Rio de Janeiro

 

We came to Rio with one key objective: Carnival! I’m not sure how well we ended up being part of the debauchery and endless parties (Sunny’s parents and brother joined us and I have the bedtime of an 8-year-old) but we did enjoy our time in the city and especially drinking caipirinhas and eating snacks on the beach. 

We approached Carnival revelries in 2 ways: looking for street parties, or Blocos, and by attending the dancing parade in the world-famous Sambadrome. The former was a bit of a flop: while we enjoyed seeing people in their costumes and glitter throughout the city as we did our tourist activities, when we sought out these parties ourselves we were less successful. The parade we did find was from a church, so there was an awful lot of singing about Jesus and handing our Bible versus, but the drum and rhythm section were polished so we enjoyed that side. The traditional parade though, was phenomenal, with a wealth of sound, colors, and dancing to drink in. Ultimate unforgettable.

Aside from Carnival, we did some traditional tourist explorations, like taking the cable car up Sugarloaf, the train up Corcovado (the giant Jesus statue), a sunrise venture in the park, and a sunset cruise along the bay. The views were stunning in all cases.

We also tried our hand at Caipoera for beginners (a Brazilian martial art mixed with dance) which turned out to be way more of a work-out than I bargained for but was fun! Sunny’s parents especially enjoyed the music component with the traditional call and response singing pattern and integration of percussion instruments. 

Altogether a great start to our time in Brazil!