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.

 

[Volando]

15: Rio Part 5 - Rainy Sunday

When looking back on our Rio trip a year from now, this gloomy, rainy Sunday might feature as one of the biggest highlights, which is maybe a little unexpected in a city famed for beach culture and sweeping vistas.

We started with an impromptu buffet-by-weight lunch when we ducked into what we thought was a cafe to escape a downpour on our way to catch the metro from General Osorio station. It was a serendipitous mistake. We didn't get our coffee, but we were initiated into Brazilian buffet culture where you get a ticket on your way in, grab a plate and load it with whatever you want from the extensive buffet. There's then an attendant to weigh your meal and give you your ticket back with a price and bar code on it to pay on your way out. Drinks can be ordered and added to the same tab.

The food was fresh and delicious with a big variety of salads, vegetables, breads, rice, beans, filled savoury pastries and of course right at the end of the buffet, lots of meat to add to your already (probably) heavy plate.

With full stomachs we then jumped on the metro to head to Cinelandia. Rio's metro isn't the prettiest underground system, but it's cheap, safe, much quicker than driving, runs with 2 - 4 minute frequency and you can tap on with a credit card. (Hello Melbourne....anyone home???)


Cinelandia is a station in Centro and the stepping off point for our planned visit to the Museum of Modern Art. Housed in a 1960s modernist concrete building, we were treated to a wonderful retrospective exhibition featuring highlights of the museum's 20th Century collection of Brazilian art.




After a couple of hours at the museum we were up for a bit more exploration so headed towards the Carioca aqueduct and the famous Selaron Stairs. The aqueduct was constructed to pipe fresh water into the city in 1750 and was later converted to an elevated tramway to connect the Santa Teresa neighbourhood.



The stairs were a labour of love by Chilean artist Jorge Selaron who sourced thousands of tiles from all over the world to decorate what was previously a nondescript stair case linking Lapa and Santa Teresa. Nowadays it's a big tourist attraction (read - instagram/selfie spot) with plenty of stalls near the bottom selling souvenirs and hole in the wall bars selling cheap drinks at the bottom, top and much of the way up the stair case. The almosphere was festive and infectious despite the drizzle and showers, so we bought $4 passionfruit flavoured caipirinhas to join the party.




After waiting out a bit of a downpour near the top, we went back down, planning to head back to a metro station. As luck would have it we stumbled across a small bar on a corner with live samba musicians and dancing punters spilling out into the surrounding streets.

We hung out there for a couple of songs until the next detour on the way back to the station which was a local market that was just winding down for the day. It would have been a great place to browse on a dry day with dozens of street food vendors, fresh fruit and veg, souvenirs, jewellery, clothes and lots more. I bought myself a tropical looking shirt from a very friendly vendor.

Dinner that night ended up being a bit of a splash at Nosso in Ipanema which is a bar and fine(ish) dining restaurant that was recommended by the grooms. The meal was sensational with the chef showing a really deft hand at boldness and subtlety.

Pictured here, the Korean style short rib lasagne, a deceptively simple looking, but actually complex babaganoush and roasted eggplant side and a milk pudding dessert. Not pictured was the highlight dish of sous vide egg with truffle, potato foam and other wizardry that has drawn Michelin attention to the chef.

Nosso comes highly recommended if you're looking for a good meal in Rio. The only major draw back - and this was the case in most places we ate in Brazil - wine by the glass is usually restricted just to house wine.


This was a day of gloomy wether and complete travel joy.

 

[Volando]

16: Rio - the finale
We'd been taking each day as it came up to this point. Really just waking up and deciding what to tick off our list of tentative things to do and see in Rio.

With only two days left and no sign of the weather improving, on our second last day I bit the bullet and and bought tickets online for the train up to Christ the Redeemer for later that afternoon when the light rain was forecast to let up a bit. Our morning was pretty lazy and spent not far from the apartment. Around lunch time we headed out and wandered towards Copacabana to explore the streets behind the beach for a bit and to find somewhere for lunch.

It was a public holiday and things were pretty quiet and a bit bleak in the rain, so after wandering a couple of blocks we sat and had lunch in a new cafe that had a healthy menu.


Not quite what the brochures show!

After lunch we wanted a bit more towards a sensible corner to pick up an uber heading in the direction of Cosme Velho station for the rack railway up to the statue. Along the way we passed a shop that had A LOT of Portuguese tarts in the window. I'm a sucker for a good Pastel da Nata and we had time to kill, so we went in, ordered at the counter and grabbed a table. (Eating the national sweet of Brazil's colonial overlords on Independence Day felt a bit wrong though....)



On the table was a QR code for the full menu. It turns out that, apparently, happy endings of some description were on offer. One always keeps an open mind when one is travelling!!



After egg tarts (and nothing more) we grabbed an uber an arrived at the station with plenty of time to spare ahead of our 1630 booking for the train up to the top of Corcovado Mountain to gawk at the big statue. It's all pretty well organised and straightforward, plus the grey skies meant that the crowds weren't too manic.

The steep train ride is fun and there's definitely a great sense of anticipation when you get off near the top and follow the path and steps winding around the back of the statue to eventually see Christ's back side in all its/his/their glory! Of course the front of the statue and the views over Rio are what everyone is there to see (or take a selfie of). While the sky was still grey, the mist and drizzle that had been sitting on all the hilltops had lifted so we were treated to good views and monochromatic tones.




We probably spent about half an hour up there, then headed back down to the apartment and a takeaway dinner.

We didn't actually spend our final Rio day in Rio. Instead we took an uber to the city of Niteroi which faces Rio across the harbour. As well as offering great views of Rio and some well-regarded beaches, Niteroi is home to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Designed by prolific architect Niemeyer, the striking building looks like something straight out of Thunderbirds or the Jetsons.





Upon arrival we were informed that they were only accepting cash for the entry fee (not sure if that's always the case or they were having card machine problems) so the helpful attendant pointed down the hill towards a supermarket where we could find an ATM. We grabbed a light lunch nearby and then armed with sufficient BRL notes explored the current exhibition. A bit like the Museum of Modern Art in Rio a couple of days earlier, we lucked out on a retrospective exhibition of highlights from the museum's collection of Brazilian art. Some online reviews had suggested that the building is more impressive than the art it contains, but that would be very much dependent on what's on when you visit.


From the museum we decided the walk the 40 minutes of so to the port to take the ferry back over to Rio. It was a lovely walk mostly along waterfront and the sun was peeking out by now. Ferries run every 15-20 minutes back and forth between Rio's Centro and a couple of ports in Niteroi. Back in Rio we followed the crowds of office workers towards the metro station to whisk us underground back to Ipanema.

For our final dinner we severely over ordered at a large boteco (Brazilian Izakaya for want of a better description) around the corner from our apartment. That meant leftover grilled beef, onions and pizza for breakfast the following morning before our lunchtime flight to Belo Horizonte for the next phase of our Brazilian trip.

 

[Volando]

17: Azul Airlines SDU-CNF

It's obviously been a while between drinks with my TR updates...Picking up where I left off, we checked out of our flat in Ipanema on a very rainy morning and sat in traffic in an uber to Rio's downtown domestic airport, Santos Dumont (SDU) for our Azul flight to Belo Horizonte.

SDU is a great little airport! Modern, efficient, plenty of natural light and tarmac views and easy to navigate.


Our inbound aircraft arriving slightly late on a gloomy day

Our flight was operated by a 5 month old new Embraer E195-E2. It was my first flight on the new iteration of the Embraer jet and it was a quiet and comfortable ride. Of course 2x2 seating is always more comfortable than 3x3. The most surprising part of this flight was that there wasn't a word of English spoken. The safety demo was just in Portuguese, all cabin and coughpit announcements were also only given in Portuguese. At the risk of being horribly Anglo-centric, this was a bit of a surprise. Even flying domestically in places like Mainland China or Japan, there's always been some basic PAs in
English (or an approximation at least...).

Other than that, the flight was pretty typical. It sat somewhere between LCC (shunted on and off like a bus, no pleasantries in the service) to hybrid carrier (complimentary snack, water and soft drink trolley service on this sub-one hour flight).


Inflight refreshments

An announcement that might have been made in Portuguese and which would have been very handy to have heard in English is that Belo Horizonte Airport has two connected terminals. While our flight pulled up at a gate at T2, our bags were eventually sent to a carousel at T1. So upon disembarking I just followed the first sign to baggage claim we saw, took an escalator down a level and saw some baggage carousels. None of which had signs for Azul flights. There was a woman who looked equally perplexed. She asked at a counter and was pointed somewhere. Fortunately she spoke English when I asked "Azul from Rio?" and explained we needed to go to the other end of the joined terminals to find our luggage. That also meant leaving airside and having to get past a security guy at the exit to the other baggage claim area. His bored request to see our luggage tags suggest that this is a common occurance.

Once reunited with luggage we headed outside to get an uber for the hour-long drive into our hotel: Novotel Savassi. The route passed through the tidy looking downtown area (vaguely Melbourne-esque street scapes...) and then into the relatively upmarket Savassi neighbourhood.

My Accor Gold status saw us upgraded to a higher floor and there were a couple of chocolate brownies waiting for us in the room.





Prior to this trip, two friends had separately said that Belo Horizonte is a great city, especially its food and bar scene. Sadly I was feeling off colour and exhausted by the time we checked in (mid afternon) so didn't head out to explore. After a nap we went for dinner at a place a block or two away recommended by Lonely Planet for local dishes. It was a good recommendation indeed! I had a chicken and okra stew with various sides.


After dinner I went back up to the room to collapse into bed while +1 walked across town to the Mercado Novo (new market) which is a 1960s modernist central market that has been reimagined as a night time dining, drinking and entertainment district. It was still only around 8pm on a weeknight when he was there, so apparently it wasn't all that busy, but he reported that it was a great redevelopment and would be lots of fun to spend time there. I was disappointed to miss out!

 

[Volando]

18: Inhotim day 1

I woke up feeling better in the morning. The Novotel breakfast buffet was above average....especially if you like cake for breakfast. It seems to be a Brazillian thing!

Just as well I felt refreshed because the first order of business was to go and pick up a hire car, navigate city streets back to the hotel to pick up +1 and our luggage then make the 90 minute drive ahead of us. Driving in Brazil isn't for the faint of heart, but after the usual first 15 minutes of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road and another half hour to get the pace and rhythm of how people drive, I was confidently sterring our zippy Fiat Sportback towards Inhotim.

What is Inhotim?

I might let Wikipedia describe it:

The Inhotim Institute is a Brazilian contemporary art museum. It is one of the largest outdoor art centers in Latin America. It was founded by the former mining magnate Bernardo Paz in 2004 to house his personal art collection, but opened to the public a couple of years later. In 2014, the open-air museum was one of TripAdvisor's top 25 best-ranked museums in the world.

Located in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais), just 60 km away from Belo Horizonte, the institute has a total area of 1,942.25 acres, mostly located in the biome of the Atlantic Forest. Of the total area, 1,087.26 acres are marked as preservation areas, of which 359 acres are part of the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural RPPN, which makes it a natural heritage site. These geographic features made it possible for Inhotim to house a botanical garden, which has been developing since it was opened.

So in short: a sprawling contemporary art museum in a botanical garden in a forest.

The site houses over 20 galleries, most of which contain permanent, site-specific works. There's also dozens of sculptures and outdoor installations, various restuarants, cafes and kiosks. Guests can either choose to explore on foot, or pay extra for a second wristband which lets you hail golf buggies which ply set routes. We elected to walk. Paths varied from internal paved roads to cobblestone paths to bush tracks. There's an app and paper maps, both of which contradicted each other at times and which gave little information about what's actually inside the galleries. So our whole visit (over two days) was mostly all about serendipity!


Striking colours


Yayoyi Kusama (RIP)






Probably our day 1 highlight. A critique of ecological destruction inside a n airconditioned dome in a humid forest owned by a mining magnate...



There's onsite accommodation at Inhotim, but it's north of AUD1000 a night. So instead we stayed at a Pousada (small inn) in nearby Brumadinho, a few kilometres from Inhotim. Our room was cute and compact. Again, not a lick of English from the cute guy on reception, but he very kindly showed us to our room and explained meal times and other facilities.





Early morning views

 

[VPS]

18: Inhotim day 1

I woke up feeling better in the morning. The Novotel breakfast buffet was above average....especially if you like cake for breakfast. It seems to be a Brazillian thing!

Just as well I felt refreshed because the first order of business was to go and pick up a hire car, navigate city streets back to the hotel to pick up +1 and our luggage then make the 90 minute drive ahead of us. Driving in Brazil isn't for the faint of heart, but after the usual first 15 minutes of adjusting to driving on the other side of the road and another half hour to get the pace and rhythm of how people drive, I was confidently sterring our zippy Fiat Sportback towards Inhotim.

What is Inhotim?

I might let Wikipedia describe it:

The Inhotim Institute is a Brazilian contemporary art museum. It is one of the largest outdoor art centers in Latin America. It was founded by the former mining magnate Bernardo Paz in 2004 to house his personal art collection, but opened to the public a couple of years later. In 2014, the open-air museum was one of TripAdvisor's top 25 best-ranked museums in the world.

Located in Brumadinho (Minas Gerais), just 60 km away from Belo Horizonte, the institute has a total area of 1,942.25 acres, mostly located in the biome of the Atlantic Forest. Of the total area, 1,087.26 acres are marked as preservation areas, of which 359 acres are part of the Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural RPPN, which makes it a natural heritage site. These geographic features made it possible for Inhotim to house a botanical garden, which has been developing since it was opened.

So in short: a sprawling contemporary art museum in a botanical garden in a forest.

The site houses over 20 galleries, most of which contain permanent, site-specific works. There's also dozens of sculptures and outdoor installations, various restuarants, cafes and kiosks. Guests can either choose to explore on foot, or pay extra for a second wristband which lets you hail golf buggies which ply set routes. We elected to walk. Paths varied from internal paved roads to cobblestone paths to bush tracks. There's an app and paper maps, both of which contradicted each other at times and which gave little information about what's actually inside the galleries. So our whole visit (over two days) was mostly all about serendipity!

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Striking colours

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Yayoyi Kusama (RIP)

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Probably our day 1 highlight. A critique of ecological destruction inside a n airconditioned dome in a humid forest owned by a mining magnate...

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There's onsite accommodation at Inhotim, but it's north of AUD1000 a night. So instead we stayed at a Pousada (small inn) in nearby Brumadinho, a few kilometres from Inhotim. Our room was cute and compact. Again, not a lick of English from the cute guy on reception, but he very kindly showed us to our room and explained meal times and other facilities.

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Early morning views

What an amazing museum. I love AFF that introduces to things that are spectacular that you've never heard of