Touring the City of Rio

This is my blog post for Thur.-Sunday, 6/3-6/6

So over the last four days I've been back outside seeing sights again. The classroom time was good, but being outside and (attempting) to interact with the Cariocas is what its all about. I really feel like I should have learned more Portuguese before coming here. It would have made things far easier. However, I have had a few miraculous successes. On Friday at the beach in Barra one of our classmates lost one of the lenses of his glasses in the ocean. I went with him and some others down to an enormous mall in Ipanema to see if we could find an optometrist, and somehow were successful. While the majority of the communication was in the form of body language, it was still satisfying to see such a complicated transaction completed successfully. However, my interactions with the Cariocas most commonly involve a cashier saying something to me and receiving a blank stare from me in return. Then they usually get annoyed, and I feel like an obnoxious tourist. Not pleasant.

On Thursday and Friday USC had students from FGV show us around the city on a bus tour of different venues. They were excellent guides, and I've attached some pics here. The city is huge and transportation is already a world-famous problem. Rio surrounds a rainforest-Parque Nacional da Tijuca- and this makes for special transit challenges. However, it sounds like there is a plan for the Olympics that will provide Rio with lasting imrovements, such as new highways and metro stops.

At Maracana, a world famous football stadium, there was a sort of "hollywood walk of fame" for
the stars, including Pele and Ronaldo. They had this funny foot print thing that you can see pics of here. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I also got a pic of me high-fiving some star on the wall. Maybe someone can tell me who this is. Anyway, I had already been here last Saturday for the football game we went to, but it was good to come back. This is where the opening ceremony will be. I wonder what the theme will be. Brazilians have a ton of pride- there's green and yellow everywhere in this city. Way more than the red, white and blue in a typical city in the U.S.

It was also great to see the stadium where they hold Carnival-which will be the site for the start and finish of the marathon, as well. I can only imagine the kind of insanity that must take place here in March. While it must be overwhelming, supposedly the event goes off relatively crime free. Hopefully the same will be said in 2016.

At the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas we got to see the site for the rowing events. It seemed polluted, but the surrounding area was very nice. Located just north of Ipanema, the Lagoa is a very expensive place to live. There was also a helipad with tours departing constantly- theres a pic of the copter flying above the lake below.

We also got a chance to tour a nearby park, where I got a great picture of a monkey. These are almost as common in Rio's parks as squirrels are in California. I think they're called Caputin monkeys.

I don't yet have the pictures because my camera ran out of batteries, but in Barra da Tijuca we got to tour the swimming facility and indoor bicycle track. We also got to see a model of the Olympic village and press village they're planning on building in the area. Hopefully they break ground soon, because it didn't seem like any work had begun. I also heard there's pressure to be sure the gentrification of the area will only create benefits to the nearby favelas.

It was great walking to the top of the highest platform (40 ft. I think) at the swimming facility, but I think we got our tour guide in trouble- I guess it was a major liability for us to be up there. Below is a pic from the top of the platform. Anyway, I felt bad about it, especially because our tour guide's been really good to us. On Friday night she took us to the Rio Scenario- a dance club in Lapa. It was one of the best nights I have had so far. The place was huge- numerous bars and floors, cool decorations, and an amazing band. It was some kind of mix of samba, reggae, rock, and other things. I tried my best to dance, but the Brazilians move their feet in very intimidating ways and it was tough to keep up.

We finally had some beach days on Thursday and Friday, and for a short while on Sunday, but it was cut short due to high winds. These pictures are mostly from Copacabana, but the beach at Barra was beautiful as well. I went for a run with a classmate down the beach in Barra and saw some cool sites, not to mention lots of beautiful people. The Cariocas sure love to show off.

On Sunday I got up to the top of Corcovado mountain where the Christ Redeemer statue is located. I heard a tour guide make the joke that, in Rio, there's so much plastic surgery even Jesus is interested in getting a face lift. These pictures show the restoration efforts.

The view from the top of Corcovado mountain is great. Here you can see Guanabara bay with the bridge to Niteroi in the distance. I asked if its worth going over to Niteroi, but supposedly there isn't much there other than a good view of Rio.

Here's a view of Maracana stadium. Its a huge stadium and definitely worthy of the glory of the World Cup and Olympics. There's also another stadium nearby- Estádio Olímpico João Havelange- that I didn't get a picture of. Supposedly they will build temporary seating for approximately 20,000 people around it. This is an example of how Rio will handle the influx of people for their upcoming mega-events without buidling beyond demand.

Here's a view from Corcovado with the Lagoa to the left (the site for rowing). To the right is the forest.

Last Saturday I remember our tour guide saying somebody had grafittied the Jesus statue and that it was a really big deal. I don't know if this is related to the restoration efforts, but graffiti in Rio is definitely worth mentioning. It's literally everywhere. Here's a couple examples. Sometime I'll recognize the same characters. I may not always understand it, but some is very creative. If I see something really good I'll try and take a picture and post it here.

Rio has very creative people and a huge informal economy. The combination can make for some strange sights. By the beach in Cobacabana there was a lady justting in a hoop, moving around every now and then. I also have this picture of a guy juggling in the street. Nearby our hotel in Rio there was a guy selling ice cream to kids at around 9:30 in the morning. He must have been hung over or something, because he was completely sound asleep. Nestle sure must have struck gold finding this salesman. I also saw a guy shining someone's shoes in front of the Copacabana Palace. This guy just had his foot on a waterbottle while the shoe shiner did his thing. You can see a short vid of it here, but you have to look close:

On Sunday I went to a fair in Ipanema called the "Hippy Fair" to buy some souvenirs. You can see a photo of the sign below. The characters on the poster are hilarious caricatures. There was even a guy playing the guitar, and was actually pretty good. You can see the vid below: