Rio Três e Quatro com Cataratas del Iguazú

I'm writing this second Rio entry from an unexpected flight to São Paulo to connect from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires. Gillian and I were supposed to be spending a full day at the waterfalls on the Brazil and Argentina border; however, we learned that our connecting flight the next day to BA had been canceled. With a little bit of panicking and even more careful alternate planning, we should be touching down in Buenos Aires right on time by Tuesday night. Since my last post, we spent our final two days in Rio de Jaineiro making the most of our final moments there. 

On Sunday, we decided to recover from our night out in Lapa by spending the day at the beach. Instead of lounging on the people's beach of Ipanema again, we made our way to the more posh beach of Copacabana. Upon our arrival, we rented chairs and umbrellas for R$20, which only comes out to around $7. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find beach rentals so affordable anywhere in the United States. Speaking of prices, overall, Rio has been more affordable than I had expected for a major Latin American center. The U.S. dollar is strong in comparison to the Brazilian Real at this time, and the cost of living in Rio is only expensive in comparison to much of the rest of Brazil. Rio has many fantastic sights and beautiful beaches; however, there is a massive amount of urban poverty. More socioeconomic commentary to come. 

After lounging on the Copacabana beach for most of the daylight, we took a taxi (also cheap!) to the Pão de Açucar (or Sugarloaf Mountain). Named for its conical shape, Sugarloaf sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean shoreline surrounding much of Rio. Rio is unlike anywhere I've ever been before with its beaches forming right next to tall mountains with lofty viewpoints. Sugarloaf is famous for its panoramic perches, which we were able to take advantage of by riding two separate cable cars all the way to the top. Even though Cristo Redentor provided spectacular views, Sugarloaf's positioning within Rio's harbor provided us with a sunset that can't be forgotten. 

After climbing back down from Sugarloaf, we rested for a bit before heading to an authentic Brazilian barbecue dinner recommended by a friend (thanks, Gahan!).  Carretão is an upscale churrascaria, which the chain Fogo de Chao is modeled after, serving meats brought right to your table and plenty of fresh sides. To be honest, it was one of the first times we came across vegetables in Brazil, where most people's diets seem to be filled with meat, cheese, rice, bread, and the occasional fruit. After enjoying our mutli-course dinner for $30 complete with Argentinian wine (can't wait for some Malbec in BA!), we digested at an Ipanema neighborhood bar called Barthodomeu on cheap pilsner beer. Fun fact: Brazilians are the third largest consumers of beer in the world while 98% of beer sold is light pilsners. No craft beer to be found in Brazil!

On our final day in Brazil Monday, we decided to take a full day tour of a favela neighborhood. Favelas are infamous around the world for their crowded quarters, drug trafficking, and general violence/social unrest. While it's not recommended to take a tour of one of the 1,000 favelas in Rio on your own, there are several companies that take visitors on guided tours in the safest favelas. While I was not as keen on the idea as Gillian, I learned a lot of information and facts about the people and culture of the Rocinha favela in Rio. More than 300,000 live in this particular favela, which was only the size of any neighborhood in Rio. That's more people than live in the entire city of Madison!

Rocinha was more developed in many ways than I expected. There were fully thriving businesses, schools, transportation, grocers, and housing. Although the quality was expectedly low considering it houses the poorest of Rio's residents, the favela reminded me less of the thriving city of Rio and more of the poorer Central American places I've been such as Nicaragua. Our guide, Jody, was a British national and gringo in his early thirties who moved to Brazil and has lived in the favela for those two years. He was knowledgable about Rocinha and able to provide much of the context of what makes a favela both a thriviling cultural hub and an underserved zone. Seated between two highly expensive communities, Rocinha is one of 60 favelas that have undergone "pacification" in the past several years because of its central location and upcoming major events like the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Pacification meant a large police presence and subsequent violence between the police and the drug trafficking gangs. During our tour, we witnessed much peace and calm surrounded by armed military police presence, who carried large assault weapons and were covered in combat gear. Other than seeing the police, our tour was safe and gave us the chance to interact with real people in Brazil. In many ways, the favela had a stronger sense of community and well being than the neighborhood I taught in during my time in Baltimore City; however, it also had the sense of external social mobility stagnation and little chance of leaving or receiving quality education. 

After touring the favela, we made our way for one last sunset at the rocky point between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. As the sun literally set on our four days in Rio de Janeiro, Gillian and I said goodbye to Andres, who would be leaving Rio the next morning to return to his university assignment in northeast Brazil. After taking a very busy and treacherous cab ride to the Rio international airport, we finally made it to the gate for our flight to the Brazilian side of the falls at Foz do Iguaçu. Just as we were about to board our flight, we received an email stating that our flight for the next night out of the Argentine side of the falls in Puerto Iguazu was canceled. Faced with getting stuck in Iguaçu, we boarded the flight anyways. When we arrived, we headed straight to the hotel to grab WiFi and look for alternate plans. Luckily, we were able to get a flight out of the Brazilian side to BA via São Paulo. With a hefty cost and no help from Expedia, we made the choice to lose half a day in the waterfalls in order to get to Buenos Aires on time for our four days there. 

That being said, today's journey through the Parque Nacional Iguazu in Argentina was amazing and worth the extra hassle. We spent the night as planned on the Brazilian side of the falls, and we woke up early to figure out how to make the most of the six hours before our flights to BA. We were extremely lucky to have a tour company situated right in our hotel by chance, and the guides helped arrange the perfect private ride to and from the more scenic Argentine side of Iguazu. Unfortunately, we had to miss the Brazilian-side park in Foz do Iguaçu, but we think we made the right choice of which sid of the falls to see.  The guides took care of helping us cross the border each way and to enter the park without struggling to find an ATM for the currency change to Argentine pesos to buy tickets. They even took care of our bags while we were in the park and brought us to the airport for our earlier flight this afternoon. 

Even though it took a lot of extra planning and expense, the waterfalls were incredible. Once we entered the park right at opening when crowds were low, we took a two-stop train (more like one of those trains you see at a zoo or amusement park for families) to the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat). This section of the park houses a walking trail that takes you right to the very top of the massive main waterfall. Though I haven't been to Niagara Falls, Iguazu supposedly rivals and bests its North American cousin. We were able to walk so close that we were soaked from the spray as the water went barreling down the breathtaking cliffs. After taking plenty of photos at the falls, we took the train back down to hike some of the smaller paths that provided views of the falls from the base and the chance to get closer to dozens of surrounding smaller waterfalls. 

Hopefully I'll have nothing more to report of our journey out of Brazil and truly into Argentina for the rest of our adventure in South America. I am really excited to be seeing Buenos Aires, which has more a European flair and what I predict will be more my style of travel. For now, tchau to Brasil and ¡hola to Argentina!

Rio Um e Dois

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)!