Rio baby! (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

My final stop on my travels in South America was Rio de Janeiro, the vibrant Brazilian city which is famous for Copacabana beach, Carnaval and the Christ the Redeemer Statue. The world's eyes will be on Rio a lot over the next few years as first the World Cup comes to Brazil in 2014 (with the final to played at the legendary and newly refurbished Maracana Stadium in Rio), followed by the Olympics in Rio itself in 2016. I was perhaps there a year or three early then, but nevertheless had a great few days exploring the city.

My overnight flight from Quito got me to Rio airport at the painfully early time of 4.45am (which felt even earlier as I'd gained two hours in travelling east from Ecuador). Once I'd found my way to my hostel in the Ipanema area of the city and checked-in, I decided I might as well make the most of the four days I had in Rio and get straight on with seeing the city. That morning, I booked on a day tour of the city which would take in some of the main sights straight away, which seemed like a better idea than spending a day in bed recovering from the flight.

Along with Jack, Craig, Andy and Louisa who were also staying at my hostel, we were picked up by our slightly eccentric guide and driven around the city in a minibus with him negotiating traffic and speaking to us through a microphone at the same time. Our first stop was San Corado beach, a little further round the bay from Ipanema, where we were able to see a number of hangliders landing on the beach having descended from the mountains which surround and are scattered amongst Rio.

We then headed to Tijuca National Park, apparently the world's largest urban forest, which gives Rio residents a taste of the countryside right on their doorsteps. Much like Cape Town, Rio is a city where you can go from the beach to the city and then to the mountains in a matter of minutes, something which inevitably encourages a very outdoor lifestyle (and so means its my kind of city!). With a tight schedule for our tour, we only got to drive through the national park and take a short walk up to a waterfall, but with more time in Rio I would definitely have spent more time exploring the park.

Then came one of the most iconic sites in Rio, the Christ the Redeemer statue, the huge statue of Jesus Christ which looms over the city. The statue was commissioned almost a century ago to celebrate the hundred year anniversary of Brazilian independence in 1921 (although it wasn't actually finished until 1931) and is now one of the defining images of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil as a whole. The statue itself is 30m high and sits atop the 700m Corcovado mountain meaning it overlooks the city and can be seen from almost anywhere in Rio. After being driven most of the way up in the minibus, we walked the last few hundred metres up to the steep point upon which the statue sits. From here we had fantastic views across the entire city, despite it being a little hazy.

The afternoon was spent visiting a couple of other Rio barrios (neighbourhoods) - Santa Teresa, a arty, bohemiam neighbourhood served by a creaking old tram system (sadly out of service during my visit) and Lapa, the main centre for nightlife in Rio.

In Lapa, we stopped at the Escadaria Selaron, a straight staircase up the side of a hill which the Chilean artist Jorge Selaron spent many years decorating with over 2000 coloured tiles from around the world. Selaron lived in one of the houses along the stairs and was often seen out and about on the stairs chatting to tourists about his work, but sadly he was rather mysteriously found dead on the stairs in January this year, but the tiles remain and attract hundreds of visitors. The stairs were also heavily featured in the video for 'Beautiful' by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams from 2003, and to a lesser extent in the video for 'Walk On' by U2, which has only added to their attraction to tourists (see the video links below).

 

After the tour finished, I along with the others from my hostel took the cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, a mountain which overlooks the city and Guanabara Bay and so also gives fantastic views over the city. We had intended be at the top in time for sunset, but long queues at the cable car station put paid to that. We were however at the summit to see lights come on across the city as the sky grew dark and stayed at the top to have a couple of beers and see Rio by night. This included seeing planes take off from the domestic airport on the very edge of the city which was quite spectacular.

Sugarloaf Mountain

Rio by night

That evening, we all went for dinner together and ate at a traditional Brazilian churrascaria, an amazing restaurant which, after we'd helped ourselves to the extensive salad bar, involved various large cuts of BBQ-ed meat being brought out to us on skewers and sliced on to our plate in all you can eat style eating challenge. Over the course of the evening we were brought sausages, chicken, steak, ham, pork, and chicken hearts meaning we were very full of meat by the end of the night!

Having packed quite a lot in to my first day in Rio, I was able to have a slightly more relaxing few days, having seen many of the main sights already. On my second day I headed to Ipanema beach with the friends  I had made the previous day, and spent an enjoyable day alternating between lying on the beach, swimming in the sea and playing volleyball. Ipanema may not be as famous as the iconic Copacabana beach, but it is considerably less busy and commercial and so made for a nice place to spend the day. Swimming in the sea was good fun although we had to be careful as the waves were very strong and there were some quite strong currents that you had to fight against a little to stay on your feet.

Ipanema Beach

The following day I took a tour to a couple of favelas in Rio, which was a really interesting experience that gave a good insight in to the harder side of life in Brazil. Incredibly there are over 900 favelas in Rio alone, of which 30 have now been 'pacified' by the police, whose efforts seem to be particularly focused on those favelas near the World Cup and Olympic venues! These kind of tours are a slightly odd experience as you can't help feel a little strange effectively paying to gawp at poverty and take pictures of the poorer sections of society going about their day. It helped that some of the money we paid for the tour was going towards youth projects in the community and that our guide for the morning was very good at explaining the history of the favelas and the realities of daily life in them.

Rochina favela

On my final day in Rio, I did finally visit Copacabana beach, which with it being a Sunday was absolutely heaving. On Sundays, the main road along the beach front is closed to traffic allowing it to fill with cyclists, roller bladers, runners and walkers, while the beach itself is packed with sunbathers, endless games of volleyball and foot volley, and on this particular day a triathlon taking place.

Competition is fierce among the Caipirinha sellers...

On my final evening in Rio (and in South America), I went to see a football match between Fluminense and Botafogo, who were playing each other in the final of the Taca Rio, a regional tournament that takes place before the main national league season starts each year. Although there are numerous other teams in Rio, the final is generally contested between two of the four big Rio teams - Fluminense, Flamengo, Botafogo and Vasco de Gama - with this year being no exception.

As with the game I'd been to in Argentina at the beginning of my time in South America, the standard of football was surprisingly poor, but once again the noise and passion of the fans more than made up for it, despite there only being around 15,000 fans in the stadium. There were a few touches of class from Clarence Seedorf, the former Dutch international and multiple Champions League winner, who is now seeing out his career with Botafogo and despite his advancing years was the best player on the pitch, even if he did manage to slam a second half penalty against the bar and away to safety! Deco had been due to line up for Fluminense, but his recent failed drugs test had put paid to that.

In the end Botafogo deservedly won a rather scrappy game 1-0 with a well taken goal by Rafael Marques, which with me stood with the Fluminense fans meant I'd now supported two South American teams at live matches, with neither managing to win or even score a goal!

Seedorf celebrates with his team mates