After breakfast on the balcony over looking downtown and beyond, we cab it down to the Copacabana Palace Hotel and meet Marcelo Armstrong tours to understand more about Rio beyond the beaches and dancing. Along with 6 other tourists, we enter the world of the favela, which originated on the hillsides in the late 1800’s, ostensibly when the black slaves were set free with no where to live or work.
Favelas are known for being ruled by drug gangs, and no pictures allowed because you could be photographing someone working for the gang and then they’d come and swipe your camera. But pretty much every one there works outside of the community – they are the hotel and restaurant workers, the taxi drivers and maids. There was really a much more formal infrastructure than I expected: running water, which had to be used sparingly because they never know when it may be cut off, volunteer visiting doctors, elementary schools and some pre-schools, one of which is financed with money from our tour company, a hospital and sports complex, dedicated last year by President Lula, and every imagineable type of store in the single garage-sized units. Evidently there is a very strong sense of community in the favelas and people rarely move out – only athletes and successful musicians. Did you know that samba and the celebration of Carnival originated in the favelas? One we visited had 100,000 people living in it and the other only 2,000. So much information about the evolution of Brazilian society and social structure but no need to get into all of it. One of the most visually interested paradoxes was that the richest neighborhood, in one instance, was right across the street from the favela. All of their workers were living right there, so no problem with workers being late or not getting transportation. Ha! And they all get along peacefully it seems.
Tour over, we were dropped off on the looooong stretch that is Copacabana beach. Ate some lunch, changed into our suits in the bathroom, and headed out to rent a couple of chairs, an umbrella, and perched at ocean’s edge. Oh, and the coolest thing: the highway ran all along the beach, then a paved bike path, then a sidewalk filled with joggers and walkers. Little snack shacks and beer stands every so often on the sidewalk, and then a metallic tower that listed the current temperature, rated the strength of the sun on a scale of 1 – 10, and showed what strength sunscreen you should apply depending upon your skin type. Really unusual!
Relaxed on the beach for a while, serious people and hawker watching. People walking by with sorvete (ice cream) in coolers, water, cookies, dresses, skirts, handcrafted bracelets, shrimp on skewers, etc. When the man came by with a little hand-carried grill and our beach neighbors ordered one grilled cheese on a stick (and i mean a big rectangle of mozzerella cheese that he plopped into a container of fresh herbs, then browned on the little grill),
we looked at each other. Valerie said she was still full from lunch and I insisted that no way were we missing checking it out. Pretty darn good! We know now for Salvador – no eating before going to the beach. Headed back to the hotel to have time to write blog, nap and get ready for our big evening out: a well-known churrascaria named Porcao, then clubbing. We had heard about the famous Brazilian barbecue, and decided it to be a must on the itinerary. This particular restaurant was on the bay, with glass exterior walls and incredible views of Sugarloaf, Christ the Redeemer and all the little islands dotting the bay. As we sat down, we each received the little cardboard circles that were red on one side and green on the other. Can you guess what these were for? Men walking around with meat on skewers checked the table and if the green side is up, they start offering you whatever they are carrying. Each of us had a set of small tongs, so as they carve, you take with the tongs:
Lamb, chicken, rumpsteak, sirloin, chicken hearts, flank steak, ostrich, beef ribs, pork ribs, you name it, they’ve got it. It was like dim sum for carnivores. And at the same time, there is an island of a salad bar with all variety of grilled vegetables, rice and seafood salads, great mounds of hearts of palm, smoked squid and mussels. Oh, and also a sushi bar behind that with fresh sliced fish ceviche, rolls, creative little salmon sashimi in little rice-paper bags, etc, etc. We laughed at how we’d love to see how Harris and Amir would fare at this place! Finished up and headed to Rio Scenarium, one of the most well-known clubs in town. Really fun. Like a large 3-story house with the live samba band playing on the main floor, and a large open space cut out in the two ceilings above it so you could be on the third floor and hang over the railing and see the band. Along all of the walls were collections: antique strollers, old manneqins, teacups, old Carnival outfits, sewing machines, typewriters, dining room chairs, umbrellas – you name it, they had it. Some of them very clever. The band had a female singer and everyone seemed so happy and singing along and man, can those Brazilians dance! There were two women that pretty much hypnotized Valerie and I. There is really no way to describe how they shook their behinds and moved their legs. It didn’t actually seem physically possible, and we were entranced. We also saw a group of women dancing and laughing out on the floor and decided that was the Brazilian version of our “group”. We saw Donna and Robin and my cousing Barbara for sure! We trotted ourselves out onto the dance floor for a few spins, and headed home around midnight. BTW, they have a really effective system for paying at the clubs; when you enter, you pay your cover and are given a sheet with your name on it. Anytime you order something, the waiter marks it down on your sheet (kind of like the dim sum operation again), and you must pay at the cashier line before you leave. Seems to work well. Anyway, after a few spins on the dance floor ourselves…
we headed home to get ready for our big day of touring. Buo noche!