Rio de Janeiro

Kind of like Buenos Aires, we only had a few days in Rio so we hit the highlights.  Also like Buenos Aires, it is a very large city so we only got a sample.  Where Buenos Aires had some interesting architecture, Rio impresses with it’s rocky peaks and large nature areas.  From above it is simply beautiful, however when you get down into the nitty gritty of the city, some of the glamour wears off. 

Overall we are glad we visited and enjoyed our time there even though it wasn’t as relaxing as we were hoping.  We had discovered a few weeks ago that our last day there was the equivalent of the Brazilian independence day and not only that, it was their 200th anniversary.  Since we were unsure what would be open on the holiday, we decided to book our touristy site-seeing events for the days before and save Copacabana beach for the holiday, figuring the beach would at least be open. 

The first part went according to plan, but the night before the holiday, we got a notification from the Canadian government saying that there was a risk of unrest in Copacabana which is the area we were staying at.  Evidently, President Bolsonaro (who is facing an election in October and behind in the polls) was planning on visiting Copacabana in the afternoon to rally his supporters, and when he did that last year it had caused some unrest.  In speaking with our hotel to get their input, we decided to leave early in the morning for the beach but return to our room for the afternoon.  We half tried to enjoy the beach but also half kept our eyes on the growing crowds, ready to leave for our hotel if we felt things were getting out of control.  Even though we saw some political flags, most were Brazilian flags and it felt more like people celebrating a national holiday than a protest.  Even still, we felt it was best to stay at the hotel for the afternoon just in case, which did put a bit of a damper on our beach experience.

Christ the Redeemer

There are a few options for getting to the top, and we opted for the train which was a lot of fun.  The kids snagged a front seat with the view on the way down and I was fascinated that it was a three track system, with the center rail being geared.  The track was so steep it needed that center rail to climb.

It is hard to capture how big it is in pictures when you are right under it, but it is pretty big!  Even though it was a cloudy day, I’d argue that the view was just as good if not better than the statue itself.

For Annika, I think it was the monkeys that were the best part.

For being off season, it was still quite busy up there, we suspect because of the upcoming holiday.  Since it was our only thing scheduled for the day, we decide to stay at the top for a while to see if the clouds would clear some.  It was fun to watch the crowds and see people trying to get different selfies with the statue.  We also got to watch some maintenance being done with a man climbing up the side.

Sugarloaf Mountain

It was a much sunnier day for our double gondola ride to the top of Sugarloaf!

Of course the view was spectacular with a lot of Copacabana beach, Christ the Redeemer, and a lot of Rio visible.

The backside of Sugarloaf had some great trails (i.e. stairs!) through a lovely forest/jungle.  We had some more acai and enjoyed the view from this angle as well.  One thing of curiosity was watching all these navy warships maneuver out of the bays and into the open sea.  We understood later why that was happening.

Copacabana Beach

Since we went early, the beach didn’t feel crowded though it did get busier as the day progressed.  We had walked the street along the beach in the days before and that part was definitely more filled with with people on the Independence Day (with the main street being blocked to cars that day).

In walking the street in the days before, the girls had noticed that there were women setup along the street that would braid your hair.  Marika decided she wanted to do that but Annika wasn’t sure.  On our beach day though, we couldn’t find them setup on the street, most likely because of the celebrations scheduled on the street.  However, we soon discovered that simply sitting on the beach, you get solicited for all sorts of stuff, including braiding.  Once Marika was almost done, Annika decided that it was worth while to do and decided to join in.

It was decently wavy on that day.  Given the uncertainty of the day, we had decided we wouldn’t go swimming but maybe just do some wading.  Turns out very few locals were swimming due to the size of the waves and most were just wave jumping like us.  We discovered that one of the “parades” for the holiday was navy ships cruising past the beach which explains why we were seeing so many from Sugarloaf Mountain the day before.  Over the course of the morning we saw 12 ships go by including an aircraft carrier.  There was even some other navies invited and we saw a US destroyer and a Chilean destroyer sail by.  There may have been more, but we left around lunch time.

Thankfully the morning stayed relatively calm so we felt we could stay for lunch on the beach.  Though we wish we could have stayed longer, we are thankful that not only could we experience what we did, but in the end that we stayed safe and there was nothing serious that happened this year during the celebrations.