Caipirinhas&Friends in Rio and Sao Paulo

After being in the jungle for a while, we were ready to get rid of our camouflage outfits and go to the city! Caymans and monkeys were exchanged for suntanned people in tiny bikinis! Welcome to Rio de Janeiro!

In Rio we stayed at our friend's apartment. Thanks Ricardo! His apartment was located in Arpoador, a very nice and convenient area, between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. It is nice to live in front of the beach!

The first night we went to have dinner with another friend from Sao Paulo, Marco. We went to a nice restaurant, Zaza bistro. Our table was in the first floor and we had to take our shoes off. After that we went to drink caipirinhas in a bar in front of the beach. We tried caipirinhas with kiwi and caju fruit, delicious!

We also had dinner with Ricardo and his friend in a nice area full of young people. The bars were very full and also there were people drinking outside!

In Rio we did all the touristic things you have to do in your first visit to the city. We went up to the Corcovado hill by a zip train. On top of the hill we enjoyed the nice views of the city and we also saw the huge statue of the "Cristo Redentor". We tried to take a picture in front of the Christ insistently but it was really difficult to avoid all the tourists making weird poses in front of you...

Where's Laura?

After the Corcovado hill, we went to the other highlight of the city, the "Paõ de Açucar". We took the teleferic to the top of the hill and there we waited for the sunset.

Views from the first hill

Weird monkey

Views from top of the Paõ de Açucar

The views from Paõ de Açucar, with the orange light of the sunset, were spectacular! Rio has an excellent location and the landscape is absolutely gorgeous!

The only tour we took in Rio was the favela tour. With a small group of people and our guide we went to one of the favelas that surround the city, the famous Rocinha. For our security, our guide told us that we were being watched the whole time and they didn't like being photographed. So we couldn't take pictures inside the favelas. We only could take pictures from the balcony of one house we could get in. The view from there was astonishing. The location of the favela is very privileged because of the views but the density of inhabitants living there is overwhelming. Officially there were living 65.000 people but in reality there were 200.000!

The entire area is full of houses built by themselves and painted with vivid colors. However, we saw a big structure in the middle of the favela that was a public housing project.The neighborhood looked like a colorful ant farm.

We felt very safe walking on the streets of the favela. I am sure that this is because we were in a tour and you probably get a different feeling walking alone in these streets. Our guide told us that the interior of the favelas is a safe place because, he literally said: "they don't shit where they eat".

We tried the Açai, which is a typical cold fruit pure with toppings! Weird taste but refreshing!

Days after we read in the news that the police captured in that favela the boss of drug gang. Scary...

After visiting Rocinha we went to another favela. This one was very different from the previous one. The particularity of that one was that was built like a maze. Its streets were very narrow with little sunlight and all the houses were very compacted. It was difficult to get oriented inside.

One of the things that was surprising to us the most in our visit to the favelas was how invisible is the line between the rich area and the favelas. They are next to each other. A big house can share easily the wall with a favela construction.

We also visited a project for kids to stay and play while they are not in school and their parents are working. Kids go to school half a day so they have lot of free time. With this project they are not in the street and they are playing football and learning for example, how to build things with recycled materials.

Cup made of recycled magazines

From Rio de Janeiro we planned to go to the Paraty beaches but the weather wasn't very good and we decided to go directly to Sao Paulo by bus.

Sao Paulo is very different from Rio, it hasn't the beaches and the green hills of Rio and it has more extension to grow. We also felt that in Sao Paulo people are more stressed, maybe because of the business environment.

In Sao Paulo we stayed in a very big hostel in the center, Sao Paulo hostel. If we had to come back again, we would stay in Vila Madalena which is a nice area full of young people and nice restaurants. But on the other hand, our hostel was very convenient for the subway and to get to the airport by bus.

In Sao Paulo we visited Avenida Paulista and the Modern Art Museum (MASP) by Lina Bo Bardi, one of the first modernist female architect. We also visited the theater.

MASP

In Sao Paulo we also met our friends for dinner. Antonio, Ricardo and Renata, it was so nice to see you again!

NEXT STOP: Uruguay!