Top Takeaways - #7

Alex and I wrapped up the first leg of our journey with six days in Rio. Here are our top takeaways from our time in Brazil!

View from Sugarloaf, Rio de Janeiro.

1. Rio International Airport (GIG) takes the top prize for worst airport so far during our travels. Not one bar, sit-down restaurant or newsstand shop to be found - definitely a first for us, especially for such a global airport. Even Cusco had a bar and food court!

2. It's not worth booking tickets to Christ the Redeemer or Sugarloaf in advance. The experience is all about the views, which totally depend on clear skies, and the weather can be somewhat unpredictable in the mountains. We had a very cloudy day for seeing Christ the Redeemer and if we weren't leaving the next day, we probably would have gone back on a clear day (just not really worth it in the clouds...).

3. Portuguese is much harder to understand and speak than Spanish. We felt like the accent was thicker and the words were harder to pronounce - but maybe that's just us! Fair to point out we spent seven weeks in Spanish speaking countries and only one week in Brazil.

4. The "Brazilian wax" definitely has it's name for a reason! Men and women both generally wear very little to the beach (and, for the most part, have great bodies too).

5. Rio is just as expensive as (if not more so than) New York. We're glad we didn't start our trip there or we would have been more nervous about our spending habits in South America!

6. Carbs and meat still reign supreme. Breakfast in Brazil is commonly a basket filled with various types of breads, snacks are cheese and meat empanadas or pao de queijo (cheese breads) and dinners are often all-you-can eat meat parties. Having said that...

7. It's easy to get a fresh coconut or acai bowl just about anywhere, especially near the beach!

8. Poverty is commercialized. We would have never guessed we could pay to be shown around the poor "favela" neighborhoods until arriving in Rio. Definitely an eye-opening experience.

9. Havainas are the best (and most affordable vs. USD pricing) Brazilian souvenir. There are a ton of stores featuring hundreds of styles of the local flip flop brand, all priced around US$10-$15.

10. Beaches are beautiful and full of amenities. There are public bathrooms, lifeguard stations, drink and restaurant stalls and places to get a chair or umbrella on every block. Just bring yourself, a towel and some cash and you won't have to leave all day!

Peak: Taking in the views on Sugarloaf

Pit: Missing the views at Christ the Redeemer

Next Stop: Madison, NJ for a few days then NY & CT for a double wedding weekend!

Ciao, South America

We are back in the good ol’ USA just in time for Labor Day. The overnight flight in economy followed by a delayed connection in Houston wasn’t the most fun way to come home but we’re happy to be back nonetheless!

Our last two days in Rio were really defined by the weather: we had the continued gloom of overcast skies and scattered rain on Saturday but a beautiful sunny day on Sunday. We’d saved the two big remaining sightseeing trips for these days so we were (obviously) hoping for great weather; unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate...

We visited Christ the Redeemer on Saturday. We’d been hoping all day that the clouds would clear up a little bit, but by late afternoon we’d accepted the fact that we weren’t going to get much of a view. As we were boarding the train up the mountain the conductors even warned us that we couldn’t see anything but we were out of time - either we could go up now with limited visibility or skip it.

Well they weren’t kidding. We literally ascended into a cloud - looking out onto Rio was as impressive as looking at a grey wall.

“I think I see something! Oh wait, nope.”

It cleared enough for us to get a shot of “the man,” but only briefly.

Despite the clouds it was still a very impressive sight - the statue is HUGE!

With no sign of the clouds clearing and this Wonder of the World crossed off our bucket list, we didn’t linger for too long in Tijuca Forest National Park (where the statue is located). Many of the other tourists up there had the same idea though - the wait for the train took over an hour. By the time we finally got down to street-level we were cold, tired and ready for a warm dinner. We’d been saving Porcao for our last meal in Rio so the timing worked out perfectly.

Porcao is a fixed-price, all-you-can-eat steakhouse that is known for its variety, quantity and quality of meats served during dinner. There is a salad bar that you can visit as often as you’d like but the main attraction is all the waiters coming by with different meats on skewers to slice them directly onto your plate. Needless to say, we ate a lot!

Filet, chicken, sausage and lamb - definitely not vegetarian friendly!

We woke up early Sunday to wonderfully clear skies and decided to go for an early walk on Ipanema beach to watch the sunrise. In addition to the great views we were also entertained by some ladies who hadn’t finished partying from Saturday night - let’s just say the Jersey Shore isn’t the only place you can find drunk idiots!

Looking out at the ocean from Ipanema.

The famous Dois Irmaos (Two Brothers) peaks.

We almost had the whole beach to ourselves.

We ended our walk at Starbucks (Sarah learned how to say iced coffee in Portuguese!) before going back to our hotel to pack up. Once we were ready to go we left our bags with Pedro, the host at Casa Cool Beans, and headed over to Sugarloaf Mountain. In my opinion, this looks less like a mountain than a series of huge, cliff-like rocks sticking out of the water - but that didn’t anyone from building a cable car to get to the top (cable car rides were first available in 1912!)

We’d heard some of the best views of the city can be seen from the top so we were really glad the weather finally cooperated. When we got to the top (there are two “levels” - one cable car takes you half way there, the second takes you all the way up) we were treated to probably our best view of the entire two months in South America. If you are ever in Rio, this is a must-do on a clear day!

View of the beach, the bay and one of Rio's airports from Morro da Urca (the first stop in the cable car).

Another beach and a lot of sail boats.

The second cable car up to the top.

The reward for making the trip all the way up: a breathtaking view of Rio!

Proof that Sarah wasn’t too scared to ride the cable car!

Looking across the bay at Icari.

We lingered at Sugarloaf for a couple hours then took a leisurely walk back to Ipanema by way of Copacabana. Not a bad way to spend a beautiful afternoon.

Rio has been an amazing stop on our trip and is definitely worth the hassle of getting a Brazilian visa. We’ll be getting settled in the US for a few days before embarking on our two-month road trip across the country - we’re both looking forward to kicking it off properly with two weddings this weekend!

A Tale of Two Cities

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!

First Two Days in Ipanema

Sarah and I spent the last two days exploring Ipanema - both the beach and the surrounding neighborhood. Yesterday we had perfect weather so we relaxed for most of the day on the beach. Today it was more overcast so we walked around the neighborhood. Rio is definitely more pricey than other destinations on our trip so far but it's also one of the nicest places we've been to!

Ipanema beach is huge. Fortunately our host at Casa Cool Beans (yes, that's the name of our hotel) was able to point us in the right direction - crowds of like-minded people tend to congregate at different points along the beach (i.e., the locals section, the surfer section, the gay section, the Playboy section, etc.) We ended up in pretty neutral territory.

Even though it's technically winter down here, it still got up to the 80s yesterday and we had a great beach day. Hopefully we get some more of this kind of weather while we're here!

The view form our beach chairs - not a bad Tuesday!

Ipanema beach.

One other point on the beach. We were expecting the typical bathing suit here to be more "aggressively" cut, if you will, than what we're used to in the US but we were surprised just how conservative our suits were in comparison! It was a rarity to see a bikini that wasn't paired with a thong bottom and almost all the men had speedos or a short-shorts equivalent. We've definitely stood out as Americans many times on the trip so far but never as American prudes!

After a long day in the sun we were ready for a hearty dinner. Buffets are relatively popular down here so we figured we'd check one out. Fazendola turned out to be great - I was expecting something like the low-quality buffets we tolerated in college but this was much better than that (there was even a freshly prepared Japanese station with really good sushi). Worth trying if you want something different.

Today we woke up to overcast skies - no beach for us today. We wanted to start the day with a walk around the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon which is not far from our hotel. Even though it was a cloudy day, it was still a great way to see some of the surrounding area.

Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.

Looking back at Ipanema.

It's 4 and a half miles all the way around so we were hungry for lunch when we got back to Ipanema. We went to Nectar on the recommendation of our host and it did not disappoint - really big, hearty sandwiches at a good price. There was a lot of confusion with my allergy cards (I think our server thought I was giving her a business card because she just pocketed it and walked away!) but my meal did come pesto-free so I can't complain!

We had a bit of a siesta in the afternoon then walked over to Academia de Cachaca to learn more about / sample some cachaca. Sarah and I agree that it's similar (and superior to) rum. After the tasting we headed to Via Sete for some delicious burgers - we'd definitely recommend this place if you're looking for a casual meal in Ipanema. We still have four days here and there's a high chance we'll be back!

Iguazu Falls - Part 1

Our last day (well, technically second-to-last since we will be back for one night before flying to Rio) in Buenos Aires was pretty mundane: resting after another 14-hour bus trip back from Mendoza, making sure our laundry was done and hitting up one more restaurant recommendation from a friend.

We headed to Las Pizarras (thanks Jennifer!) for a great meal with fantastic service and great wine. The menu changes daily and is presented on multiple chalkboards, but definitely has a strong Argentinian / French Bistro / hope you love meat attitude. The standout for us was actually the steak tartar appetizer - it was substantial, really well-seasoned (capers!) and very different from what we would have gotten in NYC (small mound of raw steak with an egg yolk). So far, all of our restaurant recommendations have worked out pretty well!

I'm not even a big fan of steak tartar normally but this was delicious.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Iguazu. We had originally intended to take another bus, but after learning the trip was actually 24 hours (!!), we opted for a quick 2 hour flight instead.

We arrived at Casa Yaguarete, a small B&B I had found via Trip Advisor (of course!) and were warmly greeted by our hosts, Lorena and Andrea. Lorena promptly gave us an overview of the property, told us which tours we should take (and on which day), gave us a map of the city and provided hand-written directions for everything else. We headed into the small town of Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (about a 40-minute walk) and took a look around before grabbing a quick meal and heading to bed.

Friday it was time to head to the falls, starting with the Brazilian side as recommended by our kind hosts. A note on the geography: Brazil and Argentina each have their own national park, small tourist town and accompanying airport to provide access to Iguazu. Crossing the Argentinian / Brazilian border via bus and going through customs was actually very easy (thanks for picking up our visas Nick!) and we arrived at the national park in about an hour. From there we took another bus and headed deeper into the park and closer to the falls, which was clear as soon as we heard the sound of rushing water. There were many paths to take to continue observing all of the different falls from various vantage points, but I'll let our pictures do the talking here!

There was actually a line of people to get a photo at this overlook. We saw some other tourists scoff and move on, but figured it was worth a five-minute wait to get this shot!

Sort of the "gateway view" of the falls.

One of the various "platforms" between different waterfalls.

Another waterfall "platform."

More waterfalls.

I wondered how many individual falls actually comprise Iguazu.

Given all the mist in the air, there were many different places to see rainbows around the falls!

It felt like the falls just kept on going.

We walked around for a while, taking in the view from each overlook. There is apparently a lot of debate over which side is preferable - Argentina vs. Brazil - but it's hard to imagine the views from Argentina can top the ones we had today. We'll find out tomorrow!