More tales of Rio
Hi guys,
Yes, I'm back slaving over a hot (and it really is bloody warm here - mid 30s again today) keyboard again.
Contrary to what I wrote last time, I didn't actually go up Sugarloaf on Sunday afternoon, largely because I got slightly lost trying to find the appropriate bus down the far end of Copacabana. So instead I took the Metro into the centre of town and then got the historic bondinho (translates as something like "little tram") up into the district of Santa Teresa. This is what was once one of the nicer districts of Rio but is now a little more run-down around the edges, and has become home to a population of artists and bohemians and the like. The tram itself is an open-sided little gem from about the 1920s, which rattles over a hair-raising viaduct over the central district of Lapa before clunking its way up into the bairro district of Santa Teresa itself. On the way it passes houses both run-down and beautiffuly looked after, little shops and bars, and various other road-users which, in true Rio style, get greeted with loud ringings of the bell to encourage them to get out of the way. Although actually, thinking about it, this isn't that typical - most Carioca drivers don't bother with the horn, they just change lanes and zoom through anyway. At any rate, the district itself was quite picturesque to wander around for a bit, but the main experience was the tram itself, which, in stark contrast to many of Rio's other attractions (I'm looking at YOU, Sugarloaf and Cristo Redentor!) is remarkably cheap - about 20p each way.
On returning to the hostel, I got chatting with a mixed bunch of fellow travellers and ended up going along to what was described repeatedly as a "meat feast" - the technical term was actually a rodizio, and it was bascally an All-You-Can-Eat BBQ, with the food served on skewers direct to your table (a quick nod to indicate "yes, I'll have some of that" serves nicely to cross language barriers). This was glorious, if not brilliant for my stated aim of trying to lose a wee bit of weight whilst on the road - my personal favourite had to be the garlic steak, which was just mouth-watering. I did admittedly wimp out from having the chicken hearts, though. After this we went back to the hostel's bar for the familiar dosing of caipirinhas, accompanied by a certain amount of card games (not, for once, Ring of Fire, which would be a very bad thing to play on the caipirinhas here! - the alcohol content of one of them is probably enough to make me a binge drinker by our government's estimations...). There was a bit of a diversion later on in the night, when we made the interesting decision of following some Colombians from the hostel off in search of a bar they'd heard about in the area, involving flagging down a whole heap of taxis and trying to mime "follow that cab!" so that we didn't lose track of the people who supposedly knew where we were going. And then it turned out to be closed. So we had to get more cabs to get us back, and ours decided he didn't want to use the meter and was trying to scalp us, until he was routed by a five-foot-nothing little Colombian lass who told him where he could stick his claims. Very funny.
Unsurprisingly after all this excitement, I slept in late yesterday, and then headed off in the afternoon to make my delayed trip to Sugarloaf. This time I had no trouble finding my bus, and made it remarkably easily to the famous mountain. Although I should add at this point that Brasilian buses have a system whereby you pay a conductor behind the driver your fare as you get on and then have to push through a turnstile. And it can get a wee bit tight. Luckily it's a flat fare on each bus, which is shown in the front window, so there's no confusion from having to comprehend numbers or anything. The cable-car ride up to Sugarloaf is spectacular - it's done in two parts, the first up to Morro do Urca, and then a second one up to the top of Pao de Acucar itself. At the middle level, there are the usual facilities - cafe, toilets, etc - but also a little move theatre which tells you the story of the cable car (with helpful English subtitles), amusingly including the cable car's brief role in the Bond film Moonraker, where Bond fights it out with Jaws on there, and also a landing pad for helicopter tours. The day was gorgeous (bright sunshine and clear skies to start with, although it clouded over a little bit later), and it was all good fun.
After getting down from the mountain, I hung on the bus back a little longer and went on to the next beach over, at Ipanema, where I watched a beautiful sunset. Ipanema is a thinner beach than Copacabana, without all the volleyball and football courts of the latter, and comes right up to the promenade, so it feels a bit closer in. I had a nice couple of Brasilian dark beers from the Brahma brewing company (yes, I'm trying new beers as usual...) and a Brasilian meal called a Pocadinho Carioca (I think), which involved beef in a red wine sauce, rice, farofa (which is a kind of ground manioc flour, seasoned in this case with garlic) and, for some reason, deep-fried bananas. Reminded me a bit of Cape Curry in that fashion, but all very nice. Having showed my pictures from the sunset to some of the guys here at the hostel, they've headed over there this evening.
I haven't, as I've spent the day doing a favela tour around the district of Rocinha and then making my way up to the statue of Cristo Redentor, Christ the Redeemer, up on the Corcovado hill this afternoon. But my hour's about up, so that will have to wait for later.
Take care and have fun,
Pat
Yes, I'm back slaving over a hot (and it really is bloody warm here - mid 30s again today) keyboard again.
Contrary to what I wrote last time, I didn't actually go up Sugarloaf on Sunday afternoon, largely because I got slightly lost trying to find the appropriate bus down the far end of Copacabana. So instead I took the Metro into the centre of town and then got the historic bondinho (translates as something like "little tram") up into the district of Santa Teresa. This is what was once one of the nicer districts of Rio but is now a little more run-down around the edges, and has become home to a population of artists and bohemians and the like. The tram itself is an open-sided little gem from about the 1920s, which rattles over a hair-raising viaduct over the central district of Lapa before clunking its way up into the bairro district of Santa Teresa itself. On the way it passes houses both run-down and beautiffuly looked after, little shops and bars, and various other road-users which, in true Rio style, get greeted with loud ringings of the bell to encourage them to get out of the way. Although actually, thinking about it, this isn't that typical - most Carioca drivers don't bother with the horn, they just change lanes and zoom through anyway. At any rate, the district itself was quite picturesque to wander around for a bit, but the main experience was the tram itself, which, in stark contrast to many of Rio's other attractions (I'm looking at YOU, Sugarloaf and Cristo Redentor!) is remarkably cheap - about 20p each way.
On returning to the hostel, I got chatting with a mixed bunch of fellow travellers and ended up going along to what was described repeatedly as a "meat feast" - the technical term was actually a rodizio, and it was bascally an All-You-Can-Eat BBQ, with the food served on skewers direct to your table (a quick nod to indicate "yes, I'll have some of that" serves nicely to cross language barriers). This was glorious, if not brilliant for my stated aim of trying to lose a wee bit of weight whilst on the road - my personal favourite had to be the garlic steak, which was just mouth-watering. I did admittedly wimp out from having the chicken hearts, though. After this we went back to the hostel's bar for the familiar dosing of caipirinhas, accompanied by a certain amount of card games (not, for once, Ring of Fire, which would be a very bad thing to play on the caipirinhas here! - the alcohol content of one of them is probably enough to make me a binge drinker by our government's estimations...). There was a bit of a diversion later on in the night, when we made the interesting decision of following some Colombians from the hostel off in search of a bar they'd heard about in the area, involving flagging down a whole heap of taxis and trying to mime "follow that cab!" so that we didn't lose track of the people who supposedly knew where we were going. And then it turned out to be closed. So we had to get more cabs to get us back, and ours decided he didn't want to use the meter and was trying to scalp us, until he was routed by a five-foot-nothing little Colombian lass who told him where he could stick his claims. Very funny.
Unsurprisingly after all this excitement, I slept in late yesterday, and then headed off in the afternoon to make my delayed trip to Sugarloaf. This time I had no trouble finding my bus, and made it remarkably easily to the famous mountain. Although I should add at this point that Brasilian buses have a system whereby you pay a conductor behind the driver your fare as you get on and then have to push through a turnstile. And it can get a wee bit tight. Luckily it's a flat fare on each bus, which is shown in the front window, so there's no confusion from having to comprehend numbers or anything. The cable-car ride up to Sugarloaf is spectacular - it's done in two parts, the first up to Morro do Urca, and then a second one up to the top of Pao de Acucar itself. At the middle level, there are the usual facilities - cafe, toilets, etc - but also a little move theatre which tells you the story of the cable car (with helpful English subtitles), amusingly including the cable car's brief role in the Bond film Moonraker, where Bond fights it out with Jaws on there, and also a landing pad for helicopter tours. The day was gorgeous (bright sunshine and clear skies to start with, although it clouded over a little bit later), and it was all good fun.
After getting down from the mountain, I hung on the bus back a little longer and went on to the next beach over, at Ipanema, where I watched a beautiful sunset. Ipanema is a thinner beach than Copacabana, without all the volleyball and football courts of the latter, and comes right up to the promenade, so it feels a bit closer in. I had a nice couple of Brasilian dark beers from the Brahma brewing company (yes, I'm trying new beers as usual...) and a Brasilian meal called a Pocadinho Carioca (I think), which involved beef in a red wine sauce, rice, farofa (which is a kind of ground manioc flour, seasoned in this case with garlic) and, for some reason, deep-fried bananas. Reminded me a bit of Cape Curry in that fashion, but all very nice. Having showed my pictures from the sunset to some of the guys here at the hostel, they've headed over there this evening.
I haven't, as I've spent the day doing a favela tour around the district of Rocinha and then making my way up to the statue of Cristo Redentor, Christ the Redeemer, up on the Corcovado hill this afternoon. But my hour's about up, so that will have to wait for later.
Take care and have fun,
Pat
posted by Pat at 12:00 pm
<< Home