A different kind of Rio
So finally I went into Santa Teresa today… despite the low hanging clouds (I wish I had blue skies for the photos!). I nearly would have lived in Santa Teresa. There was a nice place for rent on Airbnb. In the end, I chose Ipanema, because of the beach, and because it seemed more busy, […] Read More
Park of Ruins
I went up to Santa Teresa today, on foot. I had stopped a cab and told him I wanted to go to the museum on top, but he refused with the word ‘mais alta’ or something. Ok, so it wasn’t raining yet, so I walked. Quite steep. I realised I was nearly there when I […] Read More
Beauty’s on the inside
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian or Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião in Rio is, pardon my French, goddamn awful. At first. I had noticed that conical stub of a building already from my trip to the top of the Sugar Loaf and thought of it as some kind of massive Congress Centre, the likes of which have […] Read More
Rio on a rainy day
It was pouring down in the night and early morning. Torrential. Ok, no Christ the Redeemer today. So I slept in, but it continued… and I settled for having a totally lazy day. I cleaned my stuff a bit, went through my pictures, checked my spendings so far to see if I am still in […] Read More
Up the Lapa steps
I remembered vaguely reading about a guy who had decorated some stairs with some tiles, the ‘Lapa steps’, and was using donated ones from around the world… I wasn’t too excited about that, not being able to picture the whole thing, but I was around, so I thought I’d try to find them in the […] Read More
MAM
Getting to the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro on foot ain’t easy. Unfortunately, the car prevailed again and the museum is somewhat cut off from its neighborhood by a huge 8-lane semi-highway to the city airport, and a huge crossing of other streets nearby. Only passage over to the MAM and the bay […] Read More
On the Ipanema market
Wanted to go downtown again, but ran into the market on Praça General Osório, a semi-green spot in the middle of town, that also holds a sort of Hippie craft market on Sundays, and is the major bus stop. Tons of fresh fruit, too bad I had already had breakfast, I could have had fresh pineapple and tons […] Read More
Discovering Downtown Rio
Took the Metro today to get to the centre of Rio, finally. Well, the Metro is currently being extended for the 2014 World Cup – my hosts wonder how they’ll ever gonna finish that on time – so you have to take a bus to another Metro station as the Ipanema one is closed due […] Read More
Copacabana beach pride
A hot day announced itself, and I was struggling to get my jeans on, due to my sunburn… So I strolled over to Copacabana beach, which is in fact pretty close, too, now that I have figured out the surroundings. The beach is long, perfect sand, with big waves rolling on. Don’t let the sunny […] Read More
Southern skies
I’m confused. It’s all different. The sun is in the north and runs the opposite way I expect it. The moon: way too high in the sky for what I’m used for, right on top of me. It’s a half moon right now, but not half as in left-right, but tilted, so it looks like a […] Read More