the Laughing Boomer

Rio de Janieros – from the Amazon Jungle to the Urban Jungle

From quiet peaceful Ecuador to busy Brazil.

We’ve just spent the last four days in Rio.  It’s an amazingly busy city.  After a false start, we found a hotel in Copacabana Beach – Atlantico, which is a great hotel with excellent breakfasts.  On Saturday we walked Copacabana and Ipanema beaches for about six hours.  The famous beaches are dramatic – a long curve of sand, heavy surf and the aqua-green Atlantic Ocean.  The main beaches have wide walkways and are lined with literally hundreds of high rise apartments and hotels, where many of the 13 millions Rio citizens live.

On the beach, young guys were playing football, and lots of people just milling about, having fun. Vendors are everywhere, selling sarongs, beads and fresh corn, and anything else you might need. The beach was crowded – at Copacabana with families and at Ipanema with gorgeous young men and women letting it all hang out. Unfortunately, everyone else lets it all hang out too, including some of the not so tall and lean and tan and lovely, so we saw plenty of pot bellies and rolls. Still, the beach scene was hot – amazingly busy, and I’m sure great for anyone around twenty or so.

We enjoyed great coffee at last after the instant stuff in Ecuador, and the food is generally excellent.  Rio prices are high – 7 reals for a packaged ice cream bar on the beach for example, so we haven’t enjoyed the same seafood as in Ecuador.   There are lots of restaurants around that charge by the kilo – which has been unique to Rio. The Brazilian wine industry is in its infancy here; let’s just say that it’s better to stick to foreign wines.;

On the rainy Sunday the beaches were packed with electioneers with load speakers, music and an entourage of motorcycles on the main Avenue. Because of the rain we visited the Museum of Modern Art and Belles Artes Museum, which featured Brazilian artists of the last century. These are located in the old Centro district which has some of the few old buildings left, as most were razed over the past forty years. We took several buses and just rode around looking at the various areas.  Rio is huge and busy.  No single family homes, just massive high rises, built mostly in the sixties and seventies.

I enjoyed Rio, but less than Ken did – I find it just too busy and hectic.  After the Amazon jungle, this is indeed an urban jungle.  I looked for smiling faces but saw mostly people intently going on with their lives, and suffering through the bruising crowds. Because of the predicted rain we decided to take off up north to Salvador, and so we are off to the sun in this smaller Colonial city of around two million people.