January River

Rio is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited.  While nothing can make a just claim to being more beautiful than San Francisco (its sacrilege to suggest otherwise), Rio is certainly not less...differently beautiful, but equally breathtaking.

We spent three days in Rio (turns out Rio de Janeiro means "January River" in Portuguese) and really loved the bohemian and beach-y vibe here.  There were riots in the Copa Cabana area and in one other favela (slums) three days before we arrived so there was definitely a jittery/restless vibe that prevented us from getting too adventurous during our stay -- we stayed to Copa and ventured out once with a tour group - more on that later.

After speaking to native Brazilians about the why there were so many protests here, we discovered that the unrest is rooted in inequality.  This is certainly not a shock but I was surprised that people of all classes seemed to be united in a common frustration that the government appears to be neglecting its people.  With Brazil being one of the BRIC economic giants, there appears to be massive mismanagement of the influx of funds the country is receiving.  Rather than investing infrastructure and education, the money is going to soccer stadiums and higher salaries in the government. Apparently there are massive protests expected to take place during the World Cup targeting this issue.

But I digress.  Our time spent in Rio was fantastic.  Since most of our time involved being on the beach, there is not much to share but I did want to show the highlights from our Rio tour.



1. Big Jesus - the Christ the Redeemer statue which sits atop the Corcovado Mountain in Rio was really incredible.  It is, of course, one of the world's most iconic statues and I was absolutely dumbstruck at the size of the statue.  It stands 98 feet tall, made entirely of soapstone and rests upon a 26 foot pedestal.  Felipe and I spent a lot of time trying to get amazing pictures of us standing in front of the statue but found varying degrees of success due to people constantly walking in front of us...which makes me wonder : (1) how many pictures am I randomly in? (2) what are some good photobomb poses I should start to practice for situations as these? This is one of our more successful attempts.











2. Pretty Tile Steps...also known as Escadario Selarón is an incredible set of stairs overlaid with beautiful, colorful tiles.  Up until 1990, these were normal, concrete steps set in a poor neighborhood; then Chilean born artist Jorge Selarón started to create this breathtaking mosaic in front of his house as a side project and a tribute to the Brazilian people.

Me posing next to San Francisco tiles

These pictures do not do the location justice but I wanted to show a sense of this dazzling mosaic.  There are tiles from all over the world on these steps and its a great celebration of the many cultures of the world in one place.




3. Sugar Loaf Mountain.  Suger Loaf mountain is the iconic mountain seen in pictures taken at Copa Cabana beach.  It affords a breathtaking view of the city which we were able to see just as the sun was setting.  A couple of favorite shots are below:

CopaCabana beach is on the left overshadowed by cables of the
 gondola we took to the top

Sunset with Corcovado and Big Jesus on the mountain to the left