Day Sixty One: Exploring Rios delights!

We woke up late today, around 10ish, only to our delight to find that overnight daylight savings had ended/or begun, still not sure. Either way we gained an our.
It was another gorgeous day, hot 30+ degrees and sunny! We had brekkie then negotiated our way onto the bus system to head into the Central part of Rio to catch a ferry! The buses are crazy, you get on there's a driver, then another guy sitting in a booth who you pay before you go through a turnstile to sit down. Nuts!

We got to the port and hopped on the ferry to go across the bay to the cuty of Niteroi. We were going to check out the Museum Artes de Contrmporare, the MAC, designed by legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer. Arriving at the upside down dish building, there's a sense of grandeur and wonder as the building is so well sited - right in the headland of the bay looking back to Rio city, sugar loaf and Christ.

The grand spiral red staircase entry up is also pretty cool, and the inside was equally as impressive. A really cool gallery with not a bad collection of stuff either - a bit light on but good stuff. Kinda reminded me of the Guggenheim in that way!

We wandered the streets nearby for a bit and took in the magical views of the bay and beyond, before heading back on the ferry.

We got back into the central part of town and walked to the Lapa district. The streets however were quite scary - no one was there - it was completed deserted. I guess it's the business district and it's a Sunday (everyones at the beach). Still was quite odd.

We made our way to the Metropolitan Cathedral which kinda looks like a huge nest or beehive from the outside. Inside however was quite beautiful. The conical shape was filled with light pouring in through the huge stained glass windows. Sim was also excited to be there as it offered some much needed shade - was very hot outside. Almost 40degrees.

We also saw some cool buildings like the Petrobas hq and the old Viaduct arches. These were really cool, as they formed a cool backdrop the the plaza in the Lapa area.

We then hopped on the old Tram line, which goes over the viaduct and up into the Santa Theresa neighborhood. The tram was kinda a touristy thing now, but was still a fun thing to do. Only cost us like 60cents too, random!

The Santa Theresa area was really cool, lots of cool artisan shops, bars and restaurants. We stopped for lunch on a busy place that was playing jazzy versions of beatles songs. Pretty chilled out place and the food was not bad either.
The views over the bay and the city from up here were pretty spectacular, and we spent the next hour or so trickling our way back down the cobblestone road of the mountain, checking out all the cool villas and houses whilst trying not to get run over by trams and cars at the same time.

When we got to the bottom we wandered down some dodgy steps, pretty quickly might I add. This was the first real time I had felt a little scared and vulnerable. Still we made it down to the main street of Lapa and wandered back to the main road to get the bus.

We got back to the hotel and had a rest, before later that night heading out into Copacabana for some food. We found this quaint little diner place that served BBQ chicken and meat skewers accompanied with rice, black beans and salad for like 15Reals ($8US). Was pretty tasty too - better than sone of the expensive food we've had of late.

We hit the sack around 11 - exhausted from the walking and the sun. Still, we are enjoying ourselves. Rio has so much to offer. Really loving it!



- Blog from iMat