Adventures in Rio de Janeiro

[For full pics, click here]

Just got back from an amazing weekend trip to Rio de Janeiro.  I was planning to go later in my trip, but found out that this past Sunday was the Father's Day equivalent here, so it was the perfect time to get away.  It's a quick flight, only about 45 minutes, so it's like taking a trip to LA for the weekend....totally manageable.

Woke up at the crack of dawn (before dawn) to catch my 7am flight.  TAM Airlines is like the cousin of Southwest Air, with flights leaving every 30 mins or so.  The only downside is that it has negative legroom.  I've never been so cramped in the leg on a flight before:

Normally I wouldn't mind, but the guy and gal in front of me reclined the entire flight....including immediately after we landed, and had a makeout party the entire time.  The poor guy behind me was just as tall, so I didn't recline, for his benefit.  That meant that my face was about 10-12 inches away from said makeout party.

Once I made it to Rio, I was met by Matilde, my personal tour guide for the day.  I figured it would be the best and most efficient way to see as much of Rio as possible in a single day, by hiring a local.  She met me at the gate with a huge smile and a sign with my name on it "Jenica Smith".  I gave her the benefit of the doubt on the spelling :).  From the minute we met, I knew we'd have a blast together.  She was cracking jokes in the first 5 minutes and we were laughing the whole time.  We got to the parking lot and she couldn't remember where she parked the car.....which was a hysterical way to get things started.  We found the car and made our way to the city.  

Matilde had the right idea by driving directly up to one of the big monuments, to beat the crowds:  Christ the Redeemer.  The weather was absolutely perfect, which allowed for some incredible shots:

 

Once we made it down the hill, we went all over town, checking out some historical homes, the favelas (from afar), cathedrals, and many more.  One of my favorite spots was Escaderia Selaron: The Great Madness steps in Rio. The artist has been spending several years constructing this amazing staircase work of art using tiles he collects from around the world. He changes out the tiles as he travels and will be doing this for the rest of his life.  Snoop Dogg filmed his 'Beautiful' video here :)

 

After a nice lunch downtown, Matilde and I headed up to Sugarloaf Mountain, another huge tourist attraction that I was most excited for.  You ascend the peaks in a cable car, with 360 degree panoramic views of the entire city.  I was blown away and pretty speechless while up there.  It was insanely beautiful.

After a long 8-hour day of touring, Matilde dropped me off at my hotel on Ipanema Beach.  Upon checkin, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I got upgraded to oceanfront....and my room had 2 king beds.  Party time!  Too bad it's a 15 hour trip down, otherwise I would have called up my friends to come join me.....

 After a long nap, I managed to hoist myself out of bed and head down the street to a local outdoor steakhouse/pub, where apparently, they created and wrote the song "The Girl From Ipanema".  My tour guide told me to go there and swore that it was the place.  Once I got my dinner, the song was the last thing on my mind... look at this MEAT

After that long day, heavy dinner and a couple Brazilian caipirinhas, I was promptly knocked out cold.  

Woke up on Sunday to see that the wind had kicked in pretty hardcore, which made the beach a bit less desirable than it was on Saturday.  I was bound and determined to hit up the beach, no matter what, so I headed down there for a couple hours to get some sun.  It was so windy that not a single person had an umbrella open (you can see from my pics above that there were hundreds of them open on Saturday).  It was a total Speedo party down on the beach with the majority of the guys sporting some nice banana hammocks.  Vendors walked up and down the beach selling random food items and bikinis.  Standard, I guess.

Once the wind became a bit too strong, I headed back to the hotel and took a long walk down the beachwalk, all the way to Leblon.  They close half the street, so everyone is walking, biking, skateboarding, you name it... up and down the beach.  Once the weather turned a bit worse for the wear, I hopped in a cab to the airport, to attempt an earlier flight home.  My original flight was at 8:45pm, and I was going at 6, so not too shabby.

The lovely folks of TAM airlines put me on the next flight back to Sao Paulo, which was great.  I get my boarding pass, get on the plane......and lo and behold......Mr. and Mrs. Makeout Party were sitting IN MY ROW WITH ME.  Seriously, what are the odds?  These two canoodled their way back to Rio, while I patiently flipped through my magazine.  Sometimes, you just gotta roll with it.

Such an amazing weekend - I cannot wait to go back to Rio someday.  Perhaps in 2016 for the Olympic Games?  I think we can make that work.