Day 2 - 5: Rio De Janeiro - Sugarloafers
- Vik Leann
- Sep 18, 2015
- 5 min read
August 15 - 18, 2015
Truth be told, Vik didn't do much planning for our destinations in terms of a detailed itinerary, like he used to for previous trips, thinking we would have time to plan them out as we went along. Bad move, especially in a place where you don't understand their language well. He also didn't expect to have so much to consider, manage, log, while on the move. As comfortable as the bus rides were, it wasn't the easiest to read off a computer screen too.
We were worried about our couchsurfing host even till the day before we arrived because Patricia was so busy she didn't provide us her address until we contacted her on WhatsApp! Nonetheless, we found our way to her house and managed to also meet Jin, a fellow couchsurfer who is a Linguistics professor in Tokyo. (She's an American of Korean descent with lots of traveling and couchsurfing experiences). Like Alvin, Patricia lives in a safer and slightly more upscale area called Leblon just 5 mins from a long stretch of beach that includes Ipanema. She is a single mum with 2 kids, an obedient and cute dog called Dante and a Siamese cat called Josefina.
So, more about Rio. 4N 3D. We went to Academia do Cacacha for dinner and drinks with Jin who knows her cacachas pretty well. Cacacha is a sugar cane alcohol that is the base for caipirinhas, the official Brazilian drink. Like whisky, there are numerous variants of different quality from tons of distilleries across Brazil.
DAY 1 - BEACH AND SUGARLOAF
Our first day was spent exploring the longer than expected beach (Leblon, Ipanema, Copacabana, etc.), exploring the rather interesting Sunday Hippie market, having a traditional lunch at the expensive Casa de Feijoada, going to Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf mountain) and failing to arrive at Arpoador on time for the sunset.
Conclusions: - Beach was interesting. They closed one way of an entire road for runners and pedestrians (Sundays only); Had lots of workout stations where many dudes used for working out; and lotsa beach volleyball areas that seemed free.
- Sunday hippie market was'nt big but had really interesting crafts we would gladly buy if we weren't backpacking and on a tight budget.
- Casa de Feijoada wasnt mind blowing, but it was extremely filling and there were free cachadas (R$70+)
all these are just for 1 person
- Pao de Acucar, or Sugarloaf Mountain, (R$62) was awesomely gorgeous. Well worth the ride up. Sunset from there would be perfect but you would have to arrive earlier to book your spot. We were there at around 4.30pm, sunset was around 6.15pm, and the good spots with unobstructed views were already taken up by photography enthusiasts with big cameras that looked like cannons.
DAY 2 - CITY TOUR
Day 2 was spent taking an early bus ride to Centro for the Rio Free walking tour. The "River of January" was founded in the 1500s, but only progressed when the Portuguese royal family arrived in the early 1800s to flee from Napoleon in Europe. Started out pretty much around the same time as Singapore actually. Well, join the tour if you want to find out more! We definitely enjoyed the tour with Fabiana who happens to be the founder of the tour. Vik's highlight of the tour was definitely the Confeiteria de Colombo!
Meeting point: Municipal Theatre
Meeting time: 9.30am, Monday - Friday
Fabiana, our free walking tour guide, who is AWESOME
The famous Selaron Steps
Choc tart from Confeiteria de Colombo
After lunch at a traditional Brazilian restaurant that charged based on weight (Kilo restaurant), we then tried to cover Copacabana beach (which was rather empty since it was Monday) and ended up sipping coke and having a corn wedge while we watched the sunset at Arpoador.
sunset from Arpoador
Lights were up at the Favela (slum)
DAY 3 - CHRIST THE REDEEMER
Day 3 started early again as we wanted to reach Corcovado a.k.a Christo Redentor before the tour groups. It has always been Vik’s dream to visit the statue when he first saw it in photos! We took the advice of our walking tour guide and Patricia to take the cogway train up, as it offered better views and cost the same (R$56) as taking a van from the metro station. There was also another way, which was to climb the hill from the back of Parque Lage: a 2-hour steep climb on rather difficult trekking paths, and possibly no transport available down.
Anyway, if you have taken the cogway trains in Switzerland, you may be slightly disappointed with this train ride (it's almost the same but without the views). Nonetheless, it did what it was supposed to and we arrived at the peak to witness stunning views of the Redeemer and the entire city below us. The great weather helped make the views gorgeous, and although we weren’t the first to arrive, the crowds only started pouring in after we were done. It helped that the statue was so huge that there was almost no way you could block or photo-bomb somebody. We spent an hour and had some breakfast before we went down the same way we came up.
We took a short bus ride to Parque Lage: an old colonial mansion now used for the arts set inside an interestingly designed park. We discovered a rather poorly maintained small aquarium set inside a mound with some tunnels, which reminded Vik of Quinta de Regaleira in Sintra, Portugal. This was much smaller and definitely way more boring. So was Parque Lage actually. We then took a walk down to the botanical gardens, hoping to stop by somewhere for lunch (Emporio Jardim), but came across our biggest discovery in Brazil: a Kopenhagen cafe! We knew nothing of Kopenhagen except that it’s a chocolate brand that you can see as part of the Mcdonalds is a Brazilian chocolate brand that is not mentioned anywhere in guidebooks. We just couldn’t resist the idea of piping hot pure chocolate in our mouths. We were definitely not disappointed. Despite the language barrier, we had the best hot chocolate in the longest time, and couldn’t resist buying some chocolates to indulge in for the rest of our trip.
We soon found our way to Emporio Jardim for some healthy lunch, but weren’t too impressed, considering the price we paid. Jardin Botanico was just a stopover for a toilet break, as we were tired and not too impressed while walking past the entire length of the gardens (They only had one entrance and it was the other end from where we came from). We scored some free bicycles to ride back thanks to our couchsurfing host who permitted us to use her account to grab bikes off the city racks using an app. We concluded our day after checking out the post office, the supermarket and cooking some spicy sambal chicken for ourselves.
Looking back, we didn’t check out the Samba nightlife in Rio, hang out at the beach, nor ride a bike around the lagoon but I think 3 days is sufficient to explore this interesting city, especially if you skip the botanical gardens, Parque Lage, and maybe even Arpoador, though it’s a free area to chill out and wait for the sunset with everyone else.
On to Pantanal!