Rio de Janeiro - Delta blues and the perfect day

Rio de Janeiro (Brasil)
01 January - 04 Janaury 2012

New Years Day for me didn't automatically conjure up images of places, events and spaces that I inhabited for that portion of the day. In fact I had to default to the diary of Jetson, the master of all things discretely personal in a chronological sense for him to be able to advise me that we spent the evening at the rooftop bar at Porto Bay (huge surprise huh). I have the feeling however that this was the night that we ALL ended up in the pool fully clothed and staggered through the lobby dripping wet, with our dignité somewhat tarnished but with our reputations as the 'funky cool crew' fully well earnt amongst the staff. The question that I put to myself now, on reflection, is why the hell do I end up in hotel pools fully clothed on New Years Day? It's turning into quite a common event! Please see [Skybar dive - Kuala Lumpur - New Year's morning].

Rio pop art: My photo + iSkills = PopCristo!

02 January

Rain, again. Continuous, relentless, soul destroying, crushingly disappointing rain. We had lived with it since our arrival on the 26th of December, and it had continued, virtually unabated and without the slightest bit of remorse until this morning. We had attempted to outplay and outwit the earth mother and her sullen mood by recruiting the universe to act as a pawn in our feeble attempt to bluff our way out of the pertaining weather pattern. Our 'idea' was NOT to go to one of the myriad of umbrella selling bandits lining the streets who were anticipatin a riel  bonanza with the onset of the rain, in the hope, in the pathetic hope actually, that by not buying an umbrella we were not caving into the demands of the weather. We were still anticipating and in our own way aspiring to obtain a perfect Rio Summer day or several prior to our departure on the 5th and so this way of holding out was keeping those oddball hopes alive.....yeah, well the idea kind of lasted 10 mins until we all crumbled and parted with some riel in order to target severak good ole fashioned Rio umbrellas. Damn you Rio, damn you for forcing our hand on that call!

Sandwich makers of extreme meat 'epicness' - Cervantes - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro

The pain of rain - Lapa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

The moment in time where we all lost it!

After the obligatory morning breakfast from our local cafe downstairs and some connection time on the 'internets' we hit Cervantes for a dose of meaty pork goodness and then headed into Lapa with the intention of checking out Santa Teresa and perhaps a few other sites. I'm not sure when the collective depression struck or whether we just hadn't noticed it but I recall we were in a bar/restaurant on the outskirts of Lapa, looking out onto another bleak Rio day, the rain starting to really bucket down and I think we all collectively 'lost it'. It was one of those rare moments when all three of us came to a crushing halt. For 15 minutes there we all were thinking 'F**k this and F**k you Rio! You've played us hard!'. It was nothing that a few beers couldn't fix though. We rallied, got up and got back into the game soon after, attacking the nearby Escadaria Selaron.

Escadaria Selaron - Lapa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Escadaria Selarón is a set of world-famous steps designed by the Chilean born artist Jorge  Selarón who got sick of the dilapidated nature of the stairs that ran outside of his home and commenced work on designing, brightening and offering his tribute to the Brasilian people through is tiled artistry. The first time I ever saw these stairs was in a video film clip, and you've probably guessed it, it was in [Snoop Dogg's - Beautiful], and yes, Mr Dogg spells his surname with a double g! It's a g-thang! Then MY BOYS delivered these stairs to me in [Walk On - U2], after which it was always going to make my 'to do' list.

...And it's a pretty cool spot. Knowing the reason for its existence now and how/why Jorge originally scavenged for the tiles from various construction sites, it makes you think that even an oddball Chilean man can have his impact on the world in his own unique way. The stairs themselves split the neighbourhoods of Lapa & Santa Teresa, and the work, just like the harbour bridge, is constantly in progress. Jorge is always at it, finishing off a section and then commencing another section, redoing, recreating. On the day that we were there JJ actually pointed Jorge out to me, as he's known to be working on the stairs constantly. It took me a little while to either believe or register the fact that this was the case but our little JJ, she was right on the money with Jorge and is locale!

We climbed the stairs and up into Santa Teresa as the rain started to back off. As the light of the dat faded and the street lighting began to take hold we climbed a little further into Santa Teresa, probably a little unsafely considering Rio's penchant for petty crime. Somewhere on those streets we encountered a Paolo Coehlo look alike who asked us we were were from and then added, 'You know, this is not Sydney, this is Rio, you have to be careful'...and with those kind words of warning we descended back into one of the bars in Lapa for a few glasses of the local brew before jumping a ride back to Copacabana.

Bleak streets - Santa Theresa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

03 January - the perfect day

If the second day of the year was a lesson in what Rio shouldn't be and what we didn't want from the weather then the 3rd day was EPIC! It was THE perfect Rio day. Sun kissed, warm, inviting and perfect for us to reason that if ever we were going to jump a helicopter in order to take a ride of this aesthetically stunning city then today was going to be the day!

The group decision to take to the air was inspired. I think there was the briefest moment when we considered to postpone for a day or so but we came to our senses quickly and realised that even though the rain had been scared off for the day a return serve was already on its way in.

I don't need to put into words what this aerial escapade actually gave to us and what it did for our mood because Jetson has been kind enough to deliver it to you via YouTube with his band Speedball playing as musical support to the visuals! Enjoy the clip, it's FANTASTIC. I've included a couple of screenshots below.

Helicopter flight around Rio de Janeiro!!!

[The Adventures of Jet Frichot - Helicopter ride to Christ the Redeemer]

Backing track by Jet's band - SPEEDBALL!!

Leblon - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Ipanema - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Corocovado - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

It's not hard to tell as to why this city ranks in the top couple of cities to be considered the most beautiful on earth. For me, grabbing a pair of wings and soaring above this town was always going to be a highlight, but, nothing quite prepared me for what we all witnessed as we swung behind Cristo and the city unfurled it's dramatic beauty before us. There's a stream of images that I'm going to be taking with me for years to come, and whilst the photos and video don't do it justice at all maybe you can get just a little bit of an idea of what we experienced.

Cristo redentor - Rio de Janeiro -Brasil

Cristo redentor - Rio de Janeiro -Brasil

Cristo redentor - Rio de Janeiro -Brasil

You can imagine that once we hit terra firma all of us were on an enormous high. It's not every day you cut such a dramatic circuit of the city. Needless to say, it wasn't at all difficult to pinpoint what our next stop would be. It was a glorious day, the sun was just starting to drop out of sight and the sun was gracefully dancing its playful retreat over the mountains. We knew the perfect spot to witness that would be from the rooftop bar of Porto Bay, and again I have to say, it was the perfect choice for what ended up being the perfect day.

Looking east from Porto Bay - Copacabana beach - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Sunset from Porto Bay - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Sunset from Porto Bay - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Copacabana beach from Porto Bay - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Sunset from Porto Bay - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

The final round - 04 Jan

Our last day in Rio rolled around quite quickly, which often seems to be the norm when you're travelling. Whilst you're in the moment time moves slower than anticipated and then on reflection you figure it was actually a lot faster.

We had a few ideas for our last day but the general concensus was that it was going to be cruisy, or rather that it should be. I had it in my head that we would head down into Lapa and jump the famous Santa Teresa tram line up to this bohemian style neighbourhood. The only issue with that thought, and what I didn't know at the time was that all tram services had been suspended due to the fact that in the preceding August a tram had derailed, killing 5 people and injuring 27. Observing the line and noting that NO trams were operational we took to walking up to Santa Teresa via Escadaria Selaron which we had taken out on a rainy day a few days earlier. Much more pleasant in glorious sunshine I must say.

Tram line to Santa Teresa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Lapa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

A tile on the Escadaria Selaron - Lapa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Santa Teresa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Our stop in Santa Teresa was only brief and later into the afternoon we headed back to Porto Bay for final night drinks...but of course, where the hell else would we have gone.

View from Santa Teresa - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Rio is a fantastic place, it's got that carioca laid back style, it's gorgeous beyond belief, full of colour and full of life. It's a place that bounces along to it's inherrent samba rhythym.  I would imagine that the  'the well to do' locals  of Rio  can't help but feel to be just a little blessed by the city they find themselves living in. We spent 10 days in this place and I think the circumstances of weather more than anything prevented us from obtaining the full amount of what it had to offer. Still, with the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 you just know that this place is going to be THE epicentre of all things 'party related'  during those days. Thankfully Rio has already mailed me an invite and I've replied back in kind. Be sure to get yours otherwise you'll be kicking yourself whilst watching the action from home, in the dark, and wishing that you had taken a snippet of Helisher advice!