My stay in Rio started ominously with a two day bout of a cold I caught from Buenos Aires. It’s a strange and frustrating experience having a cold prevent you from seeing a beautiful tropic city when the weather is sunny and perfect outside. To be honest though, I probably have myself to blame for those wasted two days; a trip to the beach on the first day with only my swimsuit and pinny may have made what was only a cough at the time into a full blown cold when it got cloudy later in the afternoon.
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| Ipanema beach |
Thankfully, I got to recuperate in a gem of a hostel at Santa Mix. It was another small hostel of about 15 beds. Everyone got to know each other in a heartbeat, and there was always someone hanging out in the common room strumming a guitar. So for about a day and a half I slept more than my due, ran through my dayquil/nyquil pack, drank gallons of orange tea with honey, and slowly recovered.
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| Sugarloaf |
On Thursday I finally got better enough to venture out. I went to Sugarloaf Mountain with Rafa and Becky,
a couple from Manchester. We had a fun little hike to the first cable car, but it was cloudy at the top and the views were not as spectacular as they could have been. On Friday I went out exploring on foot. Jorge from the hostel tipped me off on Parque de Ruinas, a gorgeous old mansion converted to a public arts space on the top of the Santa Teresa hill. Lastly I went by the Escadaria la Selaron in the Lapa neighbor, the work of an eccentric local artist wanting to beautify the neighborhood steps with colorful tiles containing images and symbols from all over the world. Even Texas got a shout out!
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| Clockwise winding inside from the left: Parque de Ruinas, Escadaria la Selaron, same, junkyard art and then a charming house in Santa Teresa |
I couldn’t seem to escape the Brits in Rio. After Rafa and Becky left, I hung out a lot with James from Bristol and Dan and Alex, a couple from London. On Friday we headed out to the Lapa street party where the lack of open container laws was on unashamed display. A couple of vodka red bulls and kinshasha-ish shots later, we were a very festive bunch. Missing from my memory was our adventure wandering through the favellas past midnight on our way back to the hostel.
On Saturday, we got over our hangovers we managed to make it up Corcovado mountain, the highest in Rio, to see Christ the Redeemer, the iconic Art Deco sentry over Rio. It was a gorgeous day and we got to see just how naturally beautiful the Rio harbor is. On Sunday, before leaving for the airport we went to finally check out Copacabana and its beautiful sand beaches. Right after I was left wishing I had more time in this incredible city as I caught my cab to my flight to Barcelona. I can’t wait until I get a chance to come back; Carnaval 2014 anyone?
Jack Wang 