48 Hours in Rio! Where to begin…..Before we left the states we did a bit of research on Rio and knew we wanted an extensive tour. We hired local guide, Marcio Guedes, who we found on Trip Advisor.com. The cost of hiring Marcio was significantly less than the cost of guides offered by the cruise line. Marcio provided a car (yes, it had air conditioning!) and he did all the driving (even better.) A native of Brazil, Marcio grew up in Rio. He spent a year in the US as an Exchange Student and attended an American University. An English teacher, Marcio is fluent, but recently changed his profession to tourism (the pay is much better.) Clearly knowledgeable about Brazil, and especially Rio, Marcio is the complete package (thorough background in history, art, architecture, culture, food, music and politics.) We would certainly use him again and recommend his services.
Day one started at the Port and soon we were off for an overview of the city. Weather conditions were not ideal; it is the rainy season after all. After making our way out of the business district we toured a residential area and visited a local museum high on a hill (it happened to be closed, it was a Monday) but offered a panoramic view of the city. Our next stop was the famous Selaron Stairway of Rio De Janeiro “The Great Madness”. The area is now home to a few homes, bars, and the ‘arts’ scene. Previously, however, it was a derelict part of the city – basically a slum. Selaron, an eccentric artist from Chile arrived in Brazil in 1983. In 1990 he started his major masterpiece, which has turned into the most original stairway in the world. Initially he installed bathtubs along the sides of a stairway (125 meter high), one of many that intertwine in the city. In the tubs he planted trees, flowering plants and vines. When that phase was complete he used pieces of broken tile and decorated the face of the steps as they rose from street level. At first he used blue, green and yellow – colors of the Brazilian Flag - as a tribute to the people of Brazil. As the years continued and he earned money selling paintings and sculptures he became more creative and incorporated his own signature work into the staircase, paintings on tiles of pregnant African women with his own face. The work now includes tiles sent to him by people who have visited the work (over 2,000 from 60 different countries.) Selaron has been interviewed and the work is often featured in commercials, video clips and portrayed in publications around the globe. It was great fun to get to meet Selaron, visit his one-room studio (once his home) and purchase a piece of his work. Selaron had never met anyone from Indiana, so he was pleased and is planning to incorporate a tile from Nancy as soon as she can get one to him. The project is a work in progress, and Selaron declares “This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death.”We drove through the cobblestone streets of the residential neighborhood and Convent of St.Teresa. Enjoyed lunch at Confeiteria Colombo, a restaurant established in 1894 offering an extensive buffet of regional favorites and traditional deserts. The desert bar was fabulous – chocolate cake, coconut puddings, custards and banana deserts too. They were fantastic! Mmmmmm!Following lunch we walked through Mercado Popular Uruguaina. This mercado provides home improvement items, electronics, refrigerators and the like. The retailers are nothing like the mega boxes we have back home. The business district was much like any city in the US, complete with the giant petroleum producer, Petrobras. Later on we visited a beautiful private library of Portuguese Biblical reference materials, the Real Cabinete Portuguez De Leitura, Marcelo was eager to point out the Yellow Newspaper Café – a very old establishment that got it’s name long ago because locals read newspapers brought to Rio by ship from Europe. By the time the papers arrived they were yellowed. He pointed out the famous Rio Opera House (under renovation and covered with scaffolding); and the Catdral de Sao Sebastiao (the Cathedral of San Sebastian) as well as the Palacio Guanabara (Governor’s Palace).Later in the afternoon we were taken on an eye-opening Favela Tour. A favela is a neighborhood we would classify as a slum in the US – which it is a big misconception. These residential districts are home to hundreds, if not thousands of people. There are more than 700 Favelas in Rio and Marcio took us to one of the better ones. They continue to expand and are encroaching into the protected forest areas.
Marcio did let us know about Favelas ruled by drug dealers, and some are at war with each other. He wouldn’t take us there and we were perfectly happy with that. As with any neighborhood, some are worse than others and they are policed by their local gangs. If there is activity by the Federal Police, the criminals are long gone before they arrive. The Favelas are mini cities within themselves and the narrow streets wind up the sides of the mountains. Generations of families reside here and are perfectly happy – this is their home, this is where their friends live, and it would be too costly to commute into the city – so they stay. They simply add another story to the top of their houses. Electric and telephone lines hang in a tangled web outside homes and businesses. All have electricity and most have phones and/or cable and satellite TV.
The rain persisted throughout the day, so we decided to head back to the ship, with an early start tomorrow morning with hopes the weather would improve. As we returned to the port we drove by the Sambadrome where Rio’s famous Carnival is held.
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