Coming back to Rio for a second time in ten months was not really on my cards, or to put it better, I didn't really think through what that really meant. It was exciting to send my parents to Brazil, a place that my Dad for years wanted to travel to. My mom was more hesitant on the need or desire to visit Brazil, but nevertheless, it was a knew country, a new flag. Over the first two days, despite most of what we did being the same as my trip earlier this year, they were in some ways better - less crowds to be sure on both Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer; also somehow not as hot. Anyway, day three was going to be a tour of the Centro neighborhood, where the most prominent, let's say, sites are located. In the end, what I learned was that it included far more sites than I remembered.
We left the hotel around 10:15, with roughly three hours for this walking tour through Centro, ending with a lunch on Santa Teresa hill at 1:30 at Aprazivel. The idea I had in mind was to end at the Selaron Steps, which sits at the base of Santa Teresa hill. It was a hot day, and most of these sites were outdoors or semi-outdoors; this was going to be an issue, but I think the power of the sites carried us through for much of the day.
We started at the far end of Centro, at the Portuguese Library, a three story floor to ceiling of books, maps, paintings and joy - I found it fun in February, but saw it as more glamorous and awe inspiring this time around, as did my parents. I think I did well to not really explain any of the sites - they weren't surprise sites, they had all come up in our various trawling of "4 days in Rio" type blogs, but without pictures, they were able to go to these places without any prior knowledge, which worked out to all of our advantage.
From there, we walked through Centro over to a new site, something that I somehow missed despite walking these very some roads, but it was the Museo San Francisco mini-hill / buildings that contain an old church turned museum (the namesake Museo San Francisco) along with a side church of Sao Thomas. It was a bit tough to find how to actually access these things without walking up a bunch of steps, but did eventually find an elevator and then got ready to be astounded. First, was a nice amouse bouche of a side exhibit of various cribs made from various types of things from various countries, from one made from a favley artist of cut up newspaper, to one made of rocks from Peru, to so many others. This was a small, seasonal, exhibit but put an early smile on our face.
The two churches kept that smile, if not expanded it. The first church was active and prepping for mass, with some nice colorful side altars and such. The real beauty though was the San Francisco church, which was smalla but astounding. Gold leaf everywhere from floor to ceiling, with beautiful painting over the inverse of a ship hull on top. The gold leaf was incredible - slightly audacious I guess, but it worked so well to draw out the darker color sculptures, paintings and medallia. On the whole, the Museo San Francisco was an incredible little stop.
The next on our tour went from old school small church to large-scale modernism / brutalism, with the Cathedral of Sao Sebastiao (Saint Sebastian). Before we got there, we did cross a few roads and intersections and squares that again somehow I missed despit4e walking these self-same roads between sites ten months earlier. The main one being the square that holds the grand National Theatre on one side, built in a purely baroque style that would not be lost anywhere in Europe, to the National Museum of Fine Arts (haven't done), National Library and other government buildings. Despite its contemporaneous age with European cities being built in this style, Rio is a style of its own - aside from this one square which is right out of Lisbon, if not better.
The Catedral de Sao Sebastiao was as beautiful as ever, with some added Christmas festivities from another nice crib with local fauna, two decorations lining each pew and hanging from the ceiling. The stained glass on each side of the rectangular cone glimmering with the bright sun, in a way that again I don't remember being so bright and beautiful ten months back. I don't know how much of my changing view of these sites were seeing them a bit through my parent's eyes, but they loved each of them, and I too saw my appreciation for each grow.
The final stop was the Selaron Steps, around the exact time it needed to be. My parents at this point were too tired to climb any further than the second set of stairs, and it was also packed, but what is nice is somehow inside of that maw, you do get these 30 second windows every say five to six minutes that the steps clear out enough to get a really nice picture of the tile-work. My parents also loved the side / wall tiles that are less renowned but just as beautiful. My mom even found deep inside one of the wall frescoes two pieces of actual roof tile, which are of the same style and making of her father's tile factory in Mangalore (a Portuguese settlement), which was a nice piece of familial history to weave into this.
From there, we took a cab up to Aprazivel, well up the side of Santa Teresa hill, one of the few hills in Rio that has housing and is built up but is not a favela. Santa Teeresa is best known for its bohemian culture, art scene, shops, etc., and we did do a bit of walking tour of that aspect getting a few wares in as well, but the real reason to head here was to visit Aprazivel. Cut into the cliff face with various semi-open roofed dining areas, Aprazivel specializes in old school Brazilian recipes, ingredients, etc., much of it from the North of Brazil or the Amazon. We ordered a few different plates, all quite good and two of which were spectacular. For the more normal ones, we got a seabass croquette which was cooked just perfectly. Fried balls/cylinders of meat/fish are so everpresent in Brazil, but often done just so well. The other was a tucupi-broth ceviche of fish and squid, which was probably not as good as my similar squid tucupi soup from February, but still tangy and nice. The other two were just outstanding - the first being a corn and shrimp bisque with pieces of shrimp that was so fresh, nutty and aromatic. The final was a pressed lamb shoulder with farofa which was so tender, juicy and sweet. The final piece was a Brazil Nut ice cream dessert, which also was great. Aprazivel is a bit expensive (in Brazilian terms) but worth it for consistently just excellent food and an amazing view of Rio below.
After lunch it was bout 3pm, and my parents were still a bit tired from teh walking (and this includes I guess the 20 minutes or so traipsing around Santa Teresa Hill), and were ready for some R&R at the hotel. I was jsut tired enough to be fully on board with that idea, which got us some needed horizontal time before the final piece of the day that would also be rewriting an opinion I had coming out of the Feb trip, which was Copacabana beach. Mainly my thinking was Copacabana is the superior beach to Ipanema, as the latter gets too crowded, but ironically the neighborhood of Copacabana if you go a block off of the beach is worse than the neighborhood of Ipanema. I still think that is largely true, but my conclusion coming out of that was a resolution that if I were to come to Rio again, to stay in Ipanema or Leblon and not Copacabana. Well, be it the hotel and its rooftop view of the beach, to our upcoming walk on it, but I no longer think this - Copacabana beach truly is something sepcial.
This is probably just due to the fact that 95% of the time I spent in Copacabana was on the beach or the beachfront promenade off of it (the tile steps). We had walked up and down the tile pathway and the quioscas and what not, but now it was time to get into the beach, and that just was another great exprience. The sand is great, the waves are great, teh water is fairly warm, the waves come a t aperfect height to be fun to walk through (or wade in). The sightlines in both directions are great. The line of hotels and life on the promenade glitter at the pre-sunset time that we came. All of it was just an experience, the height of which was jsut dipping my feet into the beautiful Atlantic.
Dinner was a big one, our time at a churrascaria, which we've semi-starved and worked up the appetite- for through a whole bunch of steps. I chose Assador Rio for this (vs. the original Fogo de Chao, or Churrascaria Palace) because of its great setting on Flamengo beach with a nighttime view of the bay, Sugarloaf and planes taking off from Santos Dumont airport flashing over the moonlight. Of course, the meat is great too - and they know what sells with picanha, filet and sirloin coming around 3-4x any other cut. The salads are nice, the wine is great (picked a Brazilian bottle, which given it is not a fancy wine country, probably underprices it given the quality I thought of it). But damn that picanha, that fatty, crunchy, juicy bit of brilliance. I think with the view, the meats and the wine, we got our moneys worth.
To dance off some of the meat sweats, we then headed to my last "new" thing of the day (if not my time in Rio) heading to Lapa, a buzzing nightlife area, to visit Carioca de Gema, and oldschool live music bar. Lapa itself is a scene, and probably not one for my taste, a bit too mainstream club and dance bars (think Miami or something) - a bit too loud, too flashy. But Carioca de Gema is, no pun intended, a gem in this maw - a brilliant little spot that showcases true old school Brazilian live music. Today's event was a performance by Dani Coimbra a carioca star singer, dancer mostly in samba music, with some bossa novo added in. She was mesmerizing, as was her band, the energy, the dancing of the crowd. This little spot was perfect for what I think my parents wanted from their one "nightlife" scene in Rio, and good for me as well.
The night continued to two spots taht defined my late night Rio experience last time and held up well this time as well, the first being Canastra Rose in Botafogo, a great DJ-led lounge where the DJ this time played a series of 2000s-2010s hits remixed with a bit of house overlay that was just amazing to people watch, sip their great house negronis and live a Rio life. The last spot was D-Edge, a warehouse club way north in Gamboa, that seemed to have opened a new stage area on its top floor (vs normally the second floor), which was bigger, had better acoustics, if not also better airflow and was jsut a great scene even if the music was less melodic a version of EDM than I normally like - but still for what I wanted my Friday night in Rio to be, this was a great capper, along with just a great day overall in the marvelous city.
