I booked four nights in the Rio Rockers Hostel and another four nights at the Terra Brasilis in Santa Teresa. So I had to switch hostels that day. It turned out that new hostel was exactly opposite to the Parque da Ruidas Carla, Manuela and I visited the day before.
And it came with a great view that was almost as good as from the ruins, and quite the same as from Hotel Santa Teresa, except that I only paid a fraction for it.
After checking in, I walked down to Lapa in search for a bank because I needed some cash. It was around noon, and I met nobody on the way down. Spooky. I wasn’t robbed either, so this is a good thing, heh.
I already knew that I couldn’t just take any bank, but needed a Banco do Brasil. And within thirty minutes of walking down a road, I finally was successful.
As I was close to a contemporary arts museum, I gave it a try. The “Oi! Future” was for free, but most of the exhibitions were closed and only a telecommunication exhibition was open.
Unfortunately, the girl that gave me the audio guide did not know how to switch it from portoguese to english. Oh well.
It was interesting anyway and the displays were well done. Lots of historic telephones and computers. No Amigas though (not that I would have expected any).
I walked back to Cinelandia and further around town before I remembered that it was Good Friday and almost everything was closed. A few shops were open, so I took my chances to see if that outdoor shop in the Centro might offer its services, too.
After I left the metro building at the Uruguiana station, I was absolutely terrified how few murky people were around here, and how deserted it was. It felt very, very spooky and dodgy so I rushed back to the metro.
I walked around the Flamengo park in search for the modern arts museum, but I couldn’t really find it — or it was so small that I didn’t expect it in the same building as the WW2 museum near a national monument. Later on at the hostel I met a girl who said not to bother, because there isn’t really much to see there.
I kept on strolling around, and really, where are all those six million people? I finally gave up and made my way back to Santa Theresa, walking all the way up. I used a different way than before in the hopes that there would be more people around, but I was wrong.
Anyway, when I arrived at the hostel, I was sweaty all over and needed a shower. I could do without the exercise, really.
When the night fell, we were rewarded with an absolutely stunning view over Rio by night. The slight thunderstorm in the distance increased the beautiful atmosphere of the moment.
Regina and Gerald, friends of Fabian (ftak) from Munich were in Rio, too. And Claudia and Patrick I was with on Ilha Grande also were (back) in Rio.
So we decided to meet up in Copacabana. Claudia had the great idea of going to a favela for a live music jazz evening and so we took the metro to Catete. Using a mini van we reached the favela after a steep ascent through a maze of small roads.
Then a guide led us through another labyrinth of paths to the “Maze”. And what a maze it was! The building itself could have been designed by Hundertwasser himself.
Many staircases, paths and hidden rooms and a very nice atmosphere. And the barkeeper, a friend of Steffi who was a friend of Claudia made really strong caipirinhas.
Man, I did have a great evening, though I cannot really show it on pictures as I didn’t take my camera with me. A lot of lovely encounters with great people, among them also a very friendly guy called Milan, who apparently finances his travels using con jobs and drug dealing. At around 3am I arrived back home in Santa Teresa.
For the next day, I was too invited by Carla and Dudu to participate in a BBQ on the roof top of Dudu’s parents house, some kind of easter feast.
But before, we went strolling around the Flamengo park. Dudu insisted that it is larger than the Englischer Garten in Munich, but both Manuela and I could not believe it.
A quick check on the internet reveals that the park in Munich is three times the size of Flamengo. But it is still a nice place to wander around and then again, you don’t get that scenery in Munich. And where in the world would you find a tree with a mattress in it?
The maisonette appartment of the parents was on the 19th and 20th floor and wow, so beautifully decorated. Amazing. Dudu’s parents also were lovely hosts and offered so much warm and heartly hospitality to me as a complete stranger. I was baffled.
The food was excellent, plenty and diverse. Really, this has been the best quality food I ever had tasted in Brazil so far and when I told Dudu’s father this, he admitted that the meat was actually from Uruguay. My taste buds had longed for this for such a long time since I left Argentina.
As a side remark, pizzas in Brazil here come without tomato sauce. Instead, they throw a bunch of tomato ketchup and mustard packs at you so you can put on some if you prefer it. Really, WTF? I’m sure I won’t miss the brazilian food.
After eating and drinking and having a great time listening to different kinds of brazilian music Manuela and I wanted to go up to the sugar loaf although the weather was far from optimal.
We took a cab and we arrived at the base station. We were overwhelmed by the giant queues waiting for a ride. I queued into the entry queue while Manuela tried to get two tickets.
Gladly, the first queue only took about 15 minutes and also the second one was not as bad as we thought. The short ride in the crammed cabin didn’t allow Manuela to feel afraid of heights.
However, when we arrived at the intermediate station after another 25 minutes at 17:25, we did not see a chance to get up to the Sugar Loaf before it was dark (sunset at 17:45).
Instead, we stayed on this level and took a lot of different photos. Manuela had brought her tripod with her and this made it possible to take amazingly good photos. In fact, we spend a lot of time trying different things.
Showing Manuela some advanced tricks with her Canon E30D in regards to locking the shutter for even less vibration and the manual mode for total control over the image made her even happier than she already was with the quality of the images.
The Cristo Retendor, however, remained only a faint blue glow in one of the clouds. Bitch.
After dark, we took the second cable car up to the top. What a marvellous view over Rio. You can’t really express the feelings you go through when you look down on a sea of flickering lights, shimmering neon golden like a lost treasure in the black ocean.
Let the photos speak for themselves. Picking the best ones was a hard job however. I hope you appreciate.
By the time we went back down, my face was covered with mosquito bites. There is something special about the mosquitos in Rio. My immune system just goes bonkers with every bite. It starts itching and even if I would be able to resist scratching it, it starts weeping and not just for a while, but the whole day long.
I am using insect repellent. It’s just that especially at night, they will find the one spot that I forgot to spray or rub the fluid onto.
I don’t know why these critters try to ruin my travels, but they do. You can’t hear them. You usually don’t see them. If when you feel the bite, it’s already too late.
You don’t believe that it’s as bad as I say? Look at my left foot. And this is just one part of my body. Really, I hope I can recover from that in Peru and avoid getting any worse infections into my body.
The next day the queues got even worse when I went to finally see Cristo Retendor — only after a one bus ride into the wrong direction. And it was very crowded up there. I took the usual tourist photos and when queuing for the ride down, Claudia saw me and I could erm… take a slight short-cut of at least 30 minutes.
I paid a short visit to the Jardim Bontanico (botanic gardens), but they were not as big as I had hoped. There were some nice places and weird plants to see. And monkeys.
In the evening I met with Claudia, Regina and Gerald for a last time at the Bossa Nova bar before we all parted in different directions. Sigh.
On Monday I was finally able to shopping at the outdoor store. When I had my items together, they said I could get 10% off if I paid cash. So I went around the corner to the Banco do Brazil. Out of twelve ATMs, only two were intended for VISA cards. One only would return 2 R$ bills (upto 60 R$), the other one only 5 R$ bills (up to 150 R$). I needed at least 400 R$. As expected, the other ATMs didn’t work for my card.
I asked the security guy and he said I should be going to the Bradesco bank next door. I already knew that the card would appear as “blocked” with it. I tried with Santander, also in vain. I went back to the Banco do Brasil to find out where the closest one was.
After a 10 minutes walk, I got to it and yay, it returned my money as expected. And then, after I paid at shop, I remembered I had forgotten one item, new trekking trousers. Sod it. I paid with my credit card directly.
Next year with the world cup, I really wish the tourists good luck with the fucked up bank system here in Brazil.
So, this was my time in Rio. My taxi to the airport is picking me up in twenty minutes. I guess I won’t be able to upload the photos in time. But be patient, 40 lovely images are waiting for you.
