Rio de Janeiro, Cidade Maravilhosa !
On Tuesday July 24 we moved into our new home for the next four weeks, an apartment in Rio's Leblon neighborhood. One of its best amenities is a pool in a clever custom shape for a triangular patio, fitting in a lap lane which Abram has been enjoying. We really do like having a kitchen. Produce here is fantastic, especially the fruit! And as the song says, they've got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil; it's great to be able to make our own coffee leisurely in the morning, using their delicious dark Orfeu Clássico. Definitely going to buy a couple extra bags to take with us when we leave Brazil.
The Leblon neighborhood includes the southernmost beach of three famous beaches - Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon. Our apartment is 5 blocks from the beach and 3 blocks from the main metro line. Lots of apartments, shops and restaurants around us. Not far from the Jardim Botânico, the Parque Lage (with a trail that leads all the way up to the top of Corcovado!) and the Lagao Rodrigo de Freitas, a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean, allowing sea water to enter by a canal along the edge of a park locally known as Jardim de Alah (the best Metro stop name ever!).
We're also near the Jockey Club, where I have it on good authority they throw some wild parties! How can we get ourselves invited??
A few pics of our apartment:
Speaking of the Metro, it's clean, quick, inexpensive and easy to pay - get a transit card or just swipe a credit card. There's some cool art in some of the stations and women-only cars during the morning and evening rush hours.
The geology and visuals of Rio de Janeiro are unusual and spectacular. Granite hills and mountains surround the city in all directions, even out into the ocean. "The geological setting of the Rio de Janeiro Harbor is characterized by a mix of volcanic, sedimentary and igneous rocks, shaped by tectonic and erosional processes over millions of years." Learn more here:
We've all seen the iconic images of Corcovado and Sugarloaf, but I didn't know that those are merely two of dozens of peaks. I learned yesterday that there used to be many more of them, smaller ones, in the area of what is now downtown city streets, and also many small lagoons. The smaller peaks were razed, the lagoons filled in, the coastline and beaches extended with landfill, and the harbor deepened to create what Rio is today.
When you're out and about, the peaks appear randomly everywhere, including Corcovado with Christo Redentor standing atop it; seeing it is like glimpsing the Eiffel Tower when wandering around Paris.
The last photo is from the balcony of our apartment. The peaks are everywhere!
There's incredible diversity in the population of Brazil - a wide range of skin color and ethnicity - so enjoyable!
A family group including a lady as white as me!
And of course the beach culture!
This is called Futevolei. "Foot volley was created by Octavio de Moraes in 1965 in Brazil and combines rules that are based on those of beach volleyball with ball-touch rules taken from association football. Essentially futevolai is beach volleyball except players are not allowed to use their hands and a football (soccer ball) replaces the volleyball." Apparently they also play it in Miami Beach, too, and there was a demonstration tournament of it during the 2016 Olympics in Rio. They are fit and skillful!
As befitting a city with a beach, around Rio you see people in shorts and rubber flip flops everywhere, mixed in with others in business clothes and just regular casual attire - jeans, althetic wear, lots of linen. When you walk between Ipanema Beach and Copacabana Beach you have to cross a promontory between the two beaches on a few blocks of city streets. We walked behind two men in wetsuits and bare feet, carrying spear fishing gear - an unusual sight on a busy shopping street with taxis and buses roaring by!
The other evening we walked down to the beach around 5:30 for a caipirinha at one of the beachfront cafe/kiosks. We saw a girls volleyball team practicing; also saw a mom with a couple of young kids arrive for what was clearly an after-work beach visit - a quick swim by mom and daughter followed by a volleyball game with both kids and another girl who joined them. Very chill and fun.
They turn on bright lights after the sun goes down which illuminate the beach and the walkway.
Along the beaches, from the top of Leme and Copacabana down to the bottom of Leblon, are Postos - lifeguard stations - about every 1/3 of a mile. They're numbered from 1 through 12, so people use them as location markers and meeting places. They have small lockers you can put your stuff in while you swim, and showers and bathrooms. So civilized!
Last Friday night we walked around our foodie neighborhood looking for dinner and ended up having quite good pizza at an outside table; the winter weather has been mostly marvelous (aside from a handful of rainy days). Most restaurants and cafes, and many bars, have sidewalk tables. I love that!
On the way home we decided to take a route that would lead us past an old-school bar called Jobi. It has been open since 1956 and is an iconic piece of bohemian history in Leblon. It's famous for "chopps" of Brahma - little glasses of Brazilian beer.
There wasn't an empty table or barstool so we wandered down the street and were lucky to have a fabulous Samba encounter! Turns out there's a Roda de Samba (Samba jam) every Friday night across from our Metro station. There were maybe 10 musicians and several singers; anyone could come take the mic. The crowd was so happy! Singing along with every song, dancing, and playing along, using things like metal buckets and water bottles filled with rice as percussion instruments. We will definitely go back!
On Sunday we went to Barra da Tijuca to see a Banksy exhibition. It's installed in a very high-end shopping mall, an ironic twist given most of his social/political statements.
On Monday I took a tour called The World's Most Beautiful Libraries. I love libraries so how could I resist? It was a 3-hour walking tour around downtown Rio - the Centro - and included two incredible libraries, two bookstores, a cafe, and a running commentary on history, geology, sociology, language, art and architecture. We first visited the National Library, built in 1814 to house the 60,000 books brought by the Portuguese royal family, when they left Portugal along with 10,000 courtiers, family, hangers-on, etc, as they fled in advance of Napoleon invading Portugal in 1807.
We also visited the Portuguese Library, the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura. It has the largest collection of Portuguese literature outside of Portugal.
One of the two bookstores - and a fabulous coffee shop - was located in the basement of this cool modern building:
During the tour I was just about to ask my tour guide if the city sidewalks are actually made of billions (trillions?) of individual stones/tiles...
... when we encountered this man at work. He said it was ok to snap his pic. Apparently the sand-like substance is a sort of cement powder to which he will add water after he sets all the stones. It's mind-boggling to think about all the miles and miles of sidewalks still being done this way!
The stones are set in differing patterns in different neighborhoods. My tour guide told me they come from a small city in Portugal.
After the tour I took a taxi up - and I mean up! - to the Santa Teresa neighborhood to see a museum that was once a private residence. It's called Museu Chácara do Céu and houses the art collection amassed by the previous owners. http://museuscastromaya.com.br
A few highlights including a video of the view from the terrace!
Yesterday Abram and I went back to Santa Teresa, this time taking the little tram up up up the mountain, and first across the Carioca Aqueduct, also known as the Arcos de Lapa. The aqueduct was built in the middle of the 18th century to bring fresh water from the Carioca River into the city. It now serves as a bridge for the Santa Teresa Tram as it starts its journey up the mountain. (Not my photo.)
Santa Teresa reminds me of a mix of Nob Hill, the Berkeley/Oakland hills and what Sausalito used to be. "Santa Teresa is a hilltop district with a charming, village-like vibe. Steep, winding streets are lined with elegant old mansions, some housing chic boutique hotels, quirky cocktail bars or romantic restaurants with bay views. As well as artists’ studios, 'Santa' has the Museu da Chácara do Céu, exhibiting European and Brazilian art, and the atmospheric Ruins Park, with an art gallery built around the ruins of a mansion." Some random shots from our visits:
The last pic isn't mine, but it's great, yes?!
Today Abram did one of his favorite things: laundry in a foreign laundromat. In his words, "One of the cleanest most orderly laundromats I’ve ever seen. It is in the garage of the Hortifruiti around the corner. Spotlessly clean completely automated using credit / debit cards. Soap and softener are injected automatically as part of the wash. Bathrooms and free Wi-Fi.
The Hortifruiti is similarly spotlessly clean. Everything is perfectly placed."
Tomorrow we head to Búzios (full name Armação dos Búzios), a resort town located on a small peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic, about 2-1/2 hours east of Rio by car. We will go in a ride-share van. And we will be meeting up with an ex-Petaluman (actually lived in Sebastopol and worked in Petaluma) who now lives in Rio das Ostras, an hour up the coast from Búzios - more on this fun experience in the next blog!
And finally, some local fauna. On the first day in our apartment we walked down the street to our little stretch of foodie fare - artisinal (mostly sourdough) breads and coffee, sushi, a French restaurant, a Cachaça bar - and said to ourselves, "Geez it's like being in Brooklyn"... until we spotted this little critter on a wire above our heads!
love the videos and THE LIBRARY!
Another adventure!! Loving the blog
Val! I think you should take up travel writing! Amazing! Makes me want to fly down tomorrow.
Fantastico!!