So after a long day’s work, Jeff and I decided to try and head up to Sugarloaf for some nightshooting. We thought that we had enough time to make it from Caesar Park to the mountain but of course Rio’s famous rush hour traffic put paid to that thought. So as a detour, we decided that it would be feasible to try and hit Copacabana beach for a little nightshooting.

One of the most palpable things about Rio thus far was how unsafe I felt. Now to me, manageable travel safety is defined as the following:

“The combination of high travel experience, confidence to diffuse an unexpected situation, moderate to high ability to negotiate in a foreign language without knowing that language and low situation of risk”

In Rio, for all the days I was there, I felt that while I had all the other skills, I felt like I had very low ability to negotiate and high situation of risk; hence this to me makes it somewhat unsafe. However on Copacabana beach at night, with tons of tourist police around, I definitely felt a bit safer. So after aborting our Sugarloaf mission, we jumped out just before the Copacabana Palace.

This is the most famous hotel in Rio, having been featured in movies and of course, we being the rockstars that we are, sauntered into the hotel with not a care in the world. From the outside, the hotel definitely looks a bit posh and inside reflects that; of course if one is trying to be cool walking in, you don’t take pictures like a gawking tourist, hence no pictures on my camera.

One does get a drink and take pictures by the pool though..

So after a caipirinha at the hotel bar, it was time for some beach walking. It’s amazing the level of activity on the beach at night. People run on the beach or play soccer or futevole (sp) till the late hours.

Drinking on the tourist beach is a given, with all the little bar shacks along the waterfront

And all along the beach, there are intricate sand sculptures

and then there are some that just defy the imagination

and of course one makes new friends

After all that walking along the beach, it was time for dinner and the dish of the night was the famous Filet Oswaldo Aranha

Filé à Oswaldo Aranha, one of Rio de Janeiro’s best known dishes, is a tradition created by a Brazilian minister in the Getúlio Vargas government in the 1940s, when Rio de Janeiro was still the capital of Brazil. Like many other politicians of his time, Oswaldo Aranha liked having lunch at Cosmopolita, a Lapa restaurant opened in 1926 which used to be called Senadinho (“Little Senate”) during the Vargas government thanks to its clientele.

Oswaldo Aranha always ordered a thick slab of filet mignon, prepared in a frying pan with sliced garlic and served with sliced potatoes, farofa and plain white rice. I ordered a side of extra garlic in the end.

After that gut busting meal, it was back to the hotel for the night.

After starting off the trip with wanting to try Feijoada at the Caesar Park (since it is reputed to have some of the best in the city), Laura and I went off for dinner at one of the only places in Rio that serves the meal daily – Casa de Feijoada. With little more than a couple slices of mango and juice in my tummy, we went looking for a late lunch there… it was 5pm btw. I had been practicing my pronounciation of “fay-zho-a-da,” all week, so now the same way I say “Ho-do-via-ree-ah” for bus station and sound almost like a native, elicits a stream of Brazilian Portuguese to which I then give up all hope of understanding.

Facts I knew about the dish:

• You get a lot
• It is beans and meat
• There is some fat in the dish
• You only get it on Saturdays – who knew why?
• They give you orange slices with your food.

So we get to the small little restaurant and it wasn’t terribly fancy. It was a 6 block walk down the beach from the hotel, nestled in a little nook intersecting three streets.

We were ushered to a corner table by the window. Immediately, food started to appear at our table… olives, toast, teeny little pots of black bean soup (the waiter demonstrated that we should be sipping this soup)… soon after appeared scoops of fried little sausages … and quite soon after the waiter appeared with two glass bottles. One had an orangey colored liquid in it and the other a pale green. The orangey colored liquid turned out to be passion fruit liquor… or the passion fruit version of a home made, aged and high-powered caipirinha. Caipirinha… mmmm. The pale green liquid was “lime” flavored, and the flavor that I normally associated with the caipirinha. So introductory batidas out of the way.

When the waiter finally came over to ask for the order, we saw the menu and ended up with the “traditional” feijoada but the choice of meats included some of the following and you had the choice of one, some or all of them

• Pig ears
• Pig Tail
• Pig knuckles
• Jerk Meat
• Chorizo
• Regular sausage
• Bacon
• Beef

Of course, I am just not about eating the non business parts of the animal, so I asked for the Sausage, beef and Jerk, while Laura just ended up with the bacon … we were the only ones in the restaurant at the time and we truly had no frame of reference for the size of the ship that was going to hit us.

Then the food tsunami hit us.

and the video above the picture below don’t capture how much it was.

By this time, it was too late, because the parade of food began again. To our table appeared white rice, black beans, “collard” greens (bright green cabbage), yuca fries, “farofa”, pork rinds, and two large steaming bowls of stew. One bigger bowl contained my concoction of meats , while the other was just filled with huge thick slabs of bacon for Laura.

The overall meal for meal was like a huge hot Creole meal in Trinidad, so I was pretty much in my element. The collard greens by the way…. DELICIOUS … just like pan fried Bhagi without the sada roti. My plate ended up like this …

After eating and eating and barely denting the huge amount of food.. we packaged the leftovers (you have to pay for the containers), we started our waddling back to the hotel.  This is the reason, they serve this on Saturday’s only…  you need the entire weekend to digest.

Ipanema and its beach are known for its views, waves and beautiful bodies. Walking along the two mile beach, it was impossible not to notice the Brazilian men with chiseled bodies (If you base Brazil on what you see on this beach, you’ll thing that all Brazilians run, have 8-packs and do weights and exercise on the beach) and skimpy speedos (This must be the european thing to have your junk hanging out) all playing volleyball and tanning. Tall, bronzed, statuesque Amazonian women in even skimpier thongs lay on squares of colourful cotton under the blazing sun, aligned carefully for the perfect tan. Someone said that you should just go with your shades to the beach; how weird I must have looked with my camera backpack wandering the sand and climbing rocks at each end of the beach.

Two mountains called the “Dois Irmãos” (Two Brothers) rise at the western end of the beach. The view of the “Dois Irmãos”  below is from the rocks at the eastern end of the beach, where the fishermen and surfers all go from.

The beach is divided into segments by marks known as “postos” (lifeguard towers). Each “posto” supposedly means something and has a specific crowd.  There are only 3 postos on Ipanema beach; I managed to find a “Posto” index to help me:

• Posto 1 (Leme) – Between Aurelino Leal and Anchieta
• Posto 2 (Copacabana) – In front of the Praça do Lido (the only one in the original location)
• Posto 3 Between Paula Freitas and Hilario de Gouveia
• Posto 4 (Copacabana) – In front of Constante Ramos
• Posto 5 (Copacabana) – In front of Sá Ferreira
• Posto 6 There is no Post 6!!!
• Posto 7 (Arpoador/Botafogo) – At the end of Arpoador
• Posto 8 (Ipanema) – In front of Joaquim Nabuco
• Posto 9 (Ipanema) – Between Vinicius de Moraes and Joana Angelica
• Posto 10 (Ipanema) – In front of Anibal de Mendonça
• Posto 11 (Leblon) – Between Almirante Guilhem and Carlos Garcia
• Posto 12 (Leblon) – Between Queen Wilhelmina and Aristides Espinola
• Posto 13 (São Conrado) – Próximo ao Hotel Intercontinental Tour 13 (Sao Conrado) – Next to Hotel Intercontinental
  

All along the beach there are interesting vantage points and tons to see and photograph

In true tradition, there is an area for everyone, so  there is an area specifically called “the gay beach,” situated near Rua Farme de Amoedo; which is well-known for being a gay-friendly area, I didn’t know they had to specifically label it

Beer is sold everywhere on the beach along with the traditional cachaça. I have to say that on a hot day, the ridiculously cold coconuts are amazing. I thought only in Trinidad, could I get a coconut straight from the freezer..

But walking to the Eastern end of the beach, you can see the Ipanema beach panorama…

Even our 4 legged friends are chilled out and love the coconuts

And if you’re lucky enough.. well unlucky for these guys, you can see the lifeguarding corps do their thing

And if you ever feel like working out on the beach … it is really simple

Once you’re done buffing up, you can head back down the streets again.

I feel like a nap on the beach now

This is another one of those tourist attractions that doesn’t need much explaining or blogging. It is pretty much the following sequence of events:

• You go
• You ride
• You take pictures
• You ponder for a while
• You have a drink
• You ponder for while
• You talk with strangers about the view
• You take more pictures
• You ride down
• Look at pictures

Then the sunset comes over and it gets dark and then you have a new beauty

Up in the mountains about an hour away from Rio is the historical town of Petropolis. This town was the summer home of the Dom Pedro II and the  Imperial family of Brazil.The climate is fresh and agreeable in the summer, although it today the weather was quite overcast and there was fog everywhere, but from the bus ride up here one gets the sense that the vistas from the mountains would have been beautiful. This town was the site of many important events in Brazilian history, such as

• Don Pedro signed the Declaration of Independence in 1822 and many years later, in 1888 his daughter Isabella signed the “Golden Law” abolishing slavery in Brazil.

Getting from Rio de Janiero to Petropolis

Getting to Petropolis was pretty easy, but finding update directions to get there wasn’t. I grabbed a taxi from Ipanema beach and headed to the Rodovaria Rio Novo (pronounced Hodo-viara). That pronunciation completely threw me off, as I tend to use the Spanish pronunciation and everyone looked at me like I was crazy; thankfully a nice tour guide in the Yellow Palace helped me out. It cost 37 Reais to get there and we had to pass through a number of sketchy looking areas before getting there.

Once in the station, head over to the Facil counter on Platform 6. The bus company Facil operates between Rio de Janeiro and Petropolis. Their buses are new and fairly comfortable.

get your ticket for 15 Reais (each way) and then head on to the bus.

An hour later, you should be in the Rodoviaria Petropolis which is located outside the city. This is a key point, don’t leave the bus station as there is really nothing there and tourist information office in there doesn’t have any English speakers. I ended up asking for the Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcãntara, the taxi driver did the rest. (There is a local bus for 2.45R$, if you speak Portuguese and can figure out which bus goes to Districto Historica). Getting from the Rodoviaria Petropolis to the historical district takes about 20 minutes or so and costs about 20 Reais. Your total transportation cost will end up being about 135 Reais. My cost summary for the day looks something like this:

• Taxi from Ipanema to Rodoviaria Rio Novo : 37 R$
• Bus from Rodoviaria Rio Novo to Rodoviaria Petropolis : 14.70R$
• Taxi from Rodoviaria Petropolis to Historical District : 20 R$

• Taxi from Historical District to Rodoviaria Petropolis : 19 R$
• Bus from Rodoviaria Petropolis to Rodoviaria Rio Novo  : 14.70R$
• Taxi from Rodoviaria Rio Novo to Pao de Azucar: 22 R$
• Taxi from Pao de Azucar to Caesar Park Ipanema : 18 R$

If you speak Portuguese and can use the local bus systems, then the trip should be considerably cheaper but slower. If you’re backpacking and have no time limit, then the bus should be used obviously, if you’re day tripping like me on a timeline, then taxis should be used. Like anything else, your mileage will vary.

Once in Petropolis

Today, this town is home to the Imperial Museum (The Royal Palace is now a museum devoted to Dom Pedro and his family and presents life as it was some one hundred and fifty years ago); however once I got there I headed straight to the Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcãntara.

The Cathedral is built in French Neogothic style. Its construction started in 1884 by the architect Francisco Caminhoa, inspired by the old Spanish Cathedrals of France. There are many great examples of French stained glass.

It is 70 meters high and 22 m in length. It houses the Imperial Chapel and the marble tombs of the royal family, and is dedicated to São Pedro de Alcãntara, “the protector of the Empire of Brazil”. Saint Peter’s day is celebrated on October 19h.

It is open everyday from 8:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 18:00. On Mondays only in the morning, and on Sundays from 8:00 to 13:00 and 15:00 until 18:00

From the Cathedral, I headed to the Imperial Museum. Petropolis is a small town and everything in the historical district is within walking distance, it is a lot of walking but all organized in a logical fashion.

On getting to the Museu Imperial, I had to leave my camera and put on these dorky slippers over my sandals. It allowed me to react the scene from “Risky Business” where Tom Cruise slides into the room…ALL THE TIME!! I understand the use of the sandals, as they want to protect the flooring, but it is still dorky.

My cameras weren’t allowed, although I did sneak in the small one in my pocket and took some shots, but in the lighting the quality was much to be desired. If you do not speak portuguese, there is an audio tour device that plays back the information about each room you visit

After the tour, it was out and about again. Personally, I’m really not interested in musuems in the best of days and I personally thought that the Imperial Museum was a bit dull, but then again that is my opinion

From there, it was on to more random walking through Petropolis.

More of the man himself Dom Pedro II rocking his own “Thinker” pose

On the walk, I ended passing by the now mandatory Latin American town Obelisk.

“This monument in the shape of an obelisk stands 66.6 feet tall. On each one of its sides rectangular bronze plaques were placed, measuring 4.2 feet by 33.5¨ each. On its frontal side an inscription reads “This monument marks the celebration of the First Centennial since Petrópolis was emancipated to the status of City. It was built under the government of Mayor Flávio Castrioto de Figueiredo e Mello to perpetuate the names of those people who helped Major Koeler build our city, and also as a landmark to show our future generations the glories of our past, pointing the way to the growth and progress of our community.” This Obelisk is a tribute paid by the Petrópolis City Administration to the city founders, i.e. Emperor D. Pedro II, Counselor Paulo Barbosa da Silva, Caldas Vianna, Aureliano Coutinho, Júlio Frederico Koeler and all German settlers who arrived in Petrópolis as of June 29, 1845.” … http://www.petropolis.rj.gov.br/index.php?url=http%3A//fctpi.petropolis.rj.gov.br/fctpi/

Then it was on to the Yellow Palace, which houses the Municipal Council of Petrópolis City. The eagle fountain built in 1899 by Heitor Levy and a garden square designed by Carlos Júlio Mayer. The funny thing about this fountain is that the creator was not Mexican, although it shows the Mexican symbol and the building wasn’t owned by a Mexican either.

One really curious thing about the hall itself and the walls, is that it appears to have Oak/wood panelling and granite columns. Well this is all an illusion and everything is painted on concrete/stone walls. There is no wood on the walls. All complete fakes

It is also a city close to many hiking trails and thus is near the mountain greenery. Several buildings show a German/Swiss influence.

After a couple hours of more walking… I ended up at the Crystal Palace. Now I don’t particularly know what I was expecting when I read the signs

But I certainly wasn’t expecting a large colonial greenhouse

After all this walking, I was hungry and bit tired… but thankfully the weather had started to clear so instead of going to the hotel… I ended up at Pao de Azucar