Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

I have been told that in Brazil they say that "God is Brazilian." When I first heard this I brushed it off as the usual chest-beating nationalism one often hears. But, now that I have seen Rio, I have to inform everyone that it´s true. God is Brazilian. He lives there on the Corcovado Mountain and he touched me. I even have the picture to prove it.

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

This wonderful trip began last Thursday (Oct. 20th) when Eduardo and I took the overnight bus from Puerto Iguaçu to Sao Paulo. It started a bit bumpy as even though he was lucky enough to get some sleep, I only drifted in and out and was a bit cranky when we arrived at 5 AM. Despite it being a mega-city of some 20 million people we managed to find our way to his family friend´s place where we were spending the night. This involved a metro ride with our massive packs and a city bus whose driver was new and didn´t know his route. Yet we managed to arrive safely and after a power nap and some breakfast we bussed to the centre and began to explore the city.

We began this exploration at the Museum of the Portuguese Language. This is housed in a converted train station. Eduardo got a lot more out of it as he speaks Portuguese. I just looked at all the pretty pictures, though I did pick up a few words which they had exhibits on. Naturally, they were the dirty ones.

After this we wandered around a bit, explored a bit of huge city park and then took the metro to Avenida Paulista. Avenida Paulista, one of the cities main streets, runs through the financial district of Sao Paulo where many banks are headquartered. Think Bay Street or Wall Street. After gawking at the buildings we headed to the historic centre where we toured the Brazilian Stock Exchange and went to the top of a building to take in a view of the skyline.

Neither words nor photos can emphasize the size of Sao Paulo. The city goes on forever. From horizon to horizon there is an endless march of high-rise apartments. It is absolutely immense. To provide some perspective, a bar in Sao Paulo has a satellite image of the city on the ceiling. The scale of this image is such that streets are barely distinguishable and even then the city cannot fit on the ceiling of a large room. On the bus ride there we were driving into the city for more than an hour before we even arrived at the bus station. The city is big. However, I did not find it to be suffocating or crowded. The historic centre was all pedestrian and rather picturesque and Avenida Paulista was easily walk-able. It was even remarkably clean for a city of its size. The traffic is ridiculous though. Rich people take helicopters instead of driving it is so bad and on the bus we found ourselves inching through congestion.

After our day of exploration we stayed inside in the evening and rested as we had our public service exams at the consulate the next day. These exams are the yearly tests the government holds to rank applicants applying at the public service, which includes the Foreign Service. They were also the wonderful excuse that we used to go travel to Brazil (Sao Paulo is the same distance from Puerto Iguaçu as Buenos Aires). The consulate where we took the exam was in an office building in a ritzy office park outside of the centre. I don´t know how I did yet, but right now I am thinking that I did well at written communication and general knowledge and am poor at situational judgment. But we will see.

After the test we proceeded to the house of Eduardo´s Aunt on the edge of the city. It was really nice and we got to relax for a bit after some supper. His cousin then took us out and we partied around Sao Paulo. This was where I saw the bar with the satellite image roof, if you were curious. I am not going to give details on our escapades but it was a good time and we were out till the early morning. The next day it was raining so we sat inside and watched F1 racing on TV. A nice lazy time to recharge the batteries before heading out to Rio the next morning.

Before going to Sao Paulo I had made the prediction that I would not like it very much, as it would be too crowded, but I would love Rio. It turned out that I loved Sao Paulo, as it was so, for lack of a better word, cool. It was so different from any other city. So large and cosmopolitan. But if Sao Paulo exceeded my expectations, Rio then blew them away.

From the bus ride there, a trip down the side of a mountain dropping some 800m of elevation, to the rain forest, beaches, mountains, history and people inside the city itself, Rio was absolutely stunning. I have already begun to day dream about moving there....

We arrived at the bus station in the afternoon and proceeded to take a taxi to Eduardo´s cousin´s apartment in Copacabana. Yes, the Copacabana. We were staying 3 blocks from the beach. We obviously dumped our stuff and headed right out again to try and take in some sun.

The next day we took the cable car up to the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain. From there one has a view of the entire city. The geography is absolutely immense. You can see the triangular national park cutting into the city and massive pieces of jutting rock dividing neighbourhood from neighbourhood. This means that almost every area has its own beach and everyone is a short walk from the sea. The centre itself is along Guanabara Bay which extends far inland. All in all it is easy to see why Rio is called the "Marvelous City."

Unfortunately on these crazy hills one can also see massive favelas (shanty towns) that have been built up by the poor. They jut up all over the city reminding you of the dark underbelly of this beautiful city. All the magnificent scenery and beautiful beaches are in the South Zone of the city, the wealthy section. The North, much poorer, Zone of the city is farther inland along the bay on the other side of the national park. The Rio I saw was wealthy Rio, I never saw the other Rio.

But I digress. After the Sugar Loaf we proceeded to wander around downtown Rio and saw some of new modern building set beside old colonial architecture. I personally liked the old buildings better. I am not a fan of the modernist concrete buildings that Brazil seems to put up everywhere. From the centre we took a streetcar from the 1920s up the mountain to some neighbourhood with a crazy view. The point was to ride the streetcar. It was so old and rickety that I think it was held together by ducttape and prayer. People were hanging over the sides even as it went over a massive bridge with a 15m drop. They then had to squish in as it passed cars to avoid being hit and knocked off. I sat in a seat where it was safe, though not as much fun.

The next day was spent on a trip up the Corcovado Mountain to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer and then a relaxing afternoon drinking on the beach. To visit Christ one takes a train up the mountain. Somehow, despite the insane incline, the train manages to make the climb from the city below, into the national park, through the clouds and to the statue itself. I am not going to lie, I thought the statue would be bigger, but considering it is built at the top of the mountain I was still impressed. And what makes it such a landmark is that everywhere we went in the city we would look up and see Christ looking down.

Needless to say the view was amazing but I will refrain from waxing on and on about the crazy city that extended below. My pictures will speak for themselves.

Duda and I also spent a day taking a boat tour of the Guanabara Bay. This was ridiculously cheap ($2.50 Canadian each) and allowed us to see all the sites along the coast that otherwise are difficult to get to. We also were able to take a tour of a submarine! It was cramped and we both hit our heads so I don´t recommend anyone over 5 feet tall becoming a submariner.

Now I must speak about the beaches. Even if Rio didn´t have the Sugar Loaf or the mountains or Christ the beaches would nevertheless have made the city marvelous. I made sure that we spent a morning and a couple afternoons doing nothing more than enjoying the beach, the sun and the beautiful views. One could sit on a chair, have delicious drinks delivered and just spend the afternoon taking in the sun. After one week I can happily report that I am a couple shades darker, and that was with clouds every afternoon we were there.

And after the sun went down Rio was an incredible place to party. Everytime we went out was a crazy good time. But the outing that really stands out is the street party we went to in the neighbourhood of Lapa. This is the bohemian-artsy area and they regularly have a massive party on the streets. This involves thousands of people drinking, eating and dancing in the streets, in bars and in gas stations. Yes. Gas stations. In Brazil they are a place to drink and party. They are cheaper than the bars, which have a large cover charge, but it was less crowded and sketchy than hanging out by the street vendors. Crazy, I know: on my last night in Rio I spent the night at a massive street party hanging out at a gas station.

I feel that I have ranted on and on about my fantastic time in Brazil for long enough. But during my endless ravings I hope I have managed to convey some sense of the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. These were massive, unique cities of a type I had never seen before. But the people were warm, the vistas beautiful and the time I spent there was amazing. All in all I loved it. And how could I have not? I touched God in Brazil and have the picture to prove it.

*The picture at the begining links to my photos.