Day 55
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I had big, ambitious plans today. I was going hardcore sightseeing. I was visiting different neighborhoods, going to parks, stopping in museums, and so forth. I left the hotel and walked with purpose. I was headed for Copacabana, the next suburb up from Ipanema, and after stopping at Polis Sucos to get another cup of ridiculously good acai com granola (pictured) and I decided I'd walk to Copacabana along the beach, because hey, it's nicer there.
It's Saturday and everyone in Rio was on the beach. Young, old, black, white, you name it, the place was packed. I made it about three blocks before I gave in and decided to go sit on the beach with the rest of the city. So much for sightseeing.
After about an hour on the sand a Canadian couple set up shop next to me and we started chatting. Christina and Sharif were visiting from Toronto and were coming up on the end of a two-week swing through Argentina and Brazil. She just finished law school and he got his MBA a few years ago, so we compared notes on Toronto, Chicago, job searches, travel and life in general. One caipirinha turned into two, which turned into four, and suddenly it was almost three o'clock and I had only made it a few blocks from my hotel. We made plans to meet for dinner tomorrow night and I staggered off down the beach in the direction of Copacabana.
Fortunately it didn't take long to get there. Like Ipanema, Copacabana is a truly vast sweep of white sand and it was completely packed. It's angled more north-south, compared to Ipanema which is east-west, so it gets head-on sunshine in the morning and by afternoon it's almost completely out of the sun. The neighborhood around it has (according to my guidebook and several people I've talked to) seen better days, but the beach and its proximity to central Rio mean that it hasn't fallen that far downhill. The streets were lined with more utilitarian shops and restaurants - not quite as upscale as Ipanema or Leblon - but there were tons of people around and it seemed like a pretty nice place to live.
Since the sun was starting to set, I decided I'd head for Pão de Açúcar, the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain that stands guard over the entrance to Guanabana Bay. You can get up there via cable car, and I was a little worried that sunset on a Saturday would be packed, but things moved along pretty quickly and I found myself at the top after only about fifteen minutes in line.
The view from the top was pretty incredible - the skyscrapers of downtown Rio to the north, the middle-class Flamengo and Botafogo areas lining the bay immediately below, and Copacabana and Ipanema on the far side. Lesser morros pop up from the urban jungle everywhere. If I were looking to build a city, let alone one with millions and millions of people, this probably isn't the place I'd choose to put it. But the landscape is what makes Rio so spectacular.
It got pretty crowded at the summit right before sunset (including the requisite hordes of Japanese tourists, who literally appeared, kamikaze-style, out of nowhere) but it was a perfect evening and the scenery didn't disappoint. Everyone clapped and cheered when the sun finally slipped below the mountains.
The summit also features a nice view of Rio's downtown Santos Dumont Airport, which features one of the shortest runways in the world that's allowed to handle commercial jet traffic. If you've ever flown out of Chicago's Midway Airport and been surprised by how short the runways there are, consider this - the runway at Santos Dumont is a full thousand feet shorter. To make things more interesting, there's water on three sides. Plus a massive mountain at one end. And an elevated highway bridge on the other. The margin for error there is as close to zero as you can get. I'll be flying out of SDU in a few days when I return to Sao Paulo to catch my onward flight to Santiago, so I'll get to experience it for myself.
From there I headed back down on the cable car and caught a ride back to Ipanema on Rio's very modern metro system, which in the last decade has finally been extended to tourist areas (tunneling under and around some of those imposing mountains isn't easy or cheap) and has become a useful way to get around. Work is allegedly underway to bring the system all the way into Leblon for the 2016 Olympics, although I didn't see any construction when I was there yesterday. It'll come in handy the next few days when I leave the beaches and explore some of Rio's more historic areas.
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I had big, ambitious plans today. I was going hardcore sightseeing. I was visiting different neighborhoods, going to parks, stopping in museums, and so forth. I left the hotel and walked with purpose. I was headed for Copacabana, the next suburb up from Ipanema, and after stopping at Polis Sucos to get another cup of ridiculously good acai com granola (pictured) and I decided I'd walk to Copacabana along the beach, because hey, it's nicer there.It's Saturday and everyone in Rio was on the beach. Young, old, black, white, you name it, the place was packed. I made it about three blocks before I gave in and decided to go sit on the beach with the rest of the city. So much for sightseeing.
After about an hour on the sand a Canadian couple set up shop next to me and we started chatting. Christina and Sharif were visiting from Toronto and were coming up on the end of a two-week swing through Argentina and Brazil. She just finished law school and he got his MBA a few years ago, so we compared notes on Toronto, Chicago, job searches, travel and life in general. One caipirinha turned into two, which turned into four, and suddenly it was almost three o'clock and I had only made it a few blocks from my hotel. We made plans to meet for dinner tomorrow night and I staggered off down the beach in the direction of Copacabana.
Fortunately it didn't take long to get there. Like Ipanema, Copacabana is a truly vast sweep of white sand and it was completely packed. It's angled more north-south, compared to Ipanema which is east-west, so it gets head-on sunshine in the morning and by afternoon it's almost completely out of the sun. The neighborhood around it has (according to my guidebook and several people I've talked to) seen better days, but the beach and its proximity to central Rio mean that it hasn't fallen that far downhill. The streets were lined with more utilitarian shops and restaurants - not quite as upscale as Ipanema or Leblon - but there were tons of people around and it seemed like a pretty nice place to live.
Since the sun was starting to set, I decided I'd head for Pão de Açúcar, the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain that stands guard over the entrance to Guanabana Bay. You can get up there via cable car, and I was a little worried that sunset on a Saturday would be packed, but things moved along pretty quickly and I found myself at the top after only about fifteen minutes in line. 
The view from the top was pretty incredible - the skyscrapers of downtown Rio to the north, the middle-class Flamengo and Botafogo areas lining the bay immediately below, and Copacabana and Ipanema on the far side. Lesser morros pop up from the urban jungle everywhere. If I were looking to build a city, let alone one with millions and millions of people, this probably isn't the place I'd choose to put it. But the landscape is what makes Rio so spectacular. 
It got pretty crowded at the summit right before sunset (including the requisite hordes of Japanese tourists, who literally appeared, kamikaze-style, out of nowhere) but it was a perfect evening and the scenery didn't disappoint. Everyone clapped and cheered when the sun finally slipped below the mountains. 
The summit also features a nice view of Rio's downtown Santos Dumont Airport, which features one of the shortest runways in the world that's allowed to handle commercial jet traffic. If you've ever flown out of Chicago's Midway Airport and been surprised by how short the runways there are, consider this - the runway at Santos Dumont is a full thousand feet shorter. To make things more interesting, there's water on three sides. Plus a massive mountain at one end. And an elevated highway bridge on the other. The margin for error there is as close to zero as you can get. I'll be flying out of SDU in a few days when I return to Sao Paulo to catch my onward flight to Santiago, so I'll get to experience it for myself.
From there I headed back down on the cable car and caught a ride back to Ipanema on Rio's very modern metro system, which in the last decade has finally been extended to tourist areas (tunneling under and around some of those imposing mountains isn't easy or cheap) and has become a useful way to get around. Work is allegedly underway to bring the system all the way into Leblon for the 2016 Olympics, although I didn't see any construction when I was there yesterday. It'll come in handy the next few days when I leave the beaches and explore some of Rio's more historic areas. 
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