The beaches, Santa Teresa, and Maracana

Definitely my best day in Rio.  With only one day left, I still had a lot of stuff I needed to see.  I started in Ipanema Beach, one block from the hotel.   It's world famous, and so much has already been written about it, there's no point in going on in a blog.  Let's just say it looks exactly like you think it does.  No surprises.

What was a nice surprise was Flamengo beach, facing the harbor rather than the ocean.  It's shape is a half moon, reminding me vaguely of San Sebastian in Spain.  The beach also has Parque Flamengo between it and the road.  So there are tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer pitches, and all sorts of activities surrounding the beach.  It was maybe the liveliest place I went to in Rio.   I saw a wide diversity of people coming and going. So it gave me the feeling that this was a very mixed crowd of true Cariocas, and very few tourists.  It was a stark contrast from Ipanema Beach even though they aren't that far apart.  There were countless vendors selling food and drinks there.  I had a fresh coconut on the beach and watched the people go by.

The next place I saw was Sugarloaf.  It's named as such because it looks literally like a loaf of bread coming out of the water.  I took a gondola ride up the mountain and enjoyed the 360 degree views from the top.  Even more than on Corcovado, Sugerloaf gives you a full picture of how Rio is laid out.  Far in the distance you can see the Redeemer looking straight at you, with much of the city in between.

I walked toward the city center from Sugarloaf happening on an outdoor market in Gloria.  Markets usually give you a good idea of how real people shop, and I was pleased to find a very mixed crowd buying fresh meats and produce.  Rio is a more integrated city than I thought it would be.  I think I had an idea of it being a place of haves and have nots, which it is.  But I didn't expect to see people from all walks of life mingling in the same places in the city.  So it was a nice surprise. 

The market made me work up quite an appetite, so I had lunch at a local restaurant in Gloria.  The waitress spoke no English and didn't understand my feeble attempts to turn Spanish into Portuguese.  But she was the most helpful person I met in the restaurant.   She explained to me what specials they had in the few words we did have in common.  I ended up enjoying one of the better meals I've had for about $5.  When I asked her for directions she even found a waiter that spoke a few words in Spanish to explain it to me.

From there I walked up the hill into the old neighborhood called Santa Teresa.  This part of town has become quite a tourist attraction and several artists and boutiques have moved in.  It also has a cable car (Bund) similar to those in San Francisco.  It occurred to me that I have yet ridden a cable car in San Francisco, but I found myself needing it in Santa Teresa.  This neighborhood was where my Lonely Planet guidebook and I parted ways.  The book went out of its way to warn me about not going there alone, as thieves would literally appear out of nowhere to rob me.   Well, all I know is that there were very nice, restored homes in Santa Teresa, some which had swimming pools.  Beyond that, there were people absolutely everywhere.  Honestly, I felt safer than I did in any other part of Rio.  I enjoyed the curvy streets, and the faded colonial architecture.  I poked my head into a few art galleries before moving on.  One thing the book did not tell me was how to actually get out of Santa Teresa.  It had detailed instructions of how to get around the neighborhood, but nothing on how to get there and back.  Finally I had to stop into a Boteca and find a cab driver.

The reason I was in a hurry was that I had an extremely important appointment to get to.  This, of course, was a soccer game at the world famous Maracana stadium.   Maracana is somewhat of a national stadium for Brazil.  It was also the site of possibly Brazil's most painful moment in World Cup play when it lost to Uruguay in the final match of the 1950 tournament.  Crowd were estimated at 200,000+ for that game.  Though now the stadium hold a little more than 100,000. 

The match on tap for that evening was Botafogo vs. Fluminense, two rival teams from Rio.  Derbies can get crazy almost anywhere in the world, but I was particularly cautious about this one in Rio.  In my Spanish/Portuguese hybrid language (that I was beginning to get good at) I asked a few locals what tickets to buy.  They told me "arribancada" which I think loosely translates to "up above".  Again, this was completely the opposite instructions of Lonely Planet but I took the locals' advice.   I was extremely careful about which team's stands I was sitting in but the ticket agent assured me that my seats were "tranquilo".  I couldn't resist the temptation to buy a $7 fake Botafogo jersey on my way in, but I stuffed it in my pocket before I knew it would be safe to wear it.

At my seats, I found a mixed, family crowd of supporters from both teams.  With Botafogo fans outnumbering Fluminense, I felt safe putting on my 'Fogo jersey.  I even learned their team song, whose lyrics they flashed on the scoreboard.  I found the uniforms far more attractive than Fluminense's so I officially named myself a Botafogo fan.  The team promptly rewarded me by losing 2 - nil.  Thanks 'Fogo.  The Fluminense fans taunted us with the Botafogo song, sung to different (and I assume obscene) lyrics.  If anyone has the words to that one, please pass them along.