what martinikitty liked and disliked about rio

Lapa Steps (Selaron's Staircase) in Rio.

(Rio, Brazil).  I traveled to Rio in 2013 to visit friends who moved there from San Diego and to celebrate my birthday.  They had an amazing apartment in Ipanema, right across from the lake which was surrounded by jogging and bike trails and coconut vendors.   We were able to take lovely walks around the lake, but it was way too hot and humid to try to jog.

While in Rio, I couldn't help but feel as if I was in a country that was growing much too quickly at a pace that was overwhelming their local economy and infrastructure.  For example, the prices were surprisingly high (similar to New York or London), but the local economy and standard of living was nowhere near that level so it was difficult not to see and feel that discrepancy and tension everywhere.  It was also difficult not to notice the constant gridlock in traffic, the incomplete construction everywhere, the socioeconomic tensions, the labor protests, the lack of sufficient hotels and visitor services, and the prevalent crime.  While I normally don't expect locals to speak or understand english, I did sort of expect the staff at the high-end hotels, restaurants and bars to understand a little bit of english but it was a challenge everywhere - even the airport.  I kept finding myself thinking "how are they going to get ready for the upcoming Olympics and World Cup"?  But let's hope for the best!



Despite the issues I noted above, I'm still glad I visited.  There are lots of wonderful things about Rio.

My favorites are as follows:

Christ the Redeemer.

• amazing views - Rio is a rare city that is surrounded by mountains, jungles and bodies of water.  There are places throughout the city where you can see gorgeous views (e.g., at the Christ the Redeemer statue, Sugarloaf Mountain).
• beaches - While I usually prefer the blue, relaxing warm waters of the Caribbean, Rio has a very lively and fun beach scene.  The locals seem to treat the beach as an extension of their living rooms, hanging out with family and friends.  There are vendors everywhere who will rent  you chairs and umbrellas, and bring you refreshments - all for a fee, of course.  But it's a nice way to spend a day people watching, sunbathing and sipping on caipirinhas or coconut water. There's also a great sandwich place - Barraca de Uraguay near posto 9 - that I saw on one of Anthony Bourdain's shows and had to try.  (It was good!)

View of flavella from Ipanema Beach.

• fried balls - I can't say I loved the food in Rio.  I found the variety was limited.  But I did enjoy their bar snacks - fried balls of all sorts - fried cheese balls, fried shrimp & cheese balls, fried chicken & cheese balls, etc.  Admittedly, after a couple of days I had my fill of fried balls and could not eat any more.
• Restaurante Aconchego Carioca - This was probably my favorite restaurant in Rio which was a local restaurant serving authentic local fare.  It was in a bit of a shady area so I would go in a crowd or make sure you have reliable transportation back to your hotel.
• cocktails with a popsicle - The most amazing summer cocktail - it's essentially a caipirinha or other fruity/refreshing cocktail with a frozen popsicle stuck in it which serves the dual purpose of keeping the cocktail cool and flavoring the cocktail with an addition punch of flavor from the popsicle (usually coconut or pineapple). why isn't this amazing drink everywhere?
• caipirinha - Brazil's national cocktail, made of cachaca (sugar cane liquor), sugar and lime.  Super refreshing!  For an in-depth lesson in cachaca, check out the bar Academia da Cachaca and try their encyclopedic menu of cachacas.
• fruit - The fruit here reminded me of fruit in Taiwan - so juicy, fruit and so varied!  At one open market, there was a vendor who sold 12 varieties of bananas.  I was only able to try three or 4 and they were all delicious.  I also particularly enjoyed the papayas.
• Selaron's Steps in Lapa - A Chilean artist Escadaria Selaron spent years decorating these steps with tiles, ceramics and mirrors.  Quite a beautiful and interesting work of art, but be careful when visiting.  It is not a safe area and it was pretty obvious there were drug deals going down all around us, so go early in the day and don't wear or carry anything valuable.

While Rio was fun, there were also things I didn't like that much, including the following:

• food - As I noted above, there was not a lot of variety in the food we tried.  There seemed to be lots of fried starchy foods (potato salad with your french fries?) and meat - all under-seasoned.  For some reason, they don't seem to use black pepper or hot chile pepper in South America.  It's quite a mystery.  A friend had advised me to bring my own salt and pepper to Rio and I was wrong not to heed her wise advice.  And so I pass it on - if you visit Rio (or any other part of South America), bring your own seasonings.  In addition, they didn't have a very sophisticated cheese culture - often you were given a choice of "yellow" or "white" cheese and after trying it multiple times, I'm still not sure what they were supposed to be. 
• coffee - I had mistakenly imagined that coffee in Rio would be good since Brazil exports lots of coffee beans, but we were unable to find any good coffee in the city.  My friends who live there had been trying to find some good coffee for months but have resorted to having coffee shipped to them via amazon.com. 
• wine- Rio seemed to be more of a beer and sweet cocktail town.  I'm more of a wine and whiskey drinker.  After a few meals with sub-par wines, I started drinking mainly cocktails but everything was so sweet that it was difficult to have more than one.
• expensive - Rio was surprisingly expensive.  It felt even more expensive when the price did not ensure quality or value. 
• traffic - The traffic was horrifically bad.  It always felt like it took more than 30 minutes to get out of the Ipanema area to go anywhere, and the distance couldn't have been more than a mile or two.  The buses seemed to always been rushing around when there was room to drive, and yet often seemed late.  In one instance, a bus almost ran over a man crossing the street... I guess pedestrians do not have the right of way in Rio.
• safety concerns - I've traveled to many places in the world and some third world countries, but I've never felt unsafe like I did in Rio.  Whenever we left the nice neighborhoods or main tourist attractions, it felt sort of dangerous.  Nothing actually happened to me, but I felt wary, especially when the locals (as well as our own guides) kept cautioning us to be careful and not to go to certain places.  It didn't help that while we were there, a woman who worked for the U.S. embassy and was traveling through Brazil alone was found murdered in the Lapa district of Rio.  I would definitely recommend caution for anyone traveling to Brazil.   
• airport - For a major city, the international airport was quite lacking.   Perhaps it has changed due to the World Cup and Olympics, but when I was there last year, there were no food courts or duty-free shops or anything else really... just a couple of kiosks selling bad coffee and stale sandwiches.  It was basically like the airport when going to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.

Lagoa in Ipanema.

All in all, I had a good time but I didn't love Rio as much as sazy rock did on her 2007 visit to Rio.  This may be because Rio is more of a beer drinking, party/beach town and I am not that big of a party-er anymore and I don't like  beer.   I definitely do not regret visiting Rio, but I'm not sure I feel compelled to return anytime soon.  Yet, who knows?  I imagine with the pace of change occurring in Rio right now, it may be a totally different place in 5 years.