oh sweet January River you never cease to amaze me

Rio de Janiero (aka January River in English) was a surprisingly beautiful and warm city. We did a lot of good beach time, ate great fresh fruit and did some dancing for pre-carnaval. Oh guest blogger Diane Spitzfaden is going to finish my Rio post for me (aka Im being really lazy and copying and pasting her Rio post onto my blog with her permission of course. All the writing is hers but Im adding in the pictures and captions). Look forward to guest blogger Carly coming up in a few weeks to blog about Carnaval in Salvador.
So in the words of Diane:
             We got into Rio after a day a half bus ride and instantly fell in love with the city. So many people had warned us about getting robbed and to be super careful because it could be a super sketchy place. We experienced none of that. It is a large city so of course we were cautious but it was such a lively, beautiful and exciting place I could have stayed much longer.
We checked into a really great hostel and ended up spending 10 days there. We were in a friendly neighborhood called Catete that is next to the infamous Copacabana. (We geekily sang that song almost everyday) On our first days there we went to the beaches, walked around and got familar with the city. People in Brasil are just prettier than most. The beaches were white sand and clear blue water. It was a great atmosphere of the city being all around you as you relaxed on the beach. The waves were huge and we got worked several times. You had to swim out past the breaking point, but once you got out there it was so nice to swim in the ocean. We also went to Ipanema beach where the ´rich, beautiful and young´ go (according to our book). It was just down from Copacabana but it was much livelier. Tons of people playing soccer, running, sunbathing, and swimming. The waves were quite bigger there and we watched some surfers and swimmers have a go at it.
      


Guest Blogger Diane sippin her coconut at the beach



Ipanema Beach

    In the city there is tons of street art and it makes the whole thing look so much better. I love how a picture can turn decrepit buildings into works of art. There are famous staircases that we visited by a man named Selaron in a part of town called Santa Teresa. This artist has traveled all over the world and wanted to make his neighborhood more beautiful with art. He started decorating this staircase with tiles and for the past 21 years has continued to re-work it. He has a house right there next to his art and he is out most days talking and working on it. You can send a tile and he will add it into his art. It was an unreal experience. I felt so much joy seeing all this beauty around me done by one man who wanted to improve his city. We decided we are making one to send to him.

Brigid with the artist who tiled the beautiful staircase

Group shot in front of the stairs



Escaleras de Selaron-Beautiful tiled stairs

Enough said

Cool street art in Rio

More cool street art

Love the street art


             We attempted to find a National Park that was supposed to have waterfalls but we got a little lost and ended up at a Botanical Garden in the middle of the city. It was a happy detour and we spent the day walking around and enjoying all the exquisite flowers.
         



Can you see who´s up there? It´s Jesus. This is the view of him from the Botanical Gardens.

Beautiful trees in the Botanical Gardens

                        Rio is the place of Samba dancing so of course we had to experience it! Lapa is another part of town within walking distance of our hostel where the parties happen. We went to a great Samba club and got to watch a live band and some awesome dancers. Everyone tried to teach us, but it´s more difficult than it looks. I ended up just kicking my feet really fast and getting lots of laughs at my attempts. We have yet to master it but we add in our own style with it and it is looking much better! We went to Lapa a few times while we stayed in Rio. Every Friday they shut down the streets and have these huge parties. It was unbelievable how many people were there. It was fantastic! Before we left we had the amazing opportunity to watch some of the Samba schools practice their parades for free. During Carnival, Rio is know to have the most amazing parades, floats, costumes and dancers. However, it´s ridiculously expensive to see them so we were super pumped to get to watch a bit for free! We went to this stadium street (imagine a long road with stadium seating for at least half a mile on each side) to watch the show. There are two ´groups´ in these parades. The people who pay to walk in the parade wearing a specific shirt that they decorate and alter and then the costumed dancers. They play tons of music that everyone knows by heart. One of the guys told us that they start playing the songs about a month before Carnival so that the whole city can sing along. It was astonishing to hear thousands of people singing the same song. They were all so happy and everyone was in the best mood. It was a collective great time had by all. The costumed dancers could Samba so fast you couldn´t even see their feet moving! I was blown away by how dazzling they were in their sparkling outfits. We all wanted to immediately start taking lessons, move to Brasil and be one of those people. Even the men were extraodinary dancers.
                  Victoria, one of Jodi´s college friends, came on our last two days there and we showed her the beach and around town. We ate the tastiest sushi I have ever had and then took the 27 hour bus up to Salvador for Carnival!!!

At the Sambadrone watching Samba practice

Samba practice