We found it really difficult to stop using Spanish, which after a couple months was becoming almost automatic.  And Brazil is a big deal country (5^th biggest by area, 7^th biggest by population, 10^th by GNP) so visitors should probably learn some Portuguese, but there you go.  Even substituting ‘obrigado’ for ‘gracias’ was about 50% successful between us. We really missed not being able to communicate with the locals…S says his Spanish is about as good as (Fawlty Towers) Manuel’s English, even so it does allow for some communication.  Portuguese is just far enough away from Spanish to make it really tough. It is easier to make it out in print.

Disclaimer: we are under no illusion that visiting Rio is the same as seeing Brasil. We’ve met Brasilians who don’t know Rio, often travelling elsewhere for vacation. Nonetheless, this was where we could get to directly with LATAM rather than figure out local low-cost airlines.

We stayed in the Leme neighbourhood two blocks from the beach.  Copacabana lay immediately west of us (Rio faces south) and then Ipanema. The whole area covers about 8km by 2km, cut off from the rest of sprawling Rio by a bank of hills.  This makes for great exploring, by Über, bike, bus, and foot (we walked over 50km on foot alone during 6 days).   Interesting neighbourhoods all with slightly different feels.  Think Kitsilano/Fairview/West End/Ambelside.  No Coal Harbour though, thankfully.  One day, we rented bikes and rode about 30 km all along the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema, veering off to cycle around Lago Rodrigo de Freitas (wildlife preserve), then stopping to visit the Copacabana Fort on our way back along the beaches. As it was a Sunday, the beach-side roads were closed to traffic, even with a dedicated bike lane throughout the area. Actually, we observed an extensive network of bike lanes throughout the city (as in every other city or town we’ve visited…).

There’s pleasure in visiting a new place and experiencing however briefly what it is like to live there, and this is accomplished by just being there and doing normal things…observing and participating, essentially.  Walking about, grocery shopping, doing laundry, buying gas, having a meal or a drink in a local place, going to a park, sitting on a beach, using public transit.  To us, these are travellers pleasures, observing local life with curiosity, for even a brief moment. Of course, it’s not always fun, sometimes it’s boring or uncomfortable, often it’s confusing, but can also be magic!

There’s a different type of pleasure in going to see and do The Most Iconic Things in wherever.  These normally involve entrance fees, hordes of people, and heavily promoted bus tours. These to us are tourists’ pleasures.  These are efficient ways to organize travel, especially if one has very limited time. For a large number of people, this is what they want when they are away from home. They do not want to be bored, uncomfortable, confused, or annoyed. They want to get somewhere with a minimum of fuss and (nowadays anyway) to Take The Selfies. Although we try to avoid such pre-formed activities, we sometimes find a way to do what the tours do but with a twist to suit our travelling nature. For example, a Most Iconic Tourist Pleasure – Christ the Redeemer – can be converted to a Travellers’ pleasure if you hike up to it…in this case a 4.5 km trail with 700M elevation gain in a sub-tropical forest when it’s 32C and 80% humidity! And why our selfie looks like it does.

At our age, sometimes rest trumps exercise so we did The Most Iconic Tourist Pleasure by going up Sugarloaf in the cable car rather than hiking, which was an option. By taking a bus, we were able to enjoy the space before the onslaught of large tour groups in their matching T-shirts (horrors!). And why our selfie looks like it does.

We only eat out some days. During extended travel, we neither can afford nor want to eat in restaurants daily. In Rio, we had some memorable meals out, starting with our first night at an outdoor restaurant just off the beach as we witnessed a thunder and lightening rainstorm from under our canopied table while the waiters hurriedly put up additional umbrellas, lowered clear wall tarps, and re-positioned chairs where the canopies leaked. Here we had a classic Brazilian steak dinner: Filét Oswaldo Aranha – beef steak topped with fried garlic, served with white rice, Portuguese style potato chips, and farafa (toasted cassava meal). And sangria.

Another was at a local eatery in the very chill and bohemian neighbourhood of Santa Teresa. Only chill after climbing another Most Iconic Tourist Attraction full of IGers – Selaron staircase. Very few people walk beyond as the streets above are steeply cobblestoned.

And, an authentic Italian pizza on the sidewalk just a block away from our apartment. The food was very nice, and although Brazil was reported to be fairly expensive by South American standards, it is still a bargain by Canadian standards, with the average meal being half to two-thirds of the cost of home. As is the case whenever we travel, the highest prices are places frequented by North American or European tourists. The lowest prices are places frequented exclusively by locals, the “sweet spot” we’ve found are places frequented by domestic visitors and those in in middle-upper income areas.

While in Centro (on way to Selaron stairs), we visited the very stark metropolitan cathedral. While we could appreciate its unique design, we could not say it was inspiring. But certainly an interesting departure from the scads of Baroque and Gothic cathedrals we have seen around the world.

15km of our walking took place at the Botanical Gardens. S found the gardens underwhelming, possibly expecting a more curated set-up (Butchart Gardens?). M enjoyed the calmness and relative quiet (broken by Christ the Redeemer helicopter tours). Highlights included the cacti collection, the tropical forest, the orchid house, the bromeliads, the avenues of trees, and fancy coffees at the snack bar. Most disappointing were the rose garden (possibly due to onset of fall?) and the Japanese garden that needed some tlc. Even Penticton’s tiny Japanese garden is spectacular by comparison.

Of course, one can’t really visit Rio without at least one beach experience. The beaches are lined with beach bars that are essentially mini-businesses that rent chairs & umbrellas and from where you order food & drinks. If you wanted to bring your own things, you would have to squeeze between these ‘territories’ and the sand-based sports fields (head soccer, foot soccer, volleyball, beach padel/tennis). We did a beach afternoon. Once set up in chairs, we had the choice of buying all manner of goods from beach-roaming vendors: drinks, food, sunglasses, bikinis, jewelry, hair braiding, hats, and other mysterious things in boxes that we couldn’t understand (beach vendors’ English levels appear restricted to brand names – Heineken?). These are not swimming beaches as the surf is rough. However, if we ever find ourselves in Rio again, we did see a beautiful, calm, local beach in a bay near Sugarloaf mountain.

We’ll leave you with samples of inspirational quotes from tiles on the Selaron staircase. Tiles are from all over the world. See if you figure them out (we’ve found various translations, some rather funny)!