Rio de Janeiro
Revelry in Rio
by Lesley Brown
by Lesley Brown
For many a year I envisioned, wished and even prayed for an opportunity to visit Brazil, Rio de Janeiro to be exact. Unfortunately, the opportunity never came or rather, I never made it happen. Then came the career, job, wife and family and although I recognized that I am a lucky man, a part of me continued to crave for what I considered ‘a great adventure”.
I mentioned my dream destination to my wife on many occasions. In return, I usually got a smile, a nod or an exasperated look. On a few occasions she would give me that ‘I know” or the “if only…” looks and even rub my shoulders a bit. But alas, we both knew that it was a dream and neither our budget nor careers would allow such an extravagance.
Last year as we were settling in for the evening, one of the entertainment programs did a feature on Carnaval in Rio. Somehow I worked up the courage to say, “If every man in the US is expected to have a mid-life crisis or buy a Porsche or something ridiculous, then I don’t see why I can’t have this trip!” Unbelievably, she smiled and said “Let’s do it!”
The timing could not have been more perfect as Carnaval was just a couple of months away. We made all the arrangements and within a few weeks we (actually, my wife) managed to get a great deal on airline tickets and an excellent rate at a 4-star hotel, Copacabana Mar Hotel. First came the Portuguese, then the French and now…here we come, on our way to Rio!
As we boarded the plane in Miami, an 8 hour flight took us to Rio de Janeiro, the “Marvellous City”. What a sight! The country was everything I dreamt of and so much more. A true tropical paradise, thatch roofed houses, palm trees blowing in the breeze and beautiful people everywhere.
On our first full day in Rio we were so excited and wanted to see everything at once! To save a little cash, we (by that I mean my wife) decided to utilise the public bus system. With a little help from the concierge of our hotel, we learned that all you needed was a specific bus number in order to get to your destination. He also advised us to spend a bit more on an air conditioned bus and boy was he right. Thank you my friend!
We jumped on bus 511, costing us 2 Reals each (about $1.35) and headed off for Sugar Loaf Mountain. We both wanted to visit this iconic landmark because we had heard that it offered the best views of Rio. After a 20 minute bus ride, we arrived and were amazed by its striking beauty. We had to take two cable cars in order to reach the top of the mountain; the ride alone was worth the price of our airline tickets.
The day was very windy,but just as the travel magazine said, the view was fantastic. After taking a thousand photos and breathing in the spectacular scenery, we ventured off onto the next leg of our journey. We took a bus to Copacabana and went for a walk along the legendary beach, unarguably one of the world's great beaches. Copacabana is wedged on a strip of land along the foot of the most spectacular hills imaginable and runs for an amazing 5km.
Throngs of barely dressed Brazilians and visitors alike luxuriated on this little piece of heaven. As we found out during the course of our stay, there is always something happening on the beach. During the day, frolicking, sunbathing, water sports and people watching are the top activities. During the evening hours the sidewalks are congested with all kinds of peoples singing, drinking, eating and again-people watching. We could have easily spent our entire two weeks on this beach, but wait…we came for Carnaval.
The day before Carnaval began, we made a trip to Corcovado mountain where stands the famous statue of Christ. With outstretched arms, the Christ statue overlooks Rio offering peace and protection. While we waited for our spiritual encounters to unfold we decided to satisfy our need for nature and wildlife and photographed the wonderful birdlife that seemed to be virtually everywhere.
We finished out the day by attending a mass at Mosteiro de Sao Bento. It is hard not to be in awe of this magnificent Baroque monastery, built in 1590. The interior was awesome with walls and ceiling covered with intricate golden carved work. The highlight of the visit was the Gregorian chants that were sung by the monks and propelled us to another time.
The next day we woke up as the sun was rising and, as I watched the fabulous view from my hotel window, I soaked in every inch of this incredible city. On every street, actually, every available spot contained a party of some sort. I almost burst because I knew that tonight was the night that I had dreamt of since I could remember. Tonight was Carnaval.
Later on as the sun began to fade the streets were filled with people donning all manner of wild and wonderful costumes. Fireworks could be seen not too far away in the lit sky, and the atmosphere in Rio was nothing short of electric. There were huge numbers of people selling everything from beer to kebabs and the music…oh the music blasting from here there and everywhere. It was a total overload of the senses.
In order to see the parade, we found out that we needed tickets. After a little soft bargaining (again, my wife) we headed into the thick of the action, into the Sambodromo tiered seating overlooking the passing floats moving slowly through the streets of Rio. The Sambodromo was already packed to the brim with zealous locals gyrating to the exotic beats of the Afro-Latino drums, madly waving flags and tossing streamers in every direction.
An immense display of exquisitely designed floats slowly worked their way past us, each more spectacular than the previous one. A myriad of people accompanied each float, along with enthusiastic partiers and literally thousands of dancers from all over Brazil garbed in crazy costumes. This long trail of mayhem continued while the hordes of revellers were getting more and more frenzied all the time. The atmosphere heated up to boiling point and stayed that way until about 5 in the morning.
I could continue giving you the details of our wonderfully reckless and carefree adventure…but what happens in Rio…stays in Rio! Rio is a place like no other. It entices you with every breath. The view is more glorious than any work of art could possibly capture and the people are truly beautiful, inside and out.
On our next visit - my wife assured me that there will be another visit - we will definitely bring the kids. Everyone needs to experience Rio and I can’t wait to see this magnificent city through their eyes.
For other articles on Rio, go to our archive.
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