove through a rough part of town... even our taxi driver in his broke English mentioned that it was "very dangerous for you." Holly kept her Swiss army knife at the ready in the backseat of the cab, just in case. Luckily, our hotel had a security guard and we arrived without incident, so we were set for the night. Amazing breakfast and then did our own walking tour of Rio. It reminded me of Boston in the sense that there were these beautiful old churches and buildings juxtaposed with the business district. We ended the afternoon in the Santa Teresa neighborhood - Bohemian, local artists, vegan food, adorable.
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| Cristo Redentor |
The next morning, we got ourselves moving by noon-time (still on Peru time, which is 2 hours earlier!). Walked down Copacabana Beach observing remnants from the Olympics and bought tickets to take a bus up to Corcovado - Cristo Redentor. The man selling the tickets warned us that the entire mountain was covered in fog, no Cristo to see, no views, so maybe try tomorrow. But we were leaving tomorrow! Decided to risk it. We took the van up, and then another van, and yup - completely 100% surrounded by thick fog. We stayed up there for half an hour or so and things started to clear, and it was actually, I think, even more beautiful. We got clear glimpses of the city through holes in the clouds. The fog eventually lifted enough that we saw JC himself clearly.
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| So excited that we could finally see him!! |
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| Peaking through the clouds at Rio |
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| Alley in Historic Buzios, leading to the harbor |
Two days in the big city was plenty! We headed off to start the Beach part of the trip. Our first stop was Buzios (3 hours north of Rio), which turned out to be the only town where we got any actual real beach time. Our first day in Buzios was beautiful, we ate delicious vegetables and coconut desserts. The Buzios peninsula has 17 beaches so we were able to role around in sunscreen and spend mid-morning through mid-afternoon lounging on Geriba Beach. It was nice to have a home base for 3 whole nights where we could unpack a bit and cook some of our own meals. The most exhausting thing about this trip so far is the seemingly unending packing and re-packing of all my belongings. Our second day in Buzios was cloudy, so we wandered around Centro/Historico neighborhood, walked along the pier, had a cafesito and explored the Rua de Pedras (Stone Street). Adorable! Shops and cafes along a little cobblestone street.
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| Geriba Beach on the Buzios peninsula |
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| Paraty |
Paraty rained. Colonial town about 4 hours south of Rio. Miserable, cold, wet evening in Paraty. I refused to admit the weather fail and continued to eat acai bowls wearing my coat, rain coat, and scarf to ward off the cold wetness. We also happened to get stuck in a political parade for candidate #14. I'm pretty sure the entire town of Paraty was in this parade. I've never seen so much excitement about politics. Maybe our system would work a little better if people could get excited about any of the issues/candidates on this scale. It reminded me of Germans and the World Cup.
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| Enjoying a Caipirinha! |
The forecast for the next 6 days is rain. Awesome beach vacation! Caipirinha helped turn my spirits around and the next morning - low and behold - there was some sun! Went for a jog and saw Paraty in the beautiful sunlight. I walked up to a fort over the city, sat on the beach and made friends with a street dog.
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| It was cold and rainy on this beautiful island! |
Then we headed to Sao Sebastiao to grab a ferry to Ilhabela - an island off the coast. We forgot to determine where we were going to stay on Ilhabela, but thought we could grab wifi somewhere and get an address once we arrived. Unfortunately, we were not aware that it was an election day, hence (as in most countries), a national holiday, hence EVERYTHING WAS CLOSED. We found one grocery store that was open (no wifi) so we are literally just walking around this island without a clue of what direction we are going or need to be going to find a place to sleep. Also 15kg backpacks on back, 5kg packs on front. A kind bicyclist stopped and said something to us in Portugese, so we stared at him blankly, and then he says in perfect English, "Do you need help?" He pointed us in the right direction and we finally found a 24 hour convenience store. We each bought a chocolate milk to recharge after our 2k trek and discovered we were only around the corner from the hostel we wanted! The entire time on Ihlabela was cloudy. We went for what was supposed to be a 2 hour hike that accidentally turned into a 6 hour hike through the national park on the island. We cooked a great dinner and crossed our fingers for sun, but no such luck, so off we went, beach vacation FAIL.
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| Catedral Se |
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| Inside |
Of course, we arrived in Sao Paulo (inland, no beaches) to sun. We did a free walking tour of the city, the highlight for me was the Catedral la Se. It was not gaudy with gold or mosaics or stain glass windows, but the size of the pillars and the alter was overwhelming. The size literally took my breath away! and I've seen a good number of giant cathedrals in my day. Another fun fact is that there are so many keys in the organ that it cant be played because it will possibly/probably shatter the windows. I felt completely dwarfed by the sheer size of it. Other than the cathedral, I spent most of the tour talking with a French man who was visiting his sister and 5 day old nephew and to a German from Stuttgart.
I would have liked to see the Consolcao Cemetery, but they closed at 1pm! It looked amazing through the fence... We wandered through Batman's Alley, which is a street filled with graffiti art, but not just graffiti. Professional graffiti. I did not anticipate being so impressed, but wow. We ended up going to dinner with the German from Stuttgart and his friend, friend's wife, and their 10-month old. Kid and wife went home and the four of us went to a sky bar, overlooking the Sao Paulo skyline. Amazing view, great company, good conversation. I think meeting people is one of my favorite things about traveling.
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| Batman's Alley graffiti |
Our latest night yet! and last night in Brazil. Off on a high note. <5 hours of sleep later, we headed off to the airport for a 13 hour travel day back to Quito, Ecuador.
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