Rio Copacabana Beach

Our last couple of days we moved hotels to the beach, a bigger room with 4 separate beds 🙂 and this is when the real rain started. We swam in the ocean – super high waves and an undertow as well as an overtow (I know that’s not a word but it should be). It was colder than I thought but still great.

We went on long beach walks so we also covered Ipanema, did some fairly serious shopping as there was a market just beside our hotel, and toured the Copacabana Fort and military museum. Painting below is what I figure Carnival used to look like 😉 outfits far less fabricky these days.

The beach was very entertaining. Besides all the vendors along the boardwalk, there were beach bars, some of which had live music, and plenty of volleyball both regular and soccer style. The second was so cool to watch, especially if the players were good.

This was our last beer and dinner on the beach, with wet shoes, bags and raincoats. We felt badly for Carnival samba parade goers – Saturday was the parade for the winners of earlier in the week. When we saw the parade on Monday it was totally clear. The stadium is not covered so not only would viewers get wet but so would the participants.

Rio City Centre

The remains of Carnival blanketed the area: paraders excavated themselves from costumes, watchers hurried home and floats were discarded just past the end of the Sambadrome – long stadium for the samba parades. We saw it all at 5am heading home for a gigantic sleep.

We were on the move by noon I’d say. For the next couple of days we toured around the centre. We walked just over 10 kms almost every day. So much to see as we wound our way near our hotel, including many places to relax with a beer.

The peak of our excursions was Christ the Redeemer statue. So many elbows and cameras all squeezing in for photos. Fun fact: the statue originally had a cross under one arm and a soccer ball under the other. Locals called him ball Christ. So the arms were reconfigured to be outstretched. We saw what looked like the welding on both.

We also saw graffiti, famous favelas where some movies have been filmed, Tijuca National Park and finally saw inside the Cathedral Metropolitan – we walked by it 5 or 6 times but not only was it closed, a locked metal fence surrounded it. Later we realized that many, many structures such as historical buildings, subway stations, churches and etc had same locked fencing – hooligan deterrents. Plus no shops were open until mid-week.

And then these famous stairs created by a local artist in the past 10 years. He received tile donations to make it happen. This spot was even busier than the Carnival revelers we bumped into on our first day. Clearly he liked red.

Finally we hopped the cable car at Sugar Loaf mountain. A famous James Bond scene was filmed here way back when. the cable car first opened in the 1930s and was state of the art. Below was that model. It was upgraded in the 1970s and again in 2008. Sunset view was amazing. Look for Christ the Redeemer all lit up.

Our last morning in the centre we visited a former mansion with a private, now public, collection of Brazilian (and other art). We grabbed an old tram back by the arches or previous aqua duct system. Now it just forms backgrounds for movies.

Rio Carnival

Carnival for a week in Rio – we are here!

This was a surprise trip for my mom’s bucket list – we carved out a family vacation with my sister, brother, mom and myself. Last time we did this was in high school. Whoa.

The connections weren’t great ie the opposite of direct but an up grade on the first flight was awesome. Real glasses and cutlery. Who knew? 😉

We arrived first thing Sunday morning. So early our rooms weren’t ready. We wandered around the area meandering through more than one samba party and checking out expired floats from the previous evening – expired meaning bits broken off or mutilated. When we finally checked in though – four single beds 🙂

Loud jumpy music and skimpy outfits is carnival. Most popular – super heroes, Mario and Luigi, Joker. And bathing suits with fishnet stockings. We purchased some supplies to fit in. Nothing outrageous. Drinking beer in the street never goes amiss. Lots and lots of police out and about too.

Monday we walked around the downtown and port areas. In the afternoon we picked up tickets to that evening’s samba school parade. The atmosphere is one big party. Every other person is in costume. It smells like urine, charcoal and burned meat. We dressed up and went out!

The parade was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Six samba schools, 70 minutes each, 4-5 floats, 500-1000 people, competing for first place based on the theme and how well they execute it. The schools work on their parade for a whole year, including writing and releasing a song. We wrapped at 5am – can’t remember the last time I did that!!