Brazil
Rio de Janeiro
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| Copacabana |
We made it! We were finally out of Colombia and in Rio
de Janeiro. I have dreamed of coming here since I was a youngster and we’d
arrived. Brazil is massive, Rio is massive, and it took us a while, but we
eventually made it on the bus from the airport to our apartment for the next 3
days right next to Ipanema
beach. Super cool part of the city, near a lovely beach, in a trendy,
cosmopolitan area, and not far from the famous Copacabana
beach. Which song is in your head right now?!
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| Copacabana |
We settled in with a bit of dinner and a few drinks and the
next day we eventually found out how to get to go up to meet Jesus, overlooking
the city, AKA Christ the Redeemer. It was a bit of an effort because we were
struggling to buy a sim card for a start, so we were on the backfoot straight
away.
We’d googled where to go to buy the tickets and take the
shuttle bus up to the huge statue and there were only 3 places in the whole
city to do so. We ended up on the bus to the wrong place of course. Luckily for
us we found a couple of tour guides who spoke English, but they told us we were
miles from our destination. It soon transpired that they assumed we had already
bought tickets to see Christ the Redeemer (we hadn’t) and we had actually
stumbled across one of the other places in this enormous city where you can buy
tickets and take the bus. That was weird but a great coincidence. Thanks Jesus.
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| Copacabana |
The bus ride up to the statue took around 40 minutes and we
stopped once or twice to take in the views as we ascended. Once we were at the
top, or what we thought was the top, we had to jump in another bus and then a
lift to take us even further up.
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| Christ the Redeemer |
Christ
the Redeemer is an awesome piece of art built to counteract the apparent
increasing godlessness of the country. Its construction commenced in 1922 and
took 7 years to complete, and it stands on Mount Corcovado, at a height of 38m.
The next day we decided to take the metro into the old part
of the city to visit some museums and see some culture. What is it with us and
wanting to visit museums when they’re closed?? (Tuesday by the way). We did
make it to the Escadaria
Selarón though.
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| Escadaria
Selarón |
These are a fascinating, colourful set of tiled steps in a
poorer part of town where Chilean artist Jorge Selarón lived. The steps were
dilapated and Selarón wanted to do something to brighten them up and to give
something back to his adopted city, so he began to decorate them with tiles.
There are 2000 tiles from around 60 countries and cover 215 steps. Poor Selarón
was found dead in 2013 on the steps.
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| Caipirinha |
We spent that afternoon strolling through Copacabana along
the seafront, people watching, talking to locals, soaking up the atmosphere,
the music and the capirinhas.
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| Lots of nakedness in Rio |
We made a mistake not staying longer in Rio. It is a
fabulous, vibrant city where people don’t wear much, and we absolutely didn’t
do it justice. One to go back to.
Sao Paulo
We took a bus from Rio to Sao Paulo, and one of the reasons
for us not staying longer in Rio was because we wanted to try and get football
tickets for the match that night in Sao Paulo. It was the final world cup
qualifier matches in the South American group, and we wanted to go to the
Brazil Chile game.
After checking into a cool little hotel in a rough part of
town, we headed over to the stadium. The heavens opened almost immediately but
thankfully we were 200 metres from the metro, although it was easier said than
done finding the stadium from the metro at the other end. We were quoted 500 Reais
per Brazil ticket and 350 for Chile.
Disappointed, we walked away. It was too
much for us. We grabbed some cheap dinner and thought it over. We’d never get
the chance again, we’d come a long way and if we had a few cheap meals for the
next few nights we could do it. If we went in the Chile end! So we headed back
to the stadium’s ticket office and were immediately told that the tickets had
sold out. Just our luck. I persevered, asking 'Boletos para Chile??' And we were waved forward
to buy tickets for the Chile end.
As we walked in with the thousands of other fans, we were
stopped at the turnstile because our tickets were unreadable. We hung around
waiting for a security guard to take us through and when we finally got to our
block we were turned away, saying our tickets weren’t valid there. By this time
the match had kicked off and we were getting a bit fractious. We found another
security guard who escorted us to different block which had some empty seats
and as we were hurrying along, managed to boot off his shoe and whack a girl
straight up the head with it. That cheered us up. I have no idea how he managed
it, but it was hilarious and stopped our moaning in its tracks.
In the end we only missed the first 5 minutes and although
we had paid less for Chile tickets, we ended up in some great seats in the
Brazil end. The game wasn’t Brazil’s best display but they had already
qualified and won 3-0. We (and everyone else in the stadium) were half hoping
Chile would win so that they would qualify and knock Argentina out, but it was
not to be. It was a great atmosphere with Mexican waves, hotdogs and even ‘the
referee’s a wanker’ in Portuguese.
The next morning we took a walk around the city, visiting
the Se
Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Gothic style building, constructed in 1954.
Sao Paulo is vast, if we thought Rio was big, it has nothing on Sao Paulo. 22
million people live in its metropolitan sprawl, with around 12 million in the
city proper. Interestingly it has the largest Japanese population outside of
Japan itself.
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| Se Cathedral |
Later that day we strolled over to the Museu do Futebol, or
the Football
Museum. This is a must for any footy fans. It showcases the history of
football in Brazil through videos and interviews (they play a bit there), talks
you through the rules of the game, tells you about women’s football which was
much more popular at first than men’s, has a fantastic display on the World
Cups through the ages, including what was happening in each era, and then at
the end, there is table football, virtual football like playing on a Wii, and
penalty kicks.
We even had the chance to hold replicas of the World Cup
trophies. Interesting fact: the original Jules Rimet trophy was pinched in
England in 1966 which most people know about, found by Pickles the dog, and
then it was nicked in Brazil in 1983 after Brazil were allowed to keep it
having won it 3 times, but it was never recovered. The museum was awesome and
only cost $10 Reais (about £2.50).
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| Football musem |
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| Meseu de Arte |
We were booked on a free walking tour the next day which was
to a part of the city called Vila
Madalena. This is an area in Pinheiros, and has a reputation for being
artsy, hip and bohemian, with its trendy galleries, cafes and bars. It’s also
well-known for its street art on Beco
do Batman, an galler-alley (see what I did there?) full of murals,
including a fairly recent addition by Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones. It
started off as a student area, having cheap accommodation near the university,
but with this type of resident comes libraries, book stores, cafes and bars,
and soon, as in London and other big, expensive cities, the students were
pushed out to make way for richer residents that wanted somewhere cool to live.
After the tour we hung around Vila Madalena for some great grill and cocktails.
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| Batman Alley |
Another day another walking tour! This time of the old
downtown area. We had actually covered a lot of this on our second day but we
learnt a bit more about the city and its buildings, including the Centro
Cultural Banco do Brasil, originally a ban and now a cultural centre, and the
Martinelli
Building which was the first skyscraper in the city, completed in 1929. We
were a bit walking tour fatigued after that.
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| Sao Paulo |
Not the most beautiful city but really interesting and loads
to see and do. We barely touched the sides.
#brazil #riodejaneiro #copacabana #ipanema #christtheredeemer #saopaulo #escadariaselaron #martinellibuilding #becodobatman #footballmuseumsaopaulo
In the end we only missed the first 5 minutes and although
we had paid less for Chile tickets, we ended up in some great seats in the
Brazil end. The game wasn’t Brazil’s best display but they had already
qualified and won 3-0. We (and everyone else in the stadium) were half hoping
Chile would win so that they would qualify and knock Argentina out, but it was
not to be. It was a great atmosphere with Mexican waves, hotdogs and even ‘the
referee’s a wanker’ in Portuguese. 
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