Building a bonkers trip around a Big Gay Wedding in Rio

[Volando]

12: Rio de Janeiro Part 2

We made our second day in Rio #PeakTourist.

On day one an open top red bus drove past while we were walking by Copacabana beach. I’d never done a hop on hop off bus tour before in any city but our interest was sufficiently piqued to check prices and book online that evening when we got back to the apartment.

The “Samba Bus” covers a pretty extensive loop with 30-odd stops all the way from beach-side Leblon to the northern side of Centro. It passes many of the significant tourist spots spread across the city and the full loop takes around 2 hours.

So at 10:15 we were waiting at the designated - but un-signposted - spot near Posto 5 on Copacabana beach. We probably heard the bus before we saw it as it had samba music blaring from its sound system, loud enough to turn the heads of passersby. No doubt it's part of what got our attention the day before!

After a few stops we reached the base of the cable car that ascends towards Sugarloaf Mountain. Fortunately the queues to buy tickets and board the first cable car to the midway point atop Urca Hill were short, in spite of the perfect, cloudless weather and our late morning arrival. We were in a cable car and on our way up within 15 minutes or so of stepping off the bus.

At the Urca Hill station there are already spectacular views in all directions, including planes making their serpentine final approach to Rio’s domestic Santos Dumont (SDU) airport. It’s not quite Kai Tak, but still an impressive approach and especially great to watch from up here, looking down on aircraft as they make a late turn on to final.





I was tempted by the offer of helicopter tours from the helipad there at Urca Hill, but the prices were just bit too steep for flights that only lasted around 7 minutes. There are other companies offering longer experiences taking off from less spectacular helipads elsewhere in the city. Though in the end we didn’t do a helicopter tour at all during our stay.



We had lunch at one of the restaurants on Urca Hill where +1 ordered a caipirinha that tasted like the barman reversed the usual ratio of sprits and non-alcoholic ingredients. 3 sips in and he was well on the way to getting quite sozzled!

After lunch there was again a negligible wait to take the second cable car to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain itself. I kept humming Goldfinger to myself but of course it later occurred to me that the Bond film that featured scenes in Rio was actually Moonraker - which also had a Shirley Bassey song, but a lesser know one.

There’s honestly not a lot that can be written about standing atop sugarloaf mountain and looking at arguably the most spectacular city vista in the world. It’s simply breathtaking and 100 times more incredible in real life than any photos can capture.





We took our time at various view points and then tried to time our descent to get the next hourly bus to continue the circuit. We got to the bottom with 5 or 10 minutes to spare ahead of the scheduled stopping time and waited...


..and waited…


…and waited …


And waited, until the next hourly bus arrived 5 minutes early. We must have just missed the one we were aiming for. It was alright though just waiting and people watching. On reflection though, it would be a huge improvement to the Samba Bus service if they had an app with real time location data. Especially given Rio’s snarly traffic means that keeping to a schedule is pretty well impossible.

After the boozy lunch (for him) and standing in the heat, we decided to just stay on the bus and enjoy the views and the wind in our air as we drove past several other Rio landmarks. Passing through Centro, which is both Rio’s CBD and location of many historical buildings, museums and other points of interest, the online pearl clutching about safety was again starting to be dispelled - at least by the looks of the busy streets in the day time.





That night we had a pre-wedding dinner to attend at a restaurant that conveniently was just a couple of blocks walk from our apartment in Ipanema. It was great to catch up with Volando+1’s old mate from his grad student days at Columbia University and to meet his (now) husband ahead of their big day.

 

[Volando]

13: Rio Part 3 - Wedding Day

To protect the anonymity, modesty and reputations of all present, I won't recount too any stories from the wedding. It was picture perfect and very moving.

What I will say however is that the venue, Casa do Alto, was stupendous. It's a function centre and garden wedding venue deep in the rain-forested hills behind the city. It's definitely a venue for the Instagram generation - which the happy couple firmly belong to. Truly photogenic and magical to be there and take it all in.



There was hardly a dry eye as vows were exchanged between the two grooms around 4pm. Guest then wandered from the garden up into the venue.




Copious amounts of canapés soon followed and there was also a full buffet of Brazilian favourites and a separate dessert buffet which was almost a work of installation art.



I loved the concept of their reception which was to give all guests a "home table" to sit at but not be glued to. It was also somewhere to leave bags and things. Wait staff were roaming with substantial snacks and the buffet was available all night for even more food. So much better than stuffy alternate drop plates of lukewarm chicken breast and tough steak at round tables with too much glassware at more traditional weddings.



There was an open bar with strong coughtails and roving waiters with beer, juice water and Chandon. The Chandon waiter seemed to have clocked +1 and I as easy targets, as he always seemed to know when our flutes were getting low and after initially taking "no" for an answer to his offers of top ups, he would somehow have a twinkle in his eye and a cheeky grin which would inevitably result in our glasses presented for more. We both lost count.






I do recall making friends on the dance floor with a wonderfully chic and joyous woman from São Paulo.

 

[AuSammy]

Sounds like you have already left. Was going to suggest an interesting thing to do in Rio is book through reception for a Favella Tour. We went on one and was fascinating to walk through one of the shanty towns where often police not dare to go and see the living conditions, construction methods etc.

 

[Volando]

Sounds like you have already left. Was going to suggest an interesting thing to do in Rio is book through reception for a Favella Tour. We went on one and was fascinating to walk through one of the shanty towns where often police not dare to go and see the living conditions, construction methods etc.

I’m falling behind with TR updates! 12 hours left in Brazil after an amazing trip.

We were a bit on the fence with a favela tour because of the inevitable tension between the poverty cough angle on one hand vs an opportunity to learn and engage on the other and ultimately decided against it. In the end we ran out of time in Rio anyway.

 

[Volando]

14: Rio part 4 - the weather turns...

We staggered out of an uber back home from the wedding and into bed at a not-too-unreasonable hour.

I woke up feeling too too hungover and was keen to get the last bit of sunshine forecast for the remainder of our time in Rio. Rain was due to set in soon after lunch time and hang around for at least a week. +1 wasn't rousing, so I walked the 10 or 15 minutes from our apartment to Arpoador which is the headland that separates Ipanema and Copacabana. Being a Sunny Saturday morning, there were lots of joggers, dog walkers, cyclists and surfers out and about.

I don't think it's possible to ever tire of these views.



On the way bak I grabbed some groceries and coffee from a Brazilian, quasi-Japanese chain called "The Coffee" which had an outlet right next door to our apartment. I'd rate it slightly better than Aussie Coffee down the road.



After a bit more of a lazy morning we went to a steak place for a big lunch to soak up the remains of last night's imbibing and then procrastinated a bit on what to do for the rest of the day.

Eventually we coaxed ourselves into an Uber booked to take us to Parque Lage which is a 52 hectare forested park at the base of the hill that Christ the Redeemer stands on. Formerly the estate of a wealthy 19th Century landowner and his noblewoman wife, it became a public park in the 1960s. Sadly the grand mansion is currently closed for extensive renovations, so as the rain started to fall we just wandered aimlessly along forest trails, past a small waterfall and pond, across a little turreted bridge and through a couple of little manmade grottos, one of which contains a dozen or so tanks with different fish, including little piranhas!

The park was really enjoyable and such a beautiful green refuge of lush and wild rainforest in such a big and busy city. It's a shame our time was cut short by the rain.





Maybe it was foggy brains, but we came out without raincoats or umbrellas and were already getting a bit damp by this point, as were many others in the park. So I made the silly suggestion of "let's just walk home around the lagoon in the rain seeing as we're already wet. It's only an hour". +1 was understandably initially reticent, but came around. It turned out to be a really lovely walk with views of surrounding hills rising into the mist. The rain also eased up not long after we set out on our walk.


Visitors to Rio will no doubt recall seeing these bins all over the city to deposit coconuts after drinking their water.



We cut back into the manicured streets of Leblon and walked the final stretch along the main commercial drag of Rua Visconde De Pira Ja back towards home where I tossed some lovely fresh prawns seared in lemon juice, the rest of that Uruguayan Anreis and olive oil into a couple of bowls of linguini and we called it a night.