My favorite movie for the longest time as a kid was “Rio,” the Disney about a blue parrot from Minnesota who goes to Rio de Janeiro because he is the last of his kind and needs to mate with this other parrot. The soundtrack is amazing, the colors are amazing; 10-year-old Cecilia was hooked. My sister and I would sing and sing those songs in the car wherever we were going… we were obsessed. So, I have wanted to go to Rio for a very long time now. It was not in my original South America travel plans because 1) it seemed so far away and 2) I don’t speak ANY Portuguese.
However, when the prospect of ever having class in Chile again shrank to almost nothing, I decided to see where I could take an unexpected trip. Since I couldn’t go to Ecuador or Bolivia (hello more social unrest), I hesitantly tried to find flights to Rio. I was amazed when I found decently priced flights for a weeklong trip, so I decided to give it a go. My friends Jack and Caileigh were happy to accompany me and we bought the tickets! A week later, we were on our plane to Rio. The plan was to spend about 4 days there and then head back to Chile. Reflecting back, these four days were so packed full of stuff, I am honestly shocked we got to spend 2 of those afternoons relaxing on Copacabana Beach.
The first day it was a bit overcast so we headed north from where we were staying to the Centro to check out some sights there. We went to the “Escaleras de Selaron,” a famous art installation of tiled stairs, conveniently done by a Chilean artist! We then wandered around the neighborhood of Santa Teresa, took a streetcar, and saw some more of downtown Rio. We had a delicious late lunch at this classic Brazilian restaurant (hello yummy fish and rice!) and then headed back to Copacabana. Even though it was cloudy, we walked along the beach, ran in the water and generally yelled about our disbelief about being in Rio de Janeiro at that exact moment. We wandered into a beachside bar, had a couple of classic Brazilian “caipirinha” drinks, and headed back to our neighborhood for dinner and a good night’s sleep.
The next day dawned bright and (almost) cloudless, so we decided that this was going to be the day that we went to the famed Christ the Redeemer statue. It is important to go on clear days so that you can take advantage of the incredible views from the top. There are three ways to get to the statue: 1) walking up the mountain, 2) taking a van up, or 3) taking a scenic train. We decided to go the train route because it seemed like the coolest and none of us really felt like walking up that enormous mountain. The ride up was breathtaking, as we could see the intricacies of the jungle surrounding the city on all sides. When we finally arrived, it was… sweaty. And packed with tourists and selfie sticks. And a bit cloudy. Not exactly the splendor I had expected. We pushed our way through the throngs of tourists to the edges to see the view of the city and fought some more to get a good picture of us and Christ. After we had done these two essential things, the three us of decided to head back down, a tad underwhelmed by Christ himself. I guess some wonders of the world are not meant for everyone.
Later that day, we went to get a late lunch (more yummy fish and rice!) and headed to Ipanema Beach for some quality sand and seawater. I much prefer the seawater part as I am not really a sand girl (it gets everywhere forever, hello)! After frolicking in the waves, listening to music and having a cocktail, we walked back towards Copacabana and watched the sunset from rocks jetting out from the shore.
Friday was probably my favorite day. A couple days before, Jack had asked Caileigh and I if we felt comfortable enough to go on a tour of a favela. A favela is basically a slum/shanty town, and they are abundant in Rio. Since Jack was in a Geography of Inequality class and he seemed really interested to go, we said yes. We got picked up by our guide, a guy in his early 30s who had lived in the favela his whole life. The favela we went to is called Rocinha, and it is the biggest favela in Latin America. We rode moto-taxis up the huge hill that it is built on, fearing that the steepness of the roads would just let us fall right off the back. The tour started in the school to which most of the tour profits go, to show how our money was going back into the favela (which I loved). We then basically just walked through the whole thing all the way down to the bottom, winding through alleys and passages that no one but a local could navigate, as our guide educated us on the complex relationship within the favela of the mafia and the Brazilian police. Basically, the mafia control the favela because they are the natives and the police can’t navigate the tiny alleys if they tried. The police that we see on the street, our guide told us, are all on the payroll of the mafia and stand in the street so as to not make anyone suspicious. Another amazing part of the tour was the discovery of Wark. Wark is a street artist that I had seen in other parts of Rio, and when I saw his work in Rocinha and asked our guide, he told us that he was a local artist and took us to his studio! It was awesome!
Since our tour ended at about 12, we decided to head to the beach that afternoon. After spending a couple hours there, we went back to the Airbnb to quickly shower so that we could get to our next destination on time. We were headed to take the cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain to watch the sunset. This was probably one of the most beautiful sunsets that I have seen in my whole life. It was just incredible to see the whole Rio skyline light up while the sun set behind it. I could have just stared at that view forever.
Our last day was more relaxed than the day before but still super fun! We slept in a bit, had breakfast and then went to explore two parks: The Botanical Gardens and Parque Lage. In the Botanical Gardens, the whole of Rio’s tropical ecosystem was on display to us, MONKEYS included! Yes, we saw tons of monkeys (and baby monkeys riding on their moms’ backs)! After getting a late lunch to abate our hunger from wandering around the tropical paradise, we headed back to our neighborhood for the main event of the day. We had discovered that there was a huge soccer game this day, a club team final between Brazil and Argentina. Therefore, we MUST go to a sports bar and watch with the locals! The game was pretty depressing most of the time, because Argentina scored early and Brazil kept trying to tie it up but couldn’t. During minute 87, we (and the sad Brazilians around us) pretty much had come to terms that Argentina was going to win 1-0 and it was a somber atmosphere. BUT THEN! In minute 88, Brazil scored and tied up the game. The bar went absolutely INSANE. Think of seeing World Cup reaction cams where the whole crowd all throws their beer up into the air at the same time. That was the feeling, essentially. We were all super amped up that we were going into overtime, but then BRAZIL SCORED AGAIN. The time ran out. This literally meant that the game was over and Brazil had WON in the last 2 minutes. Apologies for all the capitalization but the thrill of those last couple minutes honestly still courses through me every time I think about the game. We then walked home along the beach in the rain to the sound of fireworks and victory chants. What a perfect way to end our perfect trip to Rio. 🙂
Cecilia in Chile - Fall 2019 