Two Days in Rio….

  Sailing into Guanabara Bay at dawn on a clear day has got to be the most spectacular arrival into any of the world’s great ports.  The sun’s rays turn the clouds pink and make the city glitter as they bounce off glass-sided high-rises.  The city slowly comes to life as ferries begin crossing to and from Niteroi on the far side. Planes take off and land at Santos Dumont airport. The Brazilian Navy base may be full or nearly empty but there is almost always a submarine in dry dock. 

Day 1:  A walking tour from the cruise ship terminal through old Rio into modern Rio takes us past Carmen Miranda’s house, the Candelaria church, which was hosting a university graduation mass,and into the large central plaza that is a melange of old and new. The colonial Sao Francisco da Penetencia church on the knoll overlooking the plaza is worth a visit, then on to Rio’s super-modern cathedral, after passing the Petro Bras HQ.  From the cathedral it’s another 15 minutes to Los Arcos, the surviving aqueduct from colonial times.  

      

At lunch time a buffet restaurant, where you pay for what you put on your plate, beckons and provides a filling, healthy repast.  

Los Arcos

After lunch, a car, driver and guide appear and sweep us off to Rocinha, one of the favelas that has been pacified—which means that the drug dealers and guns have been largely cleaned out and there is a permanent police presence. Our guide, the excellent Martha Vasconcellos, must be trained and licensed to enter Rocinha (in addition to her license as a tour guide) and we also had an escort from the community, another requirement.  

 

Walking into Rocinha is walking into another world. Houses are stacked; the system is that family #1 builds their house on the ground floor; family #2 buys the air rights to build on top, and so on up to a maximum of five families. The roof is the common area, for laundry, a kid’s bathing pool, or just hanging out on a hot Rio afternoon.  This is a real community: shops, barbers, a house with an Afro-Brazilian religious priestess—identifiable by the frog and other figures in the window. No pictures allowed here. Elsewhere two young men treat us to an improvised at-hand-drum samba concert while a toddler struts his stuff. 

Toward the end of the 3-hour tour we find a small grocery/snack bar and collapse for some liquid refreshment. Three neighbourhood boys approach us and we find out they are all in school, and all have aspirations that will take them beyond the favela.  We leave exhausted and inspired. 

Dinner checked another item off our bucket list: La Garota de Ipanema where Tom Jobim got the inspiration for “The Girl from Ipanema” five decades ago. While waiting, three capoeira buskers took over the street and I raced outside in time to catch one in mid-air. Back inside, we both had fish dishes. David opted for bacalão, a traditional cod dish originally from Portugal. I chose a fish stew with tomatoes and green peppers. Truly one of the best meals we’ve had in Latin America.

Day 2: The best time to visit Corcovado—Christ the Redeemer—which we had seen coming into Guanabara Bay—is early morning. The bus-tour crowds haven’t arrived, which means a pleasant trip up to the top on the funicular—tram—without feeling like you are in a sardine can, and the city, spread out before you, glows.  

From Corcovado the next stop is Pão de Açucar—Sugar Loaf—for more stunning views of Rio and the bay.  Large gondolas run from the terminal a kilometer away diagonally up to the summit, affording 360° views of Botafogo Bay, Flamengo, Copacabana and further on, Ipanema. 

In the afternoon we choose one of the beach-side restaurants located near the sidewalk on Copacabana beach and chill out for a couple hours.  No one suggests that we need to move along; Brazilians are unfamiliar with the concept of turning tables every 90 minutes. 

In the evening a Samba Show introduces us to the rich variety of music and dances that have developed and evolved in Brazil through the cross-pollination of African-indigenous and European cultures. It is loud, colourful and worth the price of admission.  A fitting end to a visit that left us wanting more.