Day 57
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Today was all about downtown Rio. Metropolitan Rio is divided roughly into two halves: the Zona Norte (mostly poor with a few nice areas) and the Zona Sul (mostly nice with a few poor areas) but everyone comes together in Centro, the high-rise business district on the shore of Guanabana Bay.
The Zona Sul has the beaches and the scenery - and a lot of tourists never leave it - but Centro looks and feels every bit like the quintessential Latin American metropolis. The guides recommended coming on a weekday since it's apparently a bit deserted on weekends. There was no danger of that today - it was overflowing with people. There were businessmen in designer suits, kids playing soccer on the sidewalks, merchants shouting at customers, beggars on the corners, police twirling nightsticks... you name the character and they were probably there. I found myself strangely drawn into this part of town.
Rio was Brazil's capital until 1960, when the government moved lock, stock and barrel to the newly-built Brasilia. How they got all those people to abandon beautiful Rio and relocate to a treeless nowhere in the middle of the country's interior (all designed by Rio native Oscar Niemeyer, who at 105 years old is incredibly still designing buildings) is a mystery to me. Central Rio is dotted with relics from its time as the capital - big, solid neo-classical buildings with columns and ornate gold-leaf carvings along the rooflines. Mixed in is a surprising amount of Art Deco goodness and a whole lot of 1950s and 1960s glass and steel.
Many of the streets in the center have been pedestrianized, so it's an easy place to walk. From the downtown core I walked over to the Saara district, which is full of early 20th-century buildings in varying states of repair, and down into Lapa, the city's up-and-coming nightlife hub. In the vast and shady Campo de Santana park, I watched groups of agoutis - strange rodents without tails that are about the size of a housecat - nosing around in the grass. I had hoped to go to Santa Teresa, a very traditional neighborhood on a hill that's linked to downtown by the city's sole remaining streetcar line. It took some effort to find the streetcar terminal, and when I did I discovered it wasn't running today. Instead I stopped into a lanchonete for a kibe, a cracked-wheat dumpling filled with ground beef, like a little meat bomb.
And with that my time in Brazil comes to an end... I've been in this country longer than anywhere else on the trip (I was in and out of South Africa a few times so it doesn't count) and although I still feel very much like I'm on the outside looking in, it's become familiar, too. Rio has been the highlight of Brazil - I'm glad I saved it for last, because all of the other spots (yes, even Noronha) would have paled in comparison. This is a really, really spectacular city, and you should all come see it for yourselves.
My last meal in Brazil? Well, the advertising worked. I got tired of seeing that vaguely Asian-looking Brazilian child encouraging me to eat at China In Box, so I hiked over to Copacabana tonight to try it out. For a store with a somewhat loose grasp of English grammatical practices (articles between subjects and objects?... nah) it was pretty tasty, although they forgot to give me a fork with my takeout, which made things interesting when I got back to my hotel room.
Tomorrow it's on to Chile and cooler weather!
Today I'm in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Today was all about downtown Rio. Metropolitan Rio is divided roughly into two halves: the Zona Norte (mostly poor with a few nice areas) and the Zona Sul (mostly nice with a few poor areas) but everyone comes together in Centro, the high-rise business district on the shore of Guanabana Bay. 
The Zona Sul has the beaches and the scenery - and a lot of tourists never leave it - but Centro looks and feels every bit like the quintessential Latin American metropolis. The guides recommended coming on a weekday since it's apparently a bit deserted on weekends. There was no danger of that today - it was overflowing with people. There were businessmen in designer suits, kids playing soccer on the sidewalks, merchants shouting at customers, beggars on the corners, police twirling nightsticks... you name the character and they were probably there. I found myself strangely drawn into this part of town. 
Rio was Brazil's capital until 1960, when the government moved lock, stock and barrel to the newly-built Brasilia. How they got all those people to abandon beautiful Rio and relocate to a treeless nowhere in the middle of the country's interior (all designed by Rio native Oscar Niemeyer, who at 105 years old is incredibly still designing buildings) is a mystery to me. Central Rio is dotted with relics from its time as the capital - big, solid neo-classical buildings with columns and ornate gold-leaf carvings along the rooflines. Mixed in is a surprising amount of Art Deco goodness and a whole lot of 1950s and 1960s glass and steel. 
Many of the streets in the center have been pedestrianized, so it's an easy place to walk. From the downtown core I walked over to the Saara district, which is full of early 20th-century buildings in varying states of repair, and down into Lapa, the city's up-and-coming nightlife hub. In the vast and shady Campo de Santana park, I watched groups of agoutis - strange rodents without tails that are about the size of a housecat - nosing around in the grass. I had hoped to go to Santa Teresa, a very traditional neighborhood on a hill that's linked to downtown by the city's sole remaining streetcar line. It took some effort to find the streetcar terminal, and when I did I discovered it wasn't running today. Instead I stopped into a lanchonete for a kibe, a cracked-wheat dumpling filled with ground beef, like a little meat bomb. 
And with that my time in Brazil comes to an end... I've been in this country longer than anywhere else on the trip (I was in and out of South Africa a few times so it doesn't count) and although I still feel very much like I'm on the outside looking in, it's become familiar, too. Rio has been the highlight of Brazil - I'm glad I saved it for last, because all of the other spots (yes, even Noronha) would have paled in comparison. This is a really, really spectacular city, and you should all come see it for yourselves. 
My last meal in Brazil? Well, the advertising worked. I got tired of seeing that vaguely Asian-looking Brazilian child encouraging me to eat at China In Box, so I hiked over to Copacabana tonight to try it out. For a store with a somewhat loose grasp of English grammatical practices (articles between subjects and objects?... nah) it was pretty tasty, although they forgot to give me a fork with my takeout, which made things interesting when I got back to my hotel room.Tomorrow it's on to Chile and cooler weather!
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