The sail into Rio de Janeiro may be one of the prettiest ones in the world! What a beautiful sight! I had to get up early so that I could see the sunrise over Rio! I am so glad that I did! The mixture of the fog and sun, made for a beautiful purple glow over the water!
As the fog started to clear, I was able to see the mountains surrounding Rio. You could see layers of mountains in the distance and slowly Corcovado Mountain and Sugarloaf Mountain came into view!
We finally sailed into Porto Rio De Janeiro, which is part of Baia de Guanabara. The city is surrounded by a nature harbor and from the boat you could see the beautiful and famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. When we finally docked we took a private tour of the area. There were 10 people, our tour guide - Olivia and the driver. With having such a small group, we were able to decide what we wanted to see and how we would see it. Even though the clouds were beginning to lift, there was still some over Christ the Redeemer, so therefore we made our way from the port to the area of Saint Tereza. On our way, we stopped in the Lapa area to see the Sambodromo, which is the location of Carnival. It is a giant open air stadium set up in a row where the Samba schools parade down to show off their costumes and Samba dances. Apparently everyone is Rio has their favorite Samba school! At the Sambodromo we went into a Samba shop and were able to see some of the girls dressed in their Samba dresses!
Next we headed through Lapa to Saint Tereza. Rio is dvidied into sections and everyone refers to these sections while driving. Saint Tereza is situated below Corcovado Mountain and traveling up the hills, there were wonderful views to take in! This area has a trolley system that runs into the downtown of Rio, but due to an accident it is no longer running, although rumor has it that it may start up again soon! We stopped outside a local restaurant, walked along the streets, saw colorful houses (one of the few places in the city where there are houses), went shopping in the cutest store, and had some great views of the city.
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Now it was time to head to Corcovado! Rio is a city of contrasts. Along with the very wealthy that can afford the splendors of Rio, the city also has an extremely large slum area, situated within close proximity to some of the wealthiest neighborhoods. The slum areas are referred to as Favellas and are a cluster of houses stacked on top of each other built up the mountain sides. There can be more than 8 people living in one level of a favella and floors are usually built on top existing favellas for more families. Even though some favellas have just received running water and electricity, they have some of the best views in the city.
Traveling up to Corcovado, we passed a castle jutting out from the hillside and a lot of art work made from recycled materials around the city.
We finally reached Corcovado Mountain. Since we were traveling by van, we were able to skip the line of people waiting for the tram, and take another shuttle up to the top of the mountain. Although in order to reach Christ the Redeemer Statue, we had to climb about 200 steps. So a little bit about Corcovado Mountain that I learned is that the mountain is 2296 feet tall and the Christ the Redeemer statue is 130 feet tall and weighs over 700 tons! It was made of concrete with the outer layers made of soapstone from Sweden. They began construction in 1926 and finally opened on Oct 12, 1931.
As you can see, the thing to do is have your picture taken with your arms out. Although the picture taker has to lie down on the concrete in order to capture both you and the statue in the frame! Can you find me in the picture with all the people?? The guy with the soccer ball was pretty impressive!
We then drove to the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana. The beaches stretched on for miles! There are actually kilometer makers that go from 1 to, I think, 12 km along the beaches. There are different sections of the beaches, one section for Italians, ones for the various soccer teams, ones for the different groups. It is pretty interesting! Since the sand gets so hot, water paths in the sand are created for people to walk on! Also along the beaches are stands that sell coconut water and pop and they line the boardwalk which stretches the entire length of the beaches. Everyone is Rio is into working out, so therefore along the beach you will see tons of people running, biking, rollerblading, and they even have workout bars for pullups and dips along the beaches. They have guys selling water and ice and there are many people who built elaborate sand castles!
After spending some time at the beaches, we went to Bar Urca which is a restaurant that sells food alongside the harbor. You then take your meal across the street and eat on the harbor wall and watch the boats sail in. We had a meat and chicken pazellas which are small fried dishes filled with meat and chicken - they were good. Then we had these puffed pastry cups filled with cheese and chicken - they were good too! We sat there and ate, watched people on their boats and had a nice relaxing lunch!
Now it was time to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain! We took the cable car from the bottom of the first mountain to the top! It was great view of the entire city as we ascending up higher and higher! At the top we walked around and took pictures of the various views of the city! Then we took another cable car to the top of the next mountain! From here you could see everything... all the beaches, the entire city, the views were amazing!
We still were not done with our first day, we then went to the Salerno Steps. A man from Chile came to Brazil and wanted to do something for the city, so he created a Brazilian flag made from mosaic tiles. Well, that led to him creating an entire staircase full of mosaics. He is famous not only for his steps but also for a drawing he does with a pregnant lady. While I was on the steps, I meet his assistant and he took us into Salerno's showroom where he has his paintings. Although Salerno was sleeping when we stopped!
We had a great day! By the time we got back, I was hungry! They had an american bbq and I found some chilled soup (even though I have never had chilled soup at an bbq) but I had chilled Orange and Banana soup then chilled Pina Colada soup! They were so good! Even though we were tired, we made it to dinner to tell about our day with our table mates! We all shared stories about our first day in Rio!
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