Happy New Year! Last week's post about my second week on vacation had a major mistake- I missed a whole day! Click here to read about what I did on my very unusual Christmas Day.
This past week has been pretty interesting- from Christmas to New Years in Rio de Janeiro (with my birthday thrown in there too...), it seems like I was able to get a flavor of Rio while still relaxing- but, hey! Isn't that what vacation is about? Rio de Janeiro is SUPER duper hot and humid, so the ocean and air conditioning have been my two best friends. Check out the past week below!
There isn't much to share about today- we slept in late and then my group met up with three classmates who are staying at a different hostel, and we went to the beach. Not just any beach- the famous Copacabana. It was packed, but we still found an awesome place to camp out. We met some Brazilians and hung out with them for part of the afternoon. Once the sun was setting, we went to dinner at Domino's (yes, the pizza place). It doesn't exist in BA, and Argentine pizza is NOT the same as American pizza. So when we can find American pizza chains, its practically a luxury item! Today was a fun and relaxing day, but I'm glad I brought my sunscreen on this trip! The sun is bright and hot (which is really weird for us, since it is December!)
The famous Copacabana. The view is great, the water and sand are amazingly clean, and it was a warm day but the water temp was perfect!
Us hanging out at the beach! There are tons of cute food and souvenir shops along the street- I'll have to be careful not to bring too much money with me, or I might spend it all...
Day 16: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometersHappy birthday to me! My twentieth birthday was very strange. We woke up late and hung out at the hostel, waiting for the other group of students at the other hostel to wake up. When we finally met up to go to lunch, and then the beach, one of the girls in our group was feeling sick and the beach we were going to (Botafogo Beach) turned out to be disgustingly polluted! We decided to stay in the air conditioning and went back to our hostels to plan some activities for the rest of our time in Brazil. We went out to dinner tonight to a local Brazilian food restaurant where the waiters were really pushy and didn't leave us alone all night, which was awkward to say the least. The food was good though (to be explained in a future food post!) and we enjoyed the meal, despite the weird waiters. We headed back to the hostel, where some of the people there invited us out to a street party that was going on, to be followed by a favela party called Black Santa. We decided to go (don't worry- we made sure to have some guys with us for increased safety!) and ultimately had a blast. The street party was held in a downtown plaza- there was a live band, food stands, drinks, and tons of people! After hanging around there for a while, we went to a favela with a killer view of the city that had a party going on- there were a ton of people and the DJ was spinning some awesome tunes. A quick cultural lesson: favelas are poor, slum neighborhoods buried in urban cities. The houses are crammed together and usually built up a hill, and they are often dangerous for foreigners to wander into unawares. However, one of the guys in our group from the hostel was a volunteer in this favela who helped teach the children martial arts, so we were pretty sure that we were safe. We stayed at this Black Santa party until about 5 am... and then we couldn't get a cab until around 6! I was actually able to see the beginning of the sunrise from behind the mountains around Rio, which was breathtaking.
Some of the locals at the Black Santa party wanted to get a picture with us. I was told that, as a white blonde, I would stand out a lot; however, the two asian girls in our group were super popular among the locals because they were so foreign!
Day 17: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometers
After such a late night, I was surprised that I was able to wake up at 9 am to head to the beach with some of the girls in our group that hadn't gone out the night before. We met up and headed to the other famous beach in Rio de Janeiro- Ipanema. When we got to the beach at about 10:30 am, the weather was so hot that we were so anxious to get into the ocean! The waves were nice and the water was cool, but around 11:30 or so just about everyone was in the ocean, which made it super crowded! Unfortunately, one of the girls I was with had her stuff stolen while she was swimming- passport, money, phone, and clothes! We had to get back to the hostel so that she could figure out how to get a temporary passport to return to Argentina. The rest of today was just us hanging out at the hostel trying to help our friend out with her passport problems. I got a really bad sunburn at the beach today (whoops!), so I spent all evening in comfy clothes in air conditioning!
The famous Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro! The sand was hot but the water was cool and the waves were fun to play in.
Day 18: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometers
Today, myself and three other girls in our group moved from a hostel to a hotel. During this peak holiday season, hostels are as expensive as hotels, so we decided to upgrade our living conditions! The hotel is half of the price of a hostel, especially since four of us are splitting a suite. When one of the girls booked the hotel, however, she didn't realize that the hotel was only in the state of Rio de Janeiro- not the city! (Rio de Janeiro, the city, is the capital of Rio de Janeiro, the state.) We had to travel 30 minutes via metro and then another hour via train to get to the hotel (which also explains why it was so much cheaper than housing in the city of Rio). When we finally walked into the nicely furnished lobby and checked in, however, we could not have been happier. It is totally worth it to have a semi-private bathroom that I don't have to wear flip flops into, and the bed is super comfy! Between the four of us girls, we have two bedrooms and two bathrooms connected by a little hallway. I cannot even begin to explain how nice and relaxing it is to not be in a hostel! (It will be pretty hard to switch back in a few days when the hostels in Rio are more reasonably priced...) We walked around the city of Nova Iguacu (where the hotel is) for a while and bought food at a grocery store. I cannot wait to fall asleep in a clean, plush bed tonight!
I cannot even begin to describe how it felt to walk into our hotel room (more like a suite than a room, actually). I know that I am a poor college student, but I felt pretty rich right about then!
Day 19: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometers
Being at this hotel, especially because our group is spending a total of two weeks in Rio, has changed the mode of my break from "go-go-go tourist" to "vacation time". Sleeping in a comfy bed (not to mention being able to sleep whenever I want- which is not the case in a hostel!), having a killer breakfast (not just different types of bread), swimming in a pool, and having a nice bathroom all really make a difference. I feel clean, well-rested, and, although I enjoy doing touristy things, I am also enjoying the reprieve from feeling the need to fill every day with tons of activities. Today we slept in, ate breakfast, and went back to bed. (What is my life?) In the afternoon, we went shopping at a local mall because the girls in my group wanted to wear white to the New Year celebration at Copacabana that we are going to tomorrow. It is a local tradition to wear white with red or yellow accents to the beach celebration, so we are going to try and follow custom!
This was the view from outside the bedroom window. Although we weren't in a super nice area of Brazil, we were definitely in the "real" Brazil that is raw and non-touristy.
Day 20: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometers
Today is the day- New Year's Eve day, to be specific. We slept in as long as we could in order to prepare ourselves for tonight- which we know is going to be a late one! We woke up around 1 pm and got ready to head to Copacabana (about a two-hour commute via train and metro again!) We all wore white and headed to the beach to meet up with some friends there. We had been under the impression that the beach would be packed with locals and tourists alike, since we had been told that over 3 million people would show up for the concerts on the beach as well as the midnight fireworks show. However... arriving at 5 pm was way too early. Whoops! (If I could do it again, I would show up closer to 10 pm.) We walked around, bought dinner, and then checked out some of the concerts. We couldn't get close to the music though because those areas were the most packed. There were a lot of drunk people, and guys started to grab me and my friends asking if we wanted to kiss them. Ew, no! We walked around the beach area, which by 10-ish pm was full of people and vendors. It was a great place to people watch, especially since there was a huge blend of foreigners and locals, rich and poor. The hotels right on the beach had set up exclusive dining areas with prime views of the beach and the sky for the show- they had transformed the cheap food stations along the beach into catered dining areas! We decided to stick our feet in the ocean for the fireworks, so we headed down to the water line. With our toes in the sand and getting splashed occasionally by waves (and me holding onto my phone for dear life so that it didn't fall into the ocean!), we counted down the last few minutes of 2014 until...
Day 21: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; distance: 3181 miles/ 5119 kilometers
Feliz Ano Novo, or Happy New Year! The 20 minute firework show began. It was stunning- boats were out in the water shooting off the fireworks so that the ocean reflected the different colors of the sky. It was amazing! That is, it was amazing until we saw three people who were taking pictures of themselves and the show get their phones stolen by this pack of boys that was running through the beach. One of the boys was chased down by the person he stole the phone from, and he got beat up! It was super scary, so of course we all had a death grip on our side bags for the rest of the show. We also kept looking around to make sure that we weren't being surrounded by the thieves- you could pick them out because they were shirtless, moved in a pack through the crowd, and were the only people moving along the beach at that time since everyone else was standing still and watching the show. Definitely the strangest New Year fireworks show I've been too. Afterwards, we walked back to Botafogo (all public transportation was closed!) where we were going to meet some people to go out and celebrate the new year. We tried to find where they were, but we ended up at a pretty lame house party with a bunch of drunk random people that we didn't know, so we ended up heading back to our friends' hostel. We couldn't head back to our hotel until 7 am because public transportation was closed, so we just stayed up and sat around at the hostel from around 3 am to 7am! It was super boring (I didn't even have WiFi!) and there were a bunch of drunk guys that kept being annoying.(Hey- after being up all night and then not going to a party that you thought would help you pass the time and having to sit at a hostel all night, you would be grumpy too!). I stayed up all night to wait for the metro, which we finally caught at 7 am. When we got to the train station, though, we had just missed our train, so we had to wait another 30 minutes for the next one! Eventually, we crawled back to hotel at around 9:30 am- just in time for the end of breakfast. We ate, showered, and crawled into bed. We woke up around 6 pm and tried to wander around town in search for dinner- but, of course, everything was closed because it was New Year's Day. We found a McDonald's that was open, so our New Year's feast was chicken burgers and fries. (Strangely reminiscent of my Christmas Day meal, as well...) Back at the hotel, we went to the pool and lounged around, but by 1 am we were exhausted again! What?! At least I don't need to forcefully reset my body clock!
Myself and my hotel roommate participating in the New Year's Eve white-out! I had to borrow that tank top because I only have three shirts with me, all of which are colored.
I'm super bummed that I couldn't (safely) get more photos of the fireworks display- it was stunning! And the water reflecting the light was the best.
I can't believe it, but I have officially spent over one week in Rio de Janeiro. This week, full of different adventures from hotel changes to interesting Christmas and New Year's Day dinners, has been one for the memory books.
New Year's Day, aside from its obvious significance, was also a very special day because it marked the half-way point, quite literally, of my South American experience! On January 1st, I spent my 119th day in South America- and had 119 to go until my flight from Argentina lands in the US! This break and my South American experience are both over half-way complete! It's insane to think about how fast this all has gone- but there is still more to come! I have one more week in Rio until I depart for another country... so stay tuned! (And this next week, I am actually going to do touristy things other than go to the beach- I promise!)
Until next week...
Besos,
Tina the Exploradora
Much of what you noted as far as the questionable personal safety environment in Rio is precisely why I never went, never had any desire to, and still don't. Sao Paulo is worse still. Frankly, when the IOC announced that the 2016 Games would be in Rio de Janeiro, I almost fell out of my chair. What do they think they'll do with the favelas? Put a big curtain in front of them? And in terms of larceny, it's true that Athens, Barcelona and Rome aren't the safest cities in the world for tourists, but Brazil takes crime to a whole 'nuther level. I wouldn't go to the 2016 Olympic Games if you GAVE me tickets!
ReplyDeleteBut, glad you escaped to Peru safely! :-)