Rio Tour with Marco

Today was the day for my full-day, private tour of Rio with Marco.  He was waiting for me at the B&B office when I headed down after breakfast.  We headed to his car and started looking at the map of Rio.  I told him all of the places in Centro that I had visited yesterday - and it sounded like I covered the first few hours of his planned tour.  The weather was also an unknown for most of the day - was cloudy and rain was predicted.  We started with driving around the Santa Teresa neighborhood.  It was much nicer than what I had seen yesterday.  Marco explained that it had been a very upscale part of town in the 1920-30's and pointed out some of the traditional Portuguese homes - lots of tile and a very distinctive architectural style.  There were multiple incredible vista points where we would stop - surprisingly just in the middle of the street or he would park on the side walk.  We drove past my dinner location from last night, which I learned was actually in the National Park.  

The National Park dominates many thousands of acres of Rio - literally in the middle of the city.  It acts to divide the various areas or zones of the city - North, South, etc.  We continued further into the park and ultimately made it to a viewing point, high above the city.  From here we had fantastic views of Christ the Redeemer as well as downtown, the various beaches, the soccer stadium and numerous favelas (slums).  The favelas are so interesting - it is unknown who exactly owns the land and there is no official infrastructure development - the builders for the middle class live here, so they are able to build solid homes, but with few finishes.  The structures are on top of each other - literally - and are very close together.  No room for cars or streets, just small alleys.  I took numerous photos from all various angles and Marco took several photos of me.  

The favelas are all along the hillside on the left:

Christ the Redeemer to the right of my head and all of the major beaches to the left:

Closer view of Christ the Redeemer:

From the viewing park, we started towards Christ the Redeemer to see how bad the line was - it was horrible, so I decided we would move along.  I had seen the statue from afar and have many pictures.  We continued on thru the forest - it reminded me of Hawaii or even when we would drive some of the back roads in VA - heavy vegetation, some water coming down the mountain, but incredible views to the left - of the bay and/or ocean.

Ultimately we descended the mountain and were at the start of the beaches.  The area of the beach is where the hang-gliders typically land, but due to the strong winds and uncertain weather, no one was hang-gliding today.  We stopped at a small juice bar along the beach and he had the man make me a juice with passion fruit, pineapple, guava and mango.  It was quite delicious.  It was surprisingly cold - ice had been blended in, so hopefully my stomach will be fine.  

We continued driving along the beach, past a huge Sheraton, then to Ipanema and finally to Copacabana.  The beaches were huge and surprisingly quite crowded.  There were still several structures in place from the World Cup.  It was interesting to see how the architecture changed over the course of the beach - Copacabana was older, somewhat Art Deco and run-down; Ipanema was next with a little bigger buildings and better condition.  Marco explained that growth occurred westward, so each beach area would get nicer and nicer...until you hit "Little Miami" as they call one of the current last beaches.

Next we headed to Sugar Loaf - a huge mountain rock structure that is visible throughout most of the city.  Marco cut line numerous times showing his guide badge.  With the first tram I quickly learned I needed to be more aggressive - I got pushed numerous times by folks trying to get my prime window view.  The first level stop, I took numerous pictures and Marco took several of me.  

Nearing the tram to ride to the top of Sugar Loaf:

We took the tram to the next, much higher level.  Both tram rides were surprisingly fast, no more than 90 seconds for either.  At the higher level, more pictures, more incredible views and this time shopping for postcards.  

  

Back in the car and we started driving around Santa Teresa more and he dropped me off around 3 PM.

We had several interesting conversations about the differences between the US and Brazil.  Kids stay at home thru college and don't leave until they get married.  He said that his son started having his girlfriend stay overnight when he was 16...and he was welcome at her house too.  His son's college is free, and not covered by a scholarship.

After getting dropped off, I was very hungry, so I headed out to a very small shop that was supposed to have excellent cheese bread.  I entered the place and saw the cheese bread in a case.  I said that I wanted an order as well as a bottle of water.  Blank stares.  So I pointed.  Still blank stares.  Finally one of the women handed me a menu and pointed towards the tables.  I guess you have to sit to be served....even with 5 tables....and other folks were ordering at the counter.

No one arrived for over 5 min.  I had given them a 7 min limit, otherwise I was walking out.  It took numerous tries for the server and I to communicate what I wanted.  I wasn't sure what I was saying, nor was she so we resorted to hand motions.  Only a few minutes after ordering and I saw my order ticket that I understood the entire hand motions had been about a half vs. whole order of cheese bread.

After relaxing by the pool for while, I changed clothes and headed out for dinner.  I ended up at the Pizza place across the street from the cheese bread place.  I got a lovely roof top table, right at the railing.  The pizza was good, as I ate the entire thing.  Several tables around me were speaking English...and I almost wished they weren't....especially the whining kids from England.  

Following dinner I had a night cap at another place that the B&B had recommended.  When ready to call it a night, I went outside and found a cab within a block.  The driver spoke no English and me with no Portuguese - we were quite the pair.  He got me to the main square of Santa Teresa and I then hand directed him to the B&B.  

Another exciting day in Rio.  On Saturday I change hotels - moving to the beach area for two days.