Centro Rio and Night Party Area

Kimberly sitting on brightly coloured, tiled stairs

Meeting for our Walking Tour

A white monastery taken from the viewpoint below

This morning it was overcast, rainy, sunny, overcast, sunny….We take an Uber to the downtown Centro area to meet our walking tour.

It is the perfect temperature for walking. The Centro area is fairly quiet because it is Saturday. As the offices are all closed many of the stores also close. Our tour with Free Walker Tours starts in Carioca Square. “Cariocas” is what the residents of Rio call themselves. When the indigenous people saw the Portuguese colonizers start to build homes painted white they called the settlers “kari” (white) “oka” (house) people.

A nearby kiosk is playing 70s and 80s music. A man in front of the kiosk with a cigarette dangling out of his mouth is totally caught up in the music and is dancing away. He seems totally happy. I don’t know if he is high on life or something else. Here is a video of the square.

Centro Tour

An ornate opera house similar to the Paris Opera with a girl in a gown standing in front

A beige palace with large pillars and a dome on top with a big statue of a man in front The tour goes through a lot of the history (especially Portuguese background) of the buildings we see.

There is a lot of beautiful architecture in the area…churches, palaces, government buildings to name a few.
Old and narrow three story building with three large doors on the bottom a tall narrow beige church
Some buildings need to be restored but are still beautiful.

There is an antique market in one of the squares.

a tall grey cathedral that looks like an ancient mayan temple We check out Cinelandia, a square surrounded by the beautiful Municipal Theatre which was modeled after the Paris Opera House and the National Museum (currently under renovation).

They even imported a non-native bird to Rio to make it seem more like Paris… big mistake as the bird they brought was the pigeon and it has no natural predator here.

We see Rio’s new cathedral (built between 1964-79) which looks more like a Mayan Temple.

Selaron Steps

man standing on brightly coloured tiled stairs Brightly coloured and tiled high stairs

The tour ends at the famous tiled Selaron Steps in Lapa which lead up into the Santa Teresa neighbourhood. In 1990 a Chilean artist, Jorge Selaron, started placing blue, green and yellow tiles on the stairs which ran past his house and red tiles on the sides. He did this until he was found dead on these same steps in 2013. They are truly spectacular. However it is pretty crowded today.

We have lunch in a very popular restaurant located at the bottom of the Selaron stairs. The table beside us has a number of Brazilians that are talking (yelling) and laughing so loudly that John and I can’t hear each other.

Selaron Tile

Copacabana and Arpoador

a man and a woman with a beach in the background

After checking out the stairs, we catch a cab to our apartment, put on our bathing suits and head to Copacabana Beach…the tide is in so there is very little beach available so we just walk awhile in the waves.

We head to Arpoador Rock to watch the sunset…and then a big black cloud rolls in around the mountain that the sun is to set behind. No problem, I am totally mesmerized by the large flock of frigate birds in front of me, dipping and diving into the waves in hopes of catching supper. Click here for a quick video.

Laba: Rio’s Party Central

lots of people outside eating on a street

After a break at the apartment, we dress up a bit and Uber to the Lapa neighbourhood which is considered the party central area of Rio. Our guide today told us that at night don’t go beyond the old aqueduct area that borders the neighbourhood. I had also read that this is the area where the largest number of tourists get pick pocketed.

We are dropped off just inside the aqueduct but John wants to get a picture of the aqueduct at night. There are lots of people and police around but a man suggests to not take photos. A man comes up to him and tells him to put away his phone and I start repeating same. John does not see what the problem is given its a well lit area, the number of people walking around and the fact that he is making sure that nobody is nearby for the 1 second it takes for a photo. He thinks I’m paranoid seeing robbers behind every lamp post…(can you tell that John did some editing to this paragraph?)

The streets are packed with restaurant and bar after restaurant and bar…with patrons spilling out onto the sidewalks and road.

We can’t get a table at the first place we choose but manage to at the second. This is prime people watching territory.

John orders a caparihna and I a beer. My beer is humongous (600ml) and costs $2 CAD. We order a pizza. I’m starting to get sick of pizza but it was the only thing on the menu that we understood.

We notice that one couple beside us has eight empties of the large beers and another couple has six. Hmmm. No wonder people get pick pocketed.
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a woman in a crowded street restaurant with a very large beer bottle in her hand Most people sitting around us have tattoos. Women’s clothing is generally pretty low cut and form fitting.

A lady with bright yellow hair, many tattoos on her body and face as well as studs on her face shows up with three heavily tattooed men…one of which has three female hygienic pads attached to the side of his face with surgical tape. Not sure if they are doubling as bandages for some facial injuries or if he is making a fashion statement. They are seated at the table behind me.

The next table over has a teenager, a grandmother and grandpa who is wearing a Hawaiian shirt with a black leather vest over top.

John helps me finish my beer and we grab a cab back to the apartment.