Brazil has been our travel wish list for some time but, at one point, we were deterred by the ~$250 entry visa fee (now waived due to reciprocity with the U.S. although we heard this may be short-lived). We loved watching the 2016 Olympics from our living room, held in one of the most scenic cities in the world, Rio de Janeiro ("January River") and decided to make this our "vacation" spot for 2023 (traveling with kids = trip. Traveling without kids = vacation!). As we've done in past years (actually most years since we had a two-plus-year-old, barring the pandemic), we took some PTO for an adults-only trip around our anniversary in the summer. I'm so lucky to have in-laws who are willing and able to watch our two munchkins, who are having a blast (and apparently behaving well) at "cousin/auntie/grandparent camp" in OC. We’re also indebted to our trusty dog-(-now-pet-) sitter, Kelly!
We flew from LAX on a red-eye via Lima to Rio (8 + 5 hours flying).
We stayed in a lovely hotel (Ipanema Inn) in the south zone of Rio (the former Brazilian capital for 200 years and home to ~6 million!) just one block from Ipanema Beach (Praia Ipanema), made famous by the song "Girl from Ipanema.” We had Happy Hour Caipirinhas, the signature Brazilian cocktail made from its classic liquor cachaça (made from fermented and distilled sugarcane juice) with lime. Brazil (Brasil) is my 65th country visited in the world!
The next morning, we did a full day tour seeing the city's highlights, starting with a cable car ride up the 396m mountain Sugarloaf (Pão de Açúcar), which has been cable car accessible since 1912! While it is "winter" in these parts, we had 70-degree weather, which was perfect for our excursions.
From the top, we had stunning views over the city of Rio and coastline, including its lovely beaches, like Leblon, Ipanema, and Copacabana as well as the Guanabara Bay.
We could barely make out the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in the (cloudy) distance.
We descended back to the city center and drove through some historic neighborhoods, including Lapa, home to Samba, and viewed the 550m- long open air stretch (Sambódromo) which is home to the famous festival Carnaval (held in February).
We walked the ~215 Selaron steps (Escadaria Selarón), which was designed by and named after Chilean artist (Jorge Selarón).
There was a brief stop to visit and photograph Catedral São Sebastião, which is a lovely church modeled after the Mayan pyramidal shape.
We stopped outside Estádio Maracanã, which is one of the largest football (soccer) stadiums in the world, and where Pelé, one of the most famous athletes of all time who lived until December 2022, played. The most popular football club in all of Brazil is Flamengo (with red and black striped jerseys), and is native to Rio.
We had hoped it would have been clearer but our last sightseeing stop was atop the mountain Corcovado (700m), atop which is the iconic Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor) statue, which watches over the city and which is one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
The statue itself, built between 1922-1931, is 30m high, with a 28m wingspan and atop a 8m pedestal.
sneaky monkey
We stayed long enough to get a brief glimpse of Christ's face when the fog lifted ever so slightly.
This is what the view from the hilltop looks like on a sunny day (picture from the internet)!
We had a *late* (3:30 pm!) lunch and then, after the tour, enjoyed a stroll on Ipanema Beach, watching people play beach volleyball and even enter the waves of the Atlantic, before (having another caipirinha and a light dessert of coconut-mango pie) and retiring for the night.
I would say its pretty easy to travel in Brazil, despite not really being able to understand a word of Portuguese. Portuguese is so different than any other language I've ever heard that I can't even really reliably identify the spoken word as Portuguese! Nevertheless, the written words are often close enough to Spanish that we can figure things out like menus and signs (additionally, most people are able to speak Spanish or English so it's been easy enough to communicate and Cariocas, Rio natives, are really nice). What a great day in Rio we had! Stay tuned for more of our Brazilian adventures, including another World Wonder coming up...
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