Where do I even begin? Rio has been nothing short of overwhelming and exciting since we first saw the city from the air. The domestic airport in Rio is located beside the beach; in order to land, the plane cruises over the city, low enough to see the mountainous landscape, favelas, and sky rise buildings. A dramatic turn is made, giving passengers a perfect view of the beach, and then the Christ of Reedemer, before touching down. Stepping foot outside the airport, I was accosted with new smells, sounds, and the overwhelming heat. The city has been nearly 40 degrees this entire week, and the heat is mostly unrelenting, leaving tourists and locals combined in a constant sweat.
Our first night in Rio was spent at a hostel in the Lapa area, near the center of the city. Here we discovered pay by the kilo buffet dinners (brilliant and cheap), and saw more prostitutes than I can count on one hand. We also visited a cone shaped cathedral with some of the most intricate stained glass I have ever seen. We also attended an after-bloco (block) party, where we drank caipirinhas and danced the night away to samba music with the locals. With a population of just over 6 million people, Rio is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, and the Wikitravel page on safety is extremely intimidating. Because of this, my necklace has been tucked deep within my bag, and my camera didn’t make it out the first night.
The following day brought forth the official start of Carnival, as well as the start of our Contiki tour. We asked the girl at reception at our hostel to call us a cab to get to Ipanema where our new hotel was, and she told us we would be better off taking the metro. Considering this was the same girl from the night before who told me to take off my expensive necklace to prevent being mugged, I was a bit perplexed and weary about taking all my stuff on the metro. Nevertheless, we heeded her advice, and the metro ride was actually quite pleasant, and we made it there in one piece. Ipanema is one of the richer neighbourhoods in Rio, and we could immediately tell with the nice buildings, variety of restaurants, and bars scattered throughout the area. We dropped our bags at the hotel and headed straight for Ipanema beach, 2 blocks from our hotel. The white sand beach stretches in either direction, with lush green mountains rising up on either side. The beach was packed with locals and tourists alike, all of which I spent hours watching. Every time I tried to read, I was distracted by the vendors wandering the beach selling caipirinhas, shrimp, acai, ice cream, sarongs, and bikinis. As soon as one booming voice was out of ear shot, another followed yelling louder in hopes of making a sale. This beach is definitely better for people watching then it is more relaxing!
Later in the afternoon we headed back to the hotel, and after sorting out a mixup with our room, we got settled before going to meet our group. The group was made up of 26 people from different parts of Canada, Australia, the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, and Scotland, ranging in age from 20-33 years old. We got to know the group a little better over a traditional Brazilian dinner, which consisted of meat, meat, and more meat. After a brief trip to the salad bar, men come around with a variety of different meats, including chicken heart and cow tongue, and you choose what you want to try. They continue to come around until you are done eating, giving you the opportunity to eat an unhealthy amount of meat. After stuffing ourselves, we headed out to participate in a local bloco party, which was completely different to what I expected a block party would be like. There was an undecorated parade float with a band on it pumping music into the streets. It moved slowly from block to block, while thousands of people followed behind dancing, singing and drinking in the streets. Within the first few minutes of arriving at the bloco, everyone was seperataed, so we sambed our way up the street, enjoying the music and drinking with a few of the people we had managed to stay with. It was a little frustrating trying to find people and stick together, but it was a really unique experience. The people were extremely passionate, dancing like no one was watching, making out in the middle of the street, jumping up and down, and enjoying life as though there was no care in the world. I had heard Carnival makes Brazilians really happy, but I had no idea just how happy. Despite the dangers of pickpockets, I braved taking my camera out with me that night, and although all of my stuff was fine, 2 girls from our group got money stolen out of their bags. This made the dangers of Rio all the more real to me, and I proceeded to walk with one hand on my bag at all times throughout the rest of the week.
The following morning we were up early for a jeep tour that was taking us up to the famous Corcovado mountain to see the Christ the Redeemer statue. The statue is located at the top of the mountain, about 700 meters high. About half way up, I got a threatening wave of nausea and my stomach started misbehaving. By the time I made it up to the Christ the Redeemer, it was pretty clear that I was sick, and I spent nearly half my time up there in the bathroom. I made it up the stairs to see and snap a photo with the largest and most famous statue of Jesus Christ, but I felt like garbage. It wasn’t until much later that I reflected on the size and beauty of the statue; it was pretty incredible to see, and despite being sick, I’m incredibly thankful that I got to see the statue. After taking all the stomach medicine in my bag, my stomach slowly calmed down enough to enjoy the visit to Tijuca National Park, where we went for a short walk and had an amazing view of the city. Rio has multiple look out spots, all of which are beautiful, leading me to believe that Rio may just be the most scenic city I have ever been to.
The jeep tour didn’t finish until well in the afternoon, and we had a short amount of time to relax before we headed to a futbol game. We headed out early to “predrink”, and ended up in a fairly large group of people drinking outside a gas station convenience store that sold beer. It was honestly one of the weirdest things I have ever experienced. After purchasing our dirt cheap, fake Brazil jersey’s, we made our way to the stadium. The game was fairly boring and the stadium wasn’t very full, but the game was at Maracana Stadium where the World Cup finals will be held this summer. It was pretty amazing to see the stadium, and I may just have to watch some of the World Cup now! By this point, I was feeling better, but not great, so I opted to not drink that night. I figured I should try and keep food in my system before adding alcohol into the mix. We ended up going to a gay bar (Rio has a huge gay population), and as I followed a goth guy into the club, I was fairly skeptical. My feelings only intensified when a song came on that repeated the word “pussy” over and over again, while men throughout the club grinded on one another. Just when I was convinced that I couldn’t stay there sober, our tour manager led us to a larger area downstairs with air conditioning and dance music. As we stepped onto the dance floor, I immediately felt better, and the whole group had a great time dancing the night away. I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had sober, and on the plus side, I wasn’t going to be hungover for hang gliding the next day!
