Rio de Janeiro (Brasil)
27 Dec - 29 Dec 2011
Recovery from our date of arrival was imperative but that first meant that we somehow had to muster the courage and energy to roll out of our 'accomplices in immobility' and face the day, which mystifyingly was one of persistent drizzle and cloud. At this early stage we could not have possibly recognised that this would be the modus for Rio, but oh, how those picture perfect postcards of Copacabana and Ipanema that I'm sure, residing in the recesses of our mind, lulled us into a false sense of security. We'll get to that later.
The Mexican 'know it all' and egotistical author, (perhaps he's not, but he comes across as conceited to me), Carlos Fuentes noted of Miguel de Cervantes that, '...he leaves open the pages of a book where the reader knows himself to be written', and if that is the case then our remaining hours of this day were going to be pristine white pages filled with absolutely nothing, because we knew very well what was written for us! The requirement of food! This need oddly enough would have us wandering into restaurante Cervantes a little later that evening in search of some evening fuel requirements (see what I did there....yeah...serendipitous huh).
Check out this video from Jetson - [The Adventures of Jet Frichot - Cervantes]
Now restaurante Cervantes is quite the little iconic establishment, well in Copacabana at the very least as it's well known for its late night fare and the fact that it serves 29 different types of sandwiches, all which include the imperious abacaxi (pineapple). Why with the freakin' abacaxi? Still,tt's a rather cool little joint, more like a medium sized kebab house in Sydney where you're able to get sandwiches packed high and wide with pork (mostly) and in the same breath order the local chopp, all whist standing at the bar and either getting stuck into what will become the mother of all hangovers or recovering from what inevitably was one. As I said earlier, our pages on this day didn't require any stylised writing for our movements were all intuitive and quite simplistic, i.e., get up, walk, search for food and sleep. Sometimes walking in a straight line is quite poetic.
Street Art - on our walk to Sugarloaf - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
28 Dec
If you want to take a journey into the heart of Rio with me right at this point, even if you only have a few minutes, then just play this clip [Rio ....Rio.....Rio] ...ahh, the sound and the smell of rain hitting the pavement, the constant, relentless droplets falling out of a darkened Brazilian sky, it was all still so very new for me at this point. Our days in Rio so early on in the piece were very much filled with optimism and the hopes for glorious sun drenched days with bluebird skies and golden sand between our toes. Cloud filled mornings, in my mind at least, were a mere aberration, a pit stop on the way to lazy days of lying on the beach, caipirinha's in hand and mentally traversing the lines of Joao Gilberto's (Girl from Ipanema).....because no way in the world would I be singing THAT song by THAT Manilow guy! Even if I was laying out on the correct beach.
Still, for those first few mornings the rain presented me with the challenge that I needed. If I didn't have the sun to accompany me on my morning runs then the mocking rain would at least spark the competitive spirit in my being, and so on this morning of persistent precipitation I ripped into he sands of Copacabana with the intention of telling the universe that if it intended on stopping me then it would have to step up its offerings.
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Cable Cars to the clouds - Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
As a side note, the inhabitants of Rio sul are fitness carnivores. They devour the beach, the weather and each other in pursuit of peak condition. No matter what is going on they're capable of overcoming the issue in the search for their perfect beach body. It was inspirational in more ways than one and gave me enough fuel to get up and down the beach without showing my infirmity, which of course was the fact that beach running is absolutely 'punishing'!!! A couple of hundred metres on those mounds of unforgiving sand and you're into the beginnings of a private hell that beauty cannot readily remove. The only thing that keeps you going is a sense of personal pride because if nothing else, I wasn't going to be 'quitting' my run in front of anyone! I would have been labelled an outcast I'm sure, or even worse, a gringo!
Back at the Copacabana ranch house, JJ and Jetson were stirring into existence from their recovery slumber. On this day we had initially decided to head into Rio Sul shopping centre in order to assist me in acquiring a new camera (because obviously mine got totalled on our first day away) and then we had it in our head to make it to one of the most iconic landmarks of Rio, Sugarloaf mountain, and in actual fact we did that. Somewhere along the way the sun stuck its head our for a cameo also but upon arriving at Sugarloaf it appeared that everyone else had cottoned on onto something that we wouldn't fully appreciate for a few more days yet. The arrival of the sun at this time of the year is rare and with those opportunities comes the requirement to move at speed. This speed of movement translated into Sugarloaf looking like a Boxing Day sale gone made. With a mass of people, humidity and the briefest appearance of that 'golden orb' we opted for the sane position and moderated our goals for something more achievable. To the bar it was - obviously, but one that had a trick up its sleeve [Bar Urca].
Seafood lunch on Guanabara Bay - Bar Urca - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
JJ @ Bar Urca with that determined guy and the 'weird water craft' that persisently FAILED!
As their site says, this place is a gastronomical tradition in Rio. It's a corner pocket bar situated on the shores of Guanabara Bay and an absolutely picture perfect place to have lunch or dinner. All we needed to do was order (and thankfully my guerrilla Spanish got us across the line), grab a few bottles of beer from the bar and then sit on the shores in our own seafood and alcohol induced splendour. By this time the rain had abated and the clouds looked as though they were being scared off into submission, or were at least on the way to doing so.
The back of Copacobana from Porto Bay - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
The stage being set up for Guetta on New Year's morning - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Porto Bay - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro
Looking north from Porto Bay, up Copacabana to Leme and 'hints of Sugarloaf' beyond
Those few hours out there were quite spectacular and looking back now I always regret that we didn't find it in ourselves to head back. Still, with lunch over we headed back to Copa for some later afternoon activity with some fris on the beach and then found our way to the rooftop bar at the Porto Bay, something that turned into our 'go to' option on many a day whilst dawdling along Copacabana, and really, some twenty floors up an overlooking one of the most spectacular vistas in the world, how much could you get wrong?
29 Dec
When the driving rain drew us out from our lucid dreams on this morning we were already clued in to what we needed to do. Now I'm not partial to early mornings at anytime, and I know that our resident rock star Mr Frichot isn't either, (leaving the one member of our party who is!), but directed movement at 8am was imperative if we were to beat the masses that wanted to make their way up Sugarloaf.
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Check Frichot's video from Sugarloaf here - [The Adventures of Jet Frichot - Sugarloaf Mountain]
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
The odd thing of the early arrival and any tourist attraction is the absurdly low numbers of people in attendance (go figure). Whereas the day prior there had literally been thousands of stranded souls in the parking lot, on this day we had calmly walked to virtually the front of the line to the cable cars, calmly waited for the 8:30 opening and we away in the first couple of groups. There's something to be said for planning! I mean it's not going to be a rule that I'll ever want to live by but even I have to concede that there are benefits.
...and whilst at this point I could blabber on about how spellbinding the view from Sugarloaf was, I think I'll just leave it to some of the photos in order to sell you on the reality (enjoy).
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Pão de Açúcar - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
The view to Copacabana and Ipanema, further afield - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
Overlooking Urca and Botafogo
Cristo on a bleak day
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