199: Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Ha- trick shot- this is Copacabana Beach...cant seem to find my shot of Ipanema Beach but it looked just the same with slightly less high rises.

the book, 1000 places to see before you die describes it as "the now famous Antonio Carlos Jobin and Vincius de Moraes wrote a song about a beautiful girl from Ipanema Beach and turned this sandy strip into a shrine".

Well to be fair- there were a few very elaborate sand castles and sand sculptures with some people standing behind them dedicated to whatever their cause was.

Other than that....no, I dont think it deserves an entry into the 1000 places to see before you die  book. I could name you off the back of my hand 10 beaches I have seen that are far more stunning than this odd yellow beach in the heart of a motorised zone.

No 188: Rio Carneval

Sadly as I needed to be in another city I could only witness the final night of the second tier samba schools……but what an amazing night which left me for a thirst to go back and attend the final for the first tier bands. Certainly looking at the web afterwards, it looked 100% bigger than the parade night I witnessed- which was pretty spectacular in itself.

Rio Carnaval is perhaps the biggest and well known carnival in the world and attracts over half a million foreign visitors a year. Lasting for four days it’s the final hurrah before Lent commences on Ash Wednesday and all bodily pleasures are meant to be abstained from. And man do those Brazilians go out with a big bang of body painted naked women, gyrating, dancing, drinking and generally bopping da beet. It is said that the history of Carnival goes back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, was spread across Europe, and then was brought to Brazil by the Portugese around 1850. It soon expanded to incorporate the African black slave culture (who were given days off to partake) and became a riot of fancy dress, headware and masks …before finally becoming a competition.

Carnaval in the 20th century had a European influence- with polkas and waltzes….but then morphed into an Afro Brazilian affair with sambas and music. Finally, given the size, the purpose built Sambadrome was finished in Rio in 1984 with a 700 metre “runway” past boxes holding some 90,000 spectators who watch about 8 schools parade once from 8pm until dawn.
The format is always the same- each school has 90 minutes to parade from one end of the Sambadrome to the other which, given that the web tells me that it would take a person seven and a half minutes to walk that distance is…..well…slow! But then there is on average some 5000 performers parading in each samba school.

Watching the first samba school come down was amazing. You can hear the music at the end of the Sambadrome and the whole crowd stands up and starts peering towards the end to watch the huge first float enter. Its only as it gets closer you realise that for a good 50 metres in front of it there are people dancing in formation. The crowd went wild as the first float got nearer, all singing the songs (which are released in advance of Christmas) and dancing in their seats. The costumes were mind blowing- and this was only second tier schools who have less money than top tier. The intricacy and the colours of them all, never mind the synchronised movement of the dancers as they sambaed, swirled and gyrated to the music was a moving experience.

The floats were huge- largely manually pushed down the Sambadrome, at times driven, and seemed to be higher than 10 people standing on each other’s shoulders. Enormous….and there about 8 floats in each school’s parade. On each float were the most intricate costumes of the parade (albeit I did see one float solely with body painted naked women) with dancing girls in the front, sides and back, multi-tiered, and perched at the very top one doubly spectacular costumed dancer normally with 4 foot feather headdresses, clutching two poles in front of them so as to dance safely on these mini stages on the floats which wobbled as well!
Moving that many people down a short length of strip, even despite lines of men in front of each section counting the rhythm to make them move faster or slower (points are deducted both for large gaps or over running the allotted time) was awe inspiring to see. I think the photos and the movies have to speak for themselves for this event so Ive for once gone overboard on them!!

Now- hindsight is a wonderful thing and I wished Id known more about the Rio Carnaval before I went so I knew what to look out for- given that it was all pretty overwhelming. Not to mention realising it went until dawn as I faded out at 3am which only meant half of the schools had paraded. So, if you are as lazy as me in pre-researching things you attend, let me give you the run down…..

Carnaval starts with the samba school picking a theme, writing the music for that theme, designing the costumes and floats and choreographing the music and dance for each of the sections. Each section has up to 200 people in it wearing the same costume, and up to 8 floats splitting up each section.

The most eagerly anticipated is the first section-the Flag Bearer and her Consort who carry the school’s flag and perform a solo and elaborate dance at the front. These two are, along with the owner and the choreographer, the most famous in the school.

This is followed by the Vanguards which is a group up to 15 people dancing a highly choreographed routine, who introduce the school to the crowd.
After that comes the Whirling Ladies section where older women are dressed in some rather elaborate huge skirts representative of the traditional costume of the Bahia state and reflecting the African roots. At least 80 must perform in this section and they are usually the old ladies of the community, who have already been with the same School for many years like the samba dancers. Some schools also have wings of little Baianas in this section filled with dancing teenage girls.

The next section is the Percussions who sing and dance to set the rhythm with large surdo drums.Then there are the vocal Singers.And then the Samba dancers.

Judging is taken very seriously with 4 judges in each of the 10 categories being theme for the year, samba song, harmony, overall impression, flow and spirit, flag bearer, vanguard group, percussion band, floats and props and finally costumes.

Now…to the experience. Well firstly it was pissing down with rain. I walked to my allocated seat (2 back from the ledge so prime position and thoroughly recommend paying for front row as it means you can get clearer shots with any type of camera while not having to worry about insufficient zoom for the detail let alone enthused Brazilians waving their hands about all the time or the rain with people holding umbrellas in front of your view). Thankfully someone had left a little plastic raincoat nearby which I huddled into and watched from the downpour while riskily bringing my camera out into the open.

I was only sad when I got into the prearranged transport to go home (another necessity) that I didn’t bolt out of the bus at the junction at the end of the Sambadrome where all these discarded costumes from the performers were piled up in the rain- would have won any fancy dress costume you ever went to.

Finally….Id say watch it rather than partake. You could be in a naff costume, and it must be incredible going down the Sambadrome, however you miss the entire parade let alone the parade of the School you are dancing for. While its expensive (think $400-$1200 a ticket) its definitely worth paying through the nose at this one!!

Corcovado, Rio: Number 187 from the 1000 places to see before you die book

You almost wonder why you bother really.

Perhaps the Ancients kept on outbeating themselves around their empires to prove a point and we no longer have the records to know..or perhaps the Great Pyramid at Giza, which was finished circa 2560BC was always the tallest pyramid in the world, and has remained so. To go more recent from medieval times, perhaps the Great Wall of China, at some 8,851 km was the longest wall in the world then,  and has remained so. Perhaps the Colosseum, when it was finished in 80AD, was the largest stadium in the world, and has remained so.

And then we have, on the top of Corcovado Mountain a figure of Christ the Redeemer- all 39.6m of him, including its base, with a reach of 22m fingertip to fingertip which was in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest statue of Christ, and was also included in the New 7Wonders of the world (albeit to be fair it was a hodgepodge finalist list including the Great Pyramid of Giza getting in the top 7…………….. as number 8 as an honorary candidate..and including Petra, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China).

So…lets look at the facts here. Completed in 1931 to commemorate the 1922 centennial of Brazilian independence (yep theres a story in there as to why it was 9 years late!!) Christ the Redeemer is actually only the third tallest Christ in the world.  In a classic case of outdoing what is already there- it was the tallest until the 1980’s when Bolivia built the El Cristo de la Concordia statue, which admittedly only stands 33m but, if you include its mount (always important it seems in arguing a world record) , reaches a final height of 42 meters.

Both countries Im sure pulled out the rosary beads when in November 2010, a tiny little village in Poland called Swiebodzin, which is inhabited by a mere 21,000 people, decided to spend $1.5m and five years building one that is 51m tall- making their statue of Christ the King monument the tallest in the world.  To be fair the statue is only 33m – according to the blurb which is “one metre for every year that Jesus lived” however when you take into account  its 3m gold crown and the mound it sits on,  it tops a very respectable 51m….yet to date has not hit anything other than the Guinness Book of Records.  

What’s the lesson here……build the biggest thing you can then get wiped out by another race (calling Mars……calling Mars) or don’t bother because technology allows us to always build bigger and better so put the funds into the poor people in your country instead of building a statue “to attract pilgrims” as the local priest in Swiebodzin says was the rationale for building the Christ the King monument??

Anyhow, back to the ” Christ the Redeemer” statue on Corcovado which has fallen in and out of favour with the Catholic Church as to its maintenance but now looks to be fully funded with Vale, the mega large Brazilian mining company, signing an agreement in 2010 to sponsor any restoration.

the view when i arrived

me and Christ the Redeemer

Access is either via a cable car (sadly my tour guide thought there were too many people lining up from the 3 cruise ships in town so we didn’t do that) or by driving. It was a ghastly miserable day anyhow- fog streaming in off the sea, raining heavily, and quite hard work on the top of any mountain- whether or not God’s presence felt closer or not.

And so, wet, cold and damp I trudged up the steps to stand at the foot of Christ. Slippery feet man…that black marble they used all around the base had tourists falling over left , right and centre.  Pity his feet were a few metres above our heads otherwise Id have mistaken their falls for eagerness to replicate St Francis or at least Easter Friday and kiss the soapstone toes.

Now- here is an interesting dilemma on reviewing this entry.

Was it included as it was the largest statue of Christ in the world …or the second if you take into account the mount under El Cristo de la Concordia ….and now anyhow the third given Christ the King?  Interesting that the largest statue of Mary (which is in Bulgaria) and incidentally stands at a far smaller 32 metres ,  isn’t included in the book. …nor is the second nor third largest Mary statue….nor indeed either number 1 or 2 of the world’s largest statues of Christ (mount included!!).

Even if that were the rationale behind its inclusion….it has now dropped to number 3 on the world stage of Jesus statues  (albeit perhaps either with a tectonic plate shift the Corcovado Mountain might gain another 11m or so, or Vale might open up their back purse and stick a massive 14m crown on his head).

Could it have been included in the book because of the view……however TableTop mountain in South Africa has a pretty cool view (and a cable car) and Sugarloaf rock on the next bay around in Rio has a similar view (and a cable car)…as below pictures show (yes- it was still miserable and raining)?

even the monkey hated the cold and the rain

So I presume its included because there is a view AND it is from one of the largest statues of Christ in the world.

So on that basis I googled to look at views from Number 1 and Number 2 of the highest Jesus statues … here’s number 1 and this is the best I could find of Number 2.

So, on the basis that you are into modern age and religious sculptures and with views and it already exists…then Christ the Redeemer retains its spot in the 1000 places to see before you die book as it is large and has the best view. Besides which…it’s a pretty famous statue so should be seen.

If however, you are after something that  is modern age and religious and has views and exists AND is unlikely in our lifetime to be “topped” AND incidentally doesn’t appear in the 1000 places to see before you die book , then I raise for consideration the  world’s largest statue- the 502 metre tall Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China.

Mind you, skim a bit deeper and you find out the statue (oh that mount issue keeps on cropping up) is only 128 m and plans are afoot in this decade to build a 152m, mount aside,  Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India costing some $250 million.

As I say…compete on sand castle building on your local beach. At least then you hold a record for a while and save yourself millions trying to be remembered when someone just pips the post by building their castle on a dune that has a fantastic tropical island view.

Rodizio and Feijoada in Rio: Number 186 of the 1000 places to see before you die

This is all about food, glorious food. So……first on the rank- rodizio which means “rotation” This style is about lots of waiters walking around with a piece of cooked meat carving it directly to your plate. Add a buffet of seafood, salads, breads, desserts and soup…its basically an upmarket BBQ (churrascarai given we are in Brazil) delivered straight to your plate.

the restaurant



My night to experience this was at a restaurant called Porcao , aptly meaning “big pig” which first started slicing up the meat in Rio in 1975 and now has locations in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Portugal, and the United States.

Suffice to say, the style makes you one big pig. While only a few slivers of each meat is delivered there were about 10 skewers with hunks of sirloin through to brisket circulating at any one time. You are given a disc when you arrive which is basically a “yes……feed me” sign in green and a “no…im full” in red. At this stage of the night I was a green sign.

Divine!!  

Now for the next- feijoada. Not for the fainthearted this is a Saturday delicacy. So off I trooped to the recommended Caesar Park Hotel in Ipanema, Rio to try this. I was rather lucky that it was the weekend before Carneval so the hotel had put on a special Carneval Feijoada lunch- not cheap at some $200- but it came with one of the top Samba schools dancing- full on band, samba girls and boys, the owner (and his son) and their flag bearer, unlimited caipirinhas, school t-shirt and a few feathers. Beija-Flor Samba school was hotly tipped to be one of the leading contenders at the forthcoming Carneval- and in fact went on that week to win top spot at the 2011 Carneval.


the owner, son and leading flag carrier



But first- to review feijoada. Now this Brazilian national dish is a black bean stew with pork and beef, which originates from Portugal. At the hotel they had big earthenware pots containing the beans….then…get ready….equally as large pots of pigs ears, tripe, smoked sausage, unsmoked sausage, pigs tail, beef tongue, pork loin, pork cutlet, beef, dried beef and trotters. You mixed and matched as you felt free.

While a novelty, this is not a gourmet looking dish- the beans are black, all of the meat stews are brown, and then there is white rice or yellow cassava flour to put on the base. Presentation and flavour (other than that overwhelmingly of meat) is not in feijoada’s favour.

I forgot as it was to take a photo of it all on my plate because at that moment out came a samba girl and boy…..and this was more of a highlight…


So, both reviewed. Should they be in the top 1000 places to see before you die?

I have to say a thumbs down on this. While they may well represent the national dish, and a Brazilian way of eating….none the less paella in spain doesn’t appear in the book, neither does vegemite and cheese sandwich on bondi beach (personally Id put that in the 1000 things people should experience) so I think that you shouldn’t lose any sleep if this was one of the things that you went to your deathbed without experiencing!

However....samba boys and girls should be in there....but then Carneval Rio is my next blog!

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Copacabana Palace Hotel, Rio: Number 185 from the 1000 place to see before you die

This, I fear, is going to be an easy review. I might have been slightly jaded as they had decided to close Copacabana Palace Hotel for the weekend for outside guests due to Carneval so I was turned away when first I arrived in the afternoon (nice sunny shot below)……so I had to make do with a photo outside the hotel only.

However, far be for me to admit defeat, I then called Quintessentially to see if they could work some swift magic………job done I had my dinner (that’s the next blog…) and took my meat laden stomach over to the hotel……but the concierge was all blank faces so off I went again cajoling my way in….all the way to the top general manager (you’d really think they had better things to do than be bothered with one discretionary entrance into their bar by a tourist for a martini).

Twenty mins later, after quite a few “why bother” moments in my head, I finally gained entrance into the inner sanctum, feeling like I had done ten rounds with Mike Tyson, and definitely needing a stiff martini!!!

As it was only about 10pm and therefore way too early to go to their in-house disco- I contented myself with sitting in the outdoor bar at the pool. It was a lovely pool- not sure about the double rows of loungers lined up like the Riviera…but given that it was cloistered in the centre of the building I guess space is a premium.

Their website says

“Superbly positioned overlooking the sea, this glamorous Orient-Express landmark in Rio has been welcoming the rich and famous since its Art Deco doors swung open in 1923. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced here and the Rolling Stones tuned up in its grand salon before their concert on the beach.
 
The magnificent pool, with its adjacent super-cool Bar do Copa, are where Brazil’s style setters gather to soak up the sun. The hotel’s restaurants are also destinations in themselves, whether for great local dishes or fine Italian dining in Hotel Cipriani Restaurant. “

I didn’t get to see inside a room (felt that Id pushed my luck as it was) so could only judge it on the restaurant, bar, pool and lobby………………………………………….I have to say- the hotel is perhaps iconic (or is it just that the name is known because of the beach its on)….and on that subject of THAT beach….how is it that Barry Manilo’s lyrics go

“At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....they fell in love”

Since when is Rio north of Havana? Interesting. Perhaps his hot Copa spot is not here in Rio.

Anyhow- back to the Copacabana Palace Hotel- it is just another 5 star hotel and I don’t really think, given how many there are of those in the world, that it should be included unless it provides something really superlative (Burj Al Arab  would be one that fits in that vein for instance).

So………………..I don’t think it should be in the 1000 places to see before you die

Carneval, Salvador de Bahia, Brazil: Number 184 of the 1000 places to see before you die

Carnaval in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil is, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the world’s biggest street party. Some 800,000 visitors flood into the city from throughout the world and in total some 2 million people will celebrate throughout 25 kilometers of streets, avenues and squares.

Occurring around Lent every year its pretty much a week of parties. Id been scared senseless by all the warnings- from Quintessentially suggesting I needed a security guard, through to friends telling me I needed to carry nothing and put money down my knickers through to others suggesting that watching it on TV was the safest way of seeing any Carneval in South America. I, of course, ignored all- although I think in this photo you can see my money in my bra!!

I warmed up slowly by going to a street party the night before Carneval started. Thousands and thousands of people littering the street, some wild costumes, tents selling nothing but beer, every now and again a band pushing its way through the throng with all these people in the same coloured tshirts dancing behind them in a roped off area as they moved.  It was a nice, slightly chaotic way to start Carneval.

When one thinks of Carneval they picture brown gyrating bottoms and a lot of peacocks and ostriches who didn’t see the end of the year.  But its the Rio one that is all samba and costumes.  Salvador Carneval is actually known for “Trios Eléctricos”. This concept started in 1953 as a result of two musicians who decided to go out into the streets playing on top of an open float. The idea caught on and since then Salvador’s Carneval is like one big moving rock festival. On each of some 60 foot long semi trailers, spaced at regular intervals,  there is a popular and famous Brazilian singer accompanied by scantily dressed dancers and a full band belting out their hits from some 10 metres high in the air as the truck drives down the street.

There is a choice of how to watch the Carneval in the area I went to. Either join a bloco (which involves being in a roped off area behind the singer’s truck…along with another truck holding a bar and toilets…and walk in this space, wearing a group t-shirt and dancing all the way around the route) - or in camarotes- which are grandstands lining the street that the trucks drive down. Of course there is also the final way of doing it which is just mill around in the streets watching the trucks and blocos past….but this is definitely the least safest way.

I decided to do the camarote thing. Now Carneval isn’t cheap….this was some $500 dollars for entrance to the camarote I was in - Camarote Salvador, which is the biggest and the best. I'd been given different views as to what a camarote was - one person said it was a grandstand I was going into (which was sort of correct as it turns out), another a balcony (also correct)…but I think either of those English translations misses the entire thing.

 

My camarote was a huge area containing…..and here I'm hoping that I didn’t miss any areas…. a massage tent, a makeup stage, a hairdressers stage, a nightclub, a ginormous tent serving up unlimited food from sushi to iberia ham, a vodka bar, a beer bar replete with a stuffed camel, an alcoholic fruit cocktail stand, a kodak photo stand, a band stage, a few cars being given away, a corporate area, a dressup costume area with photo stage, a beach with outdoor DJ, loungers and palms, massive screens playing anything from Red Bull Extreme Sports Movie clips through to images following the theme of the night (Egyptian), entertainers, you name it, it was there!

massages



nightclub

photo on the devassa beer camel



the martini boys

Add to that- multi tiered red carpeted open balconies running the length of the circa 150m enclosure so that you were level or higher than the trucks coming down the street, waiters circulating with bottles of Ballantyne’s or Vodka and mixers……amazing night.

Now after hob nobbing with the hoi polloi, dancing with strangers (synchronised dancing seemed to be very popular amongst the girls……..also quite worringly silver and blue eyeshadow!) and, given that few people in Brazil seem to speak English- talking to myself a fair bit I crawled out at around 5am- very merry and happy. However suggest you don’t do a camarote by yourself- grab a friend as its more fun!



dj on the beach



an entertainer



from the beach looking up at the triple storey camarote



having my makeup done......blue eyeshadow seemed to be the theme!



getting my characture done



the band inside the  camarote



beach area in the camarote



the amazing vodka fruit caipirinha stall in the camarote





dress up zone for some department store



Should it stay in the 1000 places to see before you die book….yes!!

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