After a more than yearlong reprieve from my travel blog, it's time to revive Beegs in Europe from the ashes. In its newly-reborn form, I am proud to present Beegs in South America! I am one day into my 9-day whirlwind journey through both Brazil and Argentina. My travel partner in crime Gillian and I met up last night in Atlanta for the beginning of our trek to the Southern Hemisphere. This morning, we arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after a 9-hour flight from Atlanta and hit the ground running. Over the course of our adventure, we will be visiting Rio, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Iguazu Falls in between. We'll also be meeting up with our friend from Baltimore Andres in Rio since he moved to Brazil this year to begin a Fulbright Program Scholarship.
Although I've had the chance to visit many places across Europe and even as far in the world as Nicaragua and Costa Rica in Central America, this marks the first time I've been as far south as Brazil. Luckily, it's also only a one hour time difference from the East Coast, so there's less jetlag to overcome. Even though we've been here for just 12 hours, it's easy to get a feel for Rio de Janeiro as a cross between Latin American flare and European history. Rio is more developed that either Central American country I've been to previously; however, it has the same grit and personality that European cities don't seem to be able to match. Portuguese is the language of Brazil, and luckily I am able to read the signs and follow along because of my background in French and previous visit to Portugal. The pronunciation of Portuguese is unlike any other Romance language, which has made communication a welcome challenge for us gringos ("white people"). Gillian and I stick out like sore thumbs here with her bright red hair and my blue eyes.
Upon our landing in Brazil, Gillian and I took a taxi from the airport to our hostel in the downtown neighborhood of Gloria. Gloria is central to many of the best places in Rio, which can be reached by a combination of walking, subway, and bus. Our hostel is nice even by European standards, and the staff is very willing to give advice and directions on the best ways the experience Rio. After unloading our bags (we both fit 9 days of clothes into just backpacks!), we hoped on a city bus to the farthest side of town to explore the less accessible areas so we could cross them off our list. First, we visited Parque Lage, a man-made luscious park complete with a colonial School of Visual Arts center, replica caves, tiny monkeys that act like squirrels, and a view of the Cristo Redentor statue from the base of the Corcovado (hunchback) mountain. We could have hiked to CR from Parque Lage but opted to save that for another day.
Next, we walked around the spectacular Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas (saltwater lagoon) and Jardim Botânico (botanic gardens). The lagoon is surrounded by luxury highrise apartments and expansive walking/bike paths. The Jardmin has over 8,000 plant species including a Orquidario, which housed several magnificent orchid varieties, with more squirrel monkeys bothering the visitors for food leftovers. After the garden, we set for lunch along the lagoon at a surprisingly good Middle Eastern restaurant for food and caipirinhas. Caipirinhas are the national drink of Brazil, made from crushed limes, sugar, ice, and cachaça (sugarcane rum). Between the travel, sun, and strong cachaça, just one caipirinha put us on a good start to the evening. We walked to the other side of the lagoon before branching off to the beaches. Interestingly enough, the Lagoa area will host next year's Olympic Village for the 2016 Rio Summer Games, which we noticed from the major construction and signage happening in the area.
Our final stop during the day was the Ipanema beach, made famous around the world by the song "The Girl from Ipanema" that made Brazilian bosso nova music more popular both here and abroad. Before hitting the beach, we stopped to buy beach towels and a pair of Brazilian Havaianas sandals, which are only $5 here and $40+ at home. On our way to the beach, we happened to stumble by the H. Stern precious stone museum, which was highly recommended by our book. In our finest beach bum attire, we signed up for the "tour," which we quickly realized was actually a ploy to sell visitors some of Brazil's finest stones like amethyst and aquamarine. Eventually, we made it to Ipanema to sit in the sun and capture some of the breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean and seaside mountains. However, our sun time was short lived when we quickly realized the sun sets by 5:30 in Rio as the winter approaches on this side of the world. That being said, it was still balmy 70-80s all day with sunshine and blue skies.
For the evening, we followed several people's recommendation to try the Bar do Mineiro in the Santa Theresa neighborhood for good traditional Brazilian food. First, no one warned us that the "short 15 minute walk" was a hike uphill for 30 minutes. Next, we did not realize how traditional the place would be because it was difficult to communicate with the non-English-speaking staff. We eventually were able to order the house speciality, feijoada, a classical Brazilian black bean and meat stew over rice. In a struggle to ask the staff for more information on the ingredients, Gillian and I made friends with the Brazilian couple sitting next to us, who spoke great English. We talked and drank with them all night, and Andres finally arrived to meet us in Rio from his Fulbright location in a more rural northern part of the country. We stayed out a little too late and probably had one to many shots of cachaça before heading home down the Sta. Teresa hill home to Glorio, but it was really great to experience Rio with local hosts and flavor.
On day two of four in Rio, we took a walking tour of the historic center of the city. Much like the free walking tours I've taken all over Europe, this tour led us around the city to many places we might never have seen otherwise with great historical and cultural context. Our guide, who has lived all over the world in Spain, Brazil, and the U.S., helped us to learn more about how Rio came to be the major and magnificent city it is today. Rio de Janeiro was previously the capital of the Portuguese Empire, Brazil, and the gold rush of European colonial times. Although it was just a city of 70,000 merchant and slaves for its first 300 years, Rio became the capital of Portugal's worldwide empire in 1808 as the King of Portugal fled Napoloean's reign of terror in Europe. From that event, Brazil grew and grew into the massive Latin American country it is today, but it's history before is very short and not as elaborate as one might expect. During the tour, we saw the few remaining colonial streets and the former royal palace, which was constructed for the monarchy's arrival in Brazil. Over the next 100 years, Brazil became a free and independent country with Rio as its political and cultural hub. In the early 20th century, politicians in Rio built European-inspired building like the City Hall, National Theatre, and National Library on the Cinelândia square. The tour ended at the Escadaria Selarón, a set of tile-covered stairs built over 20 years by a local artist with tiles gathered or given from around the world. I even spotted a tile from Bourbon Street in New Orleans!
After the tour ended, we made our way to catch a bus to the Corcovado, which houses the Cristo Redentor statue and spectacular views of the city. The bus ride up the mountain, which stretches 2500 feet up into the skyline of Rio, was treacherous between the winding tiny roads and crazy traffic/driving style of the city. Eventually, we made it to the pinnacle, which was teeming with thousands of local and international tourists trying to snap the best photos of the cityscape and selfies with the gigantic Jesu Cristo statue. Corcovado was first settled in the late 1800s when a cable car was built to scale the mountain, and the Art Deco monument was constructed in the 1920s right atop the mountain to commemorate 100 years of Brazilian independence. The statue stands 100 feet tall and sees more than a million visitors annually. Although I do not personally love heights, I am glad that I made the trek to the top to see the views even though I stayed as far away from the edge as possible. Tonight, we'll be going for dinner and drinks in the Lapa neighborhood, which is famous around the world for its nightlife, samba dancing, and street caipirinhas. For now, tchau ("bye" in Portuguese)!
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