The past two days in Rio have been cloudy with intermittent rain so we put our outdoor plans (Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf) on hold as the weather is supposed to clear up on Saturday and Sunday. Fingers crossed!
Thursday was really raining so we needed an alternative to our usual plan of walking around and exploring. Thankfully our host, Pedro - fluent in both unaccented English and perfectly accented Portuguese, making it impossible to know where he's from - provided us with some indoor suggestions in the Centro area. Centro is generally considered the center of the city and is home to many of Rio's financial, government and cultural buildings. We spent some time checking out the CCBB, the Centro Cultural do Banco Brasil, which was currently displaying a Salvador Dali exhibit. I was excited to put some of my (albeit limited) art history knowledge to use as we checked out some of his famous clock paintings, but unfortunately none of them were a part of the exhibit! While the work was interesting, we couldn't help but feel like the more famous paintings were somewhere else...
We also tried to check out the Theatro Municipal, but apparently many other tourists had the same idea for a rainy day because all of the tours were sold out! As the rain continued, we decided to call it quits and headed back to Ipanema for a very late lunch at Azteka around 4pm. The Mexican food was delicious and just what we needed on a gloomy day. Alex headed back to the hotel for a siesta while I walked around to do a little shopping. Afterward we headed across the street for a late, casual dinner before calling it a night (gloomy days make us kind of tired, apparently!)
Friday morning we set off on a guided favela tour. It's the first time on our trip that we've essentially taken a "tour" through the poorest neighborhood possible. We were recommended the experience by almost everyone we spoke to about Rio, but still felt highly uncomfortable during most of the tour. With about 12 other people (and a guide), we headed to Favela Rocinha, the largest favela in South America and home to approximately 200,000 people.
View of the favela. It's hard to call this a beautiful sight, but it was really incredible.
While we paid for our tour (and were told that half of the cost went to supporting the favela residents, which we hope is true), we still stopped at numerous stalls / stores where our guide tried to persuade us to buy local goods and watch children perform. While it felt somewhat annoying and touristy at first, it was a stark reminder of the living situation for the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhood. Having said that, we were shocked to learn that "houses" with better views could often be sold for nearly US$40,000! Another crazy realization was how most of the homes received electricity - through gerry-rigged contraptions and wires stealing it from the electric companies. We'd never seen so many live wires strung in such a haphazard fashion, often next to or under the water pipes.
Really amazing to think about all of the people who call this area home.
Another view of the brightly colored buildings.
Contrasting view of the favela blending in with Rio's more developed landscape.
Given that many tours go through the favelas each day, most of the residents seemed nonplussed by our presence. That said, the scariest part of the day (and probably our trip!) happened as we were wrapping up the tour: we encountered an intimidating guy waving a machine gun at us, we walked through a deep crowd of children yelling "Money" / trying to grab my sunglasses and group of men aggressively cat calling me. It didn't help that the machine gun guy followed us for a bit, joining in on the "Money" chorus. We were "expecting the unexpected" on this tour, but I've never been more scared!
Trying to relax while taking in the scene.
Ending our tour at the "entrance" to the favela.
After a fairly heart-racing morning, we needed to relax with an adult beverage and some lunch. Many of our friends had suggested exploring the bohemian Santa Teresa neighborhood at some point, so we headed straight to Espirito Santa to eat and then explore the area. We lucked out with a delicious, traditional Amazonian meal (definitely recommend!) and then started to walk around and take in the scenery - the neighborhood is on the top of a hill and has great views of Rio.
Even on a cloudy day, the views were pretty impressive.
View of Centro Rio from Santa Teresa.
Pedro was a little cautious about the area in general and after our favela experience, we were pretty on edge during our walk around the neighborhood (even in broad daylight, there are a lot of quiet, winding roads and one can quickly wander into a nearby favela if not careful). While it was a little unnerving to be the only ones walking down an unfamiliar street, we quickly found other tourists also in search of the Selaron Steps.
Taking a break to check out all of the different tiles.
The tiles are from all over the world so it was fun to check each one out. Obviously we found the NYC one!
I seized a rare moment when the steps were free and a kind lady quickly snapped our picture.
Between Santa Teresa and Favela Rocinha, we definitely explored a grittier side of Rio today but I'm glad we were able to gain a little perspective. Tomorrow we head to Christ the Redeemer so here's hoping to better weather!