“I like my bedtimes and books in the evenings. I belong far, far away from the party.” – Old Sean
Loud Lapa
I don’t sleep much anymore.
Or rather, I do sleep, but it’s from nearly 4 AM to noon each day. In a fitful lack of planning, I managed to snag a discount (cluttered but cozy) apartment in Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, where I’ve lived since around New Year.
This turned out to be a double edged sword, especially on weekends. Lapa is famously a part of town with easy access to subway stations, buses and cheap Ubers, but it doubles as a party center. Every night, the streets below rumble to life with live performances, endless dances, bars sending off waterfalls of liquor and an overlapping thrum of loudspeaker music.
I’m not a fan.
I don’t like big cities in general, although I seem to find myself spending an unhealthy amount of my life living in and around them for access and internet, but I always have an undercurrent of discontentment. I don’t like crowds, or noise and I rarely spend my nights out drinking more than a single beer per month. All of these preferences makes my choice of lodging particularly uncomfortable this round.
Unfortunately, Lapa doesn’t really calm down most evenings until 4 AM local time, when the music putters away and a shambling hoard is whisked off into the night via taxis.
It is during these witching hours that I usually write. Rio is a much safer and more navigable city than Sao Paulo, but I’m in no condition to be wandering around from midnight to just-before-dawn until the music shuts down.
As such, I’ve picked up some noise canceling headphones (which are mildly effective) and tend to hammer my nights away on a backlit keyboard while rotating and fidgeting on an uncomfortable white chair.
New Year Traditions
Prior to reaching Rio, I spent New Years Eve in a combination of Balneário Camboriú and Blumenau with my friend Kenya. When we road tripped off to the coast, we clambered into Kenya’s borrowed car in the early morning before getting slammed with an impressive series of rainclouds, at one point taking a bridge too fast and being forced (gently) off a slowly curving road.
We managed not to crash screaming and two other cars immediately stopped to check on us (thanks Brazil) so that was the first victory of the day.
In Balneário Camboriú, the rain continued. Kenya and I opted to try visiting the Balneário Camboriú Oceanic Aquarium as an indoor activity, rather than risk the spotty weather. And it’s a really splendid aquarium with a heavy focus on Brazilian and Amazonian water life. The first section of the aquarium hosts freshwater creatures, specifically those who call the Amazon River and Basin their home.
Brazil holds roughly 12% of the world’s top-water, freshwater supply with the vast majority of that residing in the Amazon Basin. This is a cause for concern for many environmental and water security groups since the popular consensus of Brazilian citizens is (and I’m paraphrasing a Portuguese quote here) “Nobody has a paperclip or potted plant they would trust to the government.”
Anyway, my point being that most of the wonderful creatures in the Balneário Camboriú Oceanic Aquarium are uniquely rare. There are river otters which show off spectacularily, and pale axolotls drifting in backlit containers. (I believe Axolotls are critically endangered and only native to Mexico).
There are also archer fish, which, in accordance to their names, spit water jets into the air to knock down insects for consumption. The piranha exhibit had the infamous underbite fish drifting in a cylinder, many of the creatures wearily turning away from one another. Closer inspections showed many of the fish had chunks of skin or fins missing.
There were also enormous, bulky fish with unique and perfectly intricate patterns tracing the area along their gills, waterborne snakes in containers with freshwater, spotted rays, small penguins popping up from short swims and turtles pawing against glass.
Further along, peacocks and ducks strutted in enclosures and a single room was absolutely crammed with amazingly bright songbirds which cheered relentlessly as crowds steadily marched by. The sea section was interesting too, since it included a seahorse cylinder, a reef replica, a shark tunnel and finally the gift shop.
Sadly, our time inside didn’t manage to dodge the full rainstorm, so Kenya and I ended up going further into town to try Brazilian buffet-styled meals.
Brazilian Snacks
One of the odd things that’s happened to me only in the United States and Brazil is high-density super-portions. And by that, I mean that the US and Brazil are the only countries I’ve been to where I consistently have trouble finishing an entire meal in one sitting. Any other country I go to, I might get a rather hefty helping of food, but I’ll never struggle to clear a plate. But Brazil matches the US in terms of giant plates, super-dense foods, huge portions and no-holding-back.
We actually ate so much, Kenya and I opted to take a nap in the car for half an hour, rather than forging onwards immediately. But when the sticky heat of midday Brazil finally globbed us awake, we went to visit the shoreline, parking near Roda Gigante de Balneário Camboriú, the multicolored Ferris Wheel overlooking the bay.
Semi-Beach Day
We made a point of visiting the beach (Hole Beach) for the rest of the day (since the skies finally cleared), going past the large Ferris Wheel to walk to the blessedly empty beaches beneath the shadows of overhanging mountains. A thin boardwalk (Deck do Ponte Norte) followed the curve of the shoreline, and people began staking out claims in the early afternoon to watch the seaside fireworks incoming. Better even to look at, many of these coves were decorated with standing stones, the meditative artwork of prior guests.
Meditation stone pillars are sort of a new travel fad, appearing within the past decade or so in force. The idea is that people take stones from a local beach or river and carefully stack them into perfectly balanced, purposely narrow and rickety pillars. Balanced Stone-Stacking is an old meditation technique imported from elsewhere, but since it’s visually striking, it’s become a social media sensation.
Naturally, everything touched by social media has a toxic side and stone stacking pillars are somewhat environmentally destructive. In National Parks, there are lots of park ranger reports mentioning the destruction of underground habitats and increased erosion due to the shuffling of these rocks.
Many tourists (and bloggers) consider the stones construction perfectly acceptable since it doesn’t remove anything from the natural environment. Sadly, however, lots of critters get crushed when humans lug hefty rocks around and natural fauna and bacteria which use stones as shade-and-water shelters have their homes vanish in the event of too many selfies.
That being said, these stone pillars are on a public beach next to a major city with enough daily foot traffic to crowd a subway station or three. I sincerely doubt there’s significant environmental harm to stone-pillar-stacking in such a setting. Well, more harm, anyway.
As we continued along the beach, hang gliders and helicopters constantly flew overhead and a drizzle of rain brought a full oceanic rainbow to fruition. The sand was somewhat rough, rocks lurked below small swells like snoozing toe-catchers and ocean breezes managed to rustle the first four layers of foliage found beyond the beach. Kenya and I scaled nearby mountains to spot a viewing point (capped in AstroTurf) called Morro do Careca. The area is used to launch hang-gliders and Kenya managed to kill an enormous spider which had found my hand.
We didn’t stay terribly long after sunset however. We spent some time swimming in surprisingly tough swells on the beach, followed a pack of tan beach-dogs along the shoreline, and bought churros for the walk back to the car, but both Kenya and I wanted to be back in Blumenau by midnight for New Years Fireworks.
There’s Always Fireworks
Balneário Camboriú has their own impressive set of fireworks, but we didn’t want to pay the hefty sum for lodging on the coast (all of Brazil migrates to the coast for winter holidays) and we didn’t fancy driving home smelling of sand and saltwater well after midnight.
Instead, we made It back to Blumenau with a couple hours before fireworks. A shawarma place was inexplicably open. I got to enjoy some great irony when ordering, because despite not speaking Portuguese, the owner was Arabic, which I do speak. So two hours before 2022 in Blumenau, Brazil, I bought my Portuguese speaking friend and myself some almost-midnight shawarma salads with elementary-level Arabic.
Afterwards, we went to Parque Ramiro Roediger to watch the fireworks blaze across the sky. They were predictably impressive, with secondary echoes bounding off the nearby buildings making it sound like triple artillery strikes were going after neighbors.
And then it was 2022. I’m not sure what to do with that information.
Heading to Rio
A few of days later, on January 5th, I took a night bus to Rio de Janeiro. That bus ride was an enormous gamble from beginning to end. An infant was seated in front of me, directly behind me and one row to my left as we rumbled through the night north. Though there were moments of muttering and mild discontentment, my prayers really came through because not a single one of those children burst into screams or tears for that ride.
Thank you unrelenting luck.
Upon arriving in Rio, I had my hackles very, very high. Sao Paulo was my only experience with a large Brazilian city and it hadn’t been a particularly good first impression. So when I saw a sign warning people in five language not to use taxis, I felt myself slump slightly. It seemed about right.
But Rio isn’t actually that bad. I mean, it’s not safe enough to wander blindly and there are grimy patches of the city and a fair spread of impoverished folks, but it’s a fairly typical large city. I wasn’t about to wave electronics and fans of currency on the streets, but it felt much nicer.
I made it to my apartment and was quickly introduced to my new living situation. If at all possible, I’d like to cancel my Spotify subscription for the month, since I have enough nightly music to manage.
Though I tried to head around Rio to see some of the sights, weather somewhat thwarted me. Rio this time of year is warm, humid and densely rainy. Generally, rain doesn’t bother me, but most of the things I’m interested in seeing around Rio are at higher elevations (like Christ the Redeemer) and virtually invisible once the clouds roll in.
That being said, I have managed to spot a few things.
Exploring Rio
The Carioca Aqueduct near my apartment is an elegant structure from the eighteenth century with a tram scooting along over the top. The Aqueduct has a pretty big crowd of people asking for handouts on a daily basis, but it also has some pretty good awning shops for street food when night rolls around. Nearby, there’s also Booze Bar, which I like because they don’t have crushingly loud music and they server a Harry Potter-themed Polyjuice Potion over dry ice. It tastes delicious, which is inverse to Harry Potter story cannon, but I can overlook that.
Likewise, Nova Capela Restaurant & Bar is just down the street and is a classy place to duck into when I need to get away from my local night-life hoard. Also nearby is the Catedral Metropolitana de Sao Sebastiao, a pyramid religious structure that looks like a cone crossed with a bomb shelter on the outside and a bizarre stained-glass four-way intersection on the interior. In the opposite direction is Escadaria Selaron, a mosaic, bright red staircase wandering between some hole-in-the-wall restaurants, which connects to a road that eventually leads to the tiny but beautiful (and slightly overgrown) Parque das Ruinas.
Around Centro, I bascially just did the wiki-travel list. I visited the enormous road of murals along Boulevard Olimpico, spotted the Museu do Amanha, showed my vaccination card to enter the Royal Portuguese Reading Room, walked past the Navy Cultural Space and found a café called DarkCoffee I’m supremely fond of.
My other trips around the area included fairly regular subway visits to Copacabana to the south for beach walks and hikes in slight rains and bare glimpses of the sharp rocks in the distance around the bay area. Rain hindered most of my sightseeing and the longer hikes I’ve been hoping for. Additionally, I got sick for two whole days (likely COVID) which slowed me even further.
Transplanted Jungles
It was only recently, during a trip to Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro I got to truly appreciate the Rio de Janeiro beauty on a cloudless day. The bays and lagoons are a postcard-perfect blue, with great, sheer brown mountains jutting up like guardian walls on the corners of bays. They’re topped with sprouts of green tropic foliage and thin cable-car lines branch off the otherwise sheer and insurmountable cliff faces. The buildings around the coast are a condo-white color with clear views into a daily sunrise.
Even Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro was a sight to behold with long corridors of palm trees guiding visitors into the heart of a sprawling park filled with toucans, stinger-blunted bees, hopping monkeys, towering water plants, unique architectures, several tiny shops, walls of ivy and classical statues. Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro requires three hours to traverse and explore properly.
Breather
This is where I’m going to stop. It is my second weekend in Rio de Janeiro and illness has kept me in a tiny apartment with three blankets and a fan whirling above while the rest of the city stomps and dances below.
Assuming I recover swiftly and assuming my work buildup isn’t rediculous and assuming the skies remain intact, I’d like to see Christ the Redeemer next. But afterwards, I plan on venturing further out from Rio de Janerio (maybe sleeping in a hostel in another city where I don’t have to hear my street-neighbor’s festive joy).
As such, different places deserve different posts and I hope to see more of Brazil before I leave. Though I originally wanted to stay until Carnival, the festival has been technically canceled (street festivals and bloc parties are still ongoing, of course) and I don’t think I can stomach another full month living in such a large city without respite.
So soon, hopefully, it’s back to exploring.
Until then,
Best regards and excellent trails,
Old Sean
Written January 15th, 2022
Read more about visiting Rio de Janeiro and seeing the world by visiting Leftfade Trails Blog.
Affiliate Disclosure: Leftfade Trails contains affiliate links, so using services or products through these links supports the website, at no extra cost to the user. All links are to tested services and products designed to aid travelers on their journeys. Some links specifically connect to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate this website earns from qualifying purchases.
Ten years ago, I abandoned my military surplus store backpack for a Farpoint 40 Osprey Travel Pack. I’ve never replaced my bag since. Two years ago, I bought two more Osprey Backpacks for my younger siblings on their first tour outside the country. I have nothing but praise for Osprey Products.
