Rio de Janeiro

Dark and tan and young and lovely, the boys from Ipanema go walking…

– Tom Jobin

On November 5, Andrew and myself awoke to a beautiful Saskatchewan -10C. We went to a large building, entered a metal tube, and emerged to find that it was November 6, 29C and extremely humid. This was seen by both as an improvement. With most of the travel behind us, we had only to complete the drive from airport to hostel. I have never been so thankful to be a passenger. Had I been driving we would not have even left the airport. I would have been sitting there with my turn signal flashing, cars flowing around me on either side and quietly muttering to myself that we would merge next time. We have been too conditioned to believe lanes and traffic systems are important. In Rio they see right through all of that and just go.

Long Walks by the Beach

When we arrived at our hostel we were instructed to check in at 2:00pm. The current time was 7:00am. So we forced our adrenaline glands to overclock and went for a walk to check out the beaches. Ipanema and Copacabana are well known for good reason. The sand is the softest I have ever experienced, and they go on forever and ever. We learned this the hard way actually. Beaches are somewhat deceiving because you can see all the way across them and assume that the distance must not be that great. What you don’t realize initially is that those tic-tacs at the far end of the beach are not in fact tic-tacs, they are buildings. Honestly though, shame on me for even considering that I would be seeing tic-tacs, what an absurd thing to think. We walked 13.8km alongside the beaches thinking the whole time how nice it would be to just fall in the sand and pass out.

Perhaps the best part about taking this beach walk was being able to observe locals just living life. Rio’s beaches are where a lot of exercise activity goes on: runners jog nearby, makeshift weight lifting zones having barbells with concrete ends and pull-up spots. But these conventional fitness modes are completely pedestrian when compared to this individuals deep sea thrusts.

Long Walks up a Mountain

The next day we went for a walk once again. The weather was not beach weather, so we tried to go find Christ the Redeemer (Corcavado). Finding things in certain neighbourhoods can be difficult because the city planning changes wildly from planned to unplanned it seems. The current theory is that some streets were marked out for construction by tying a marker to a dog and letting it run wherever. Walking around the lagoon we got our first (and only) glimpse of the statue on top of the mountain.

At the same time we found the entrance to Parque Nacional Tijuca, a place I had no idea we would come across. We entered, and found a path that lead to Corcavado and decided to go that way. In order to go on the path, we had to sign a paper at a police outpost stating our names, entry time and emergency contact. Up the jungle path we met a German tourist named Sophie waiting for someone to walk with her as she was afraid of snakes. She rounded out our duo into a trio. The hike was sweaty work, we had never hiked through such humidity and it showed.

It looked as though Sophie had rescued us from the surf. Sweat dripped from places you did not want it to drip from, and covered places I was hoping to keep dry. The cheese slices in my bag melted into one delicious chunk. When we reached the top we looked like terrifying bush people. Everyone else had taken a car or a train, and then these three individuals emerge from the bush dirty, sweaty and exhausted. When we arrived the summit was completely not cloud covered and we were met with awe inspiring views of the bay and statue.

Long Walks Shuffling in Place

Sophie said that she always tries to go to Samba parties when in Brazil and became a resource for finding one. We had to enter our names onto an online registration sheet and went out to find the place in the evening. Beforehand, we met some of our hostel-mates during a drink at the bar. One was from Israel, and had apparently recently married Gal Gadot. VERY COOL! In turn he asked if we had ever met Justin Bieber, and I informed him that he and Andrew had recently tied the knot as well. VERY COOL! We left Ipenema in an Uber shortly after continuing with our strict diet of meat and carbs. It seemed every meal was inching us closer and closer to being ridden with scurvy. VERY COOL! Once we had reached Sophie’s hostel in Copacabana we hopped out of the Uber just to watch it drive away while thinking, we should order another… Once we actually reached our first parties destination we realized it was not the party we expected. The rooftop samba party was on the main floor. NOT VERY COOL! We went to the rooftop anyhow only to map out Lapa and devise a strategy so as to not use our phones. After leaving venue number one we looked for somewhere to stop for a cheap drink or two. Lucky for us there was a massive rivalry underway fighting skin and bone over our every Reais; two of the exact same confectionary spaces serving the finest liquors in all of Rio side by side. The one confectionary rose above the other by a large margin due to their supply of random liquid in large corked bottles, only $1,50 Reais per ounce. Andy went for the mystery liquid hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Andrew, feeling good and full of mystery liquid led the team across the street to Paiol 08. We slipped in like locals and shredded the dance floor until the sun came up.

Long Walks to Kill Time

We have been hoping to extend our time in Rio, but it just isn’t going to happen. We lost our hostel spot today and so decided to hit the dusty trail to Sao Paulo on the night bus. We took a walk out to some botanical gardens so that Andrew may officially right off part of this trip as a learning opportunity. The botanical gardens were neat, but too many plants for my garden tastes. Overall, the time in Rio is much to short. If we could stay, we would. We didn’t even have nice weather and still loved it a tonne. We got soaked by rain today, yet still enjoyed ourselves. Rio is gorgeous, so hopefully someday we will find our way back – and to better weather!

Rio de Janeiro: 2.5 stars out of 15

Reid and Andrew,

Currently headed to Sao Paulo

PS: Reid plans to move back after a short sabbatical to pursue the dream of finding a Brazilian wife using billboards broadcasting his availability. For work we have identified an opening in the fencing engineering field. Sounds like a smooth transition into his new and exciting life. VERY COOL!