Street art and other graffiti

I am enjoying an unexpected trip back into Rio.  Things have settled down, many tasks checked off the list.  But unable to resolve a couple issues with my bank, issues unfortunately of my own making, through an attorney and a friend trying to help; I had to fly down and spend a few days getting things straightened out.  Paulo and Lenira kindly are allowing me to stay with them for the week.  I have been up here to their apartment a few times for dinner but this is the first time I have explored their neighborhood on foot. 
The Laranjeiras barrio has the residence of the Governor of the Rio de Janeiro State  and his ‘office’ .  As in the rest of Rio, there is a mixture of grand beauty and despair.  From up here in the highest part it is a 15 minute walk down to the Lago Machado metro station and past that by about 5 minutes is a crossover to the aterro and its path along the bay.  Today I walked a total of 2 hours, getting down to the path, walking nearly to the downtown airport and then back up to the apartment.  It was a good exercise given that my new camera’s battery gave out after about one hour and then I maintained a good clip on the return.   
I didn’t get my photos downloaded to the computer soon enough to write for the FSO  but I have been on the lookout for some very special graffiti and if that failed some public art that is so prevalent in Rio while I have been walking around.  I really did intend to participate this last week, but for now I have to be content with showing you just a few of the shots from this part of Rio.
 
 

Now knowing this area better I would recommend staying here versus Ipanema (out of this world expensive) or Copacabana (so totally dirty).  There is easy access to several metro stations, lots of little bars and restaurants, smaller hotels.  a great beach and it is very central to both the central museums, and the Christ and Sugar Loaf.  It is great to be home.
 

high above Rio….

just about as high as you can get without flying – everyone who visits Rio tries to visit at least once and looking up is what they do.

  

One of my favorite things to do in Rio is to show visitors.  This trip up last weekend  – high above the city was right at dusk.  So we saw the lights come on, both those highlighting The Christ and way below us in the city.

Below us is the Sugar Loaf and the barrio of Botafogo.  See the shadow of The Christ on the water as the sun sets.  Across the bay, Niteroi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lights are coming on all around the Lagoa.  With the jockey club on the right and Ipanema crowded against the sea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around on the other side, central, the Rio-Niteroi bridge showing in the fading light and lights from the ships waiting to load and unload their cargos flash in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally full dark arrives, time to make our way back to Ipanema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last glance over our shoulder – once again looking up because one look is never enough.

 

Walking Rio Centro -

Last week while in Rio Camillo and I decided to attempt a visit to the Navy History Museum.  This is like the 3rd time that we set off to walk through this museum and once again we had a great time but never found the museum. 

[I tried inserting an interactive map from Google Earth but the map itself wouldn’t insert in Windows Live Writer, only the address – so opted for a map that you can click and see larger that has 6 markers pointing to what I’ve written about before, what we saw this walk and one showing the subway station were we began our walk and the farthest point out. ]

We caught the subway in Ipanema at the General Osorio station and exited at the Carioca Station (little pink marker lower left corner) in the downtown area.   This trip took about 15 minutes, no parking issues and the streets downtown were quiet.  We were able to cut across the main streets and walk across the parks without moving around beggars or illegal kiosks selling all sorts of junk that clog this area during the work week. 

This map helps you see how close the small airport (beginning of runway lower right corner), the ferry port, Navy cultural center and Ilha Fiscal are to each other and their relationship to this weekend’s walk.  From the ferry port you can get to both Niteroi and to Paqueta. and from the Navy Cultural Center to the Ilha Fiscal.  When we visited Fiscal Island last month one of the Navy guards pointed to a building across / the other side of the freeway and said, ‘that is the Navy Museum.’  only he said it in Portuguese and Camillo translated to me because as usual I didn’t understand what he said and, the bottom line, the building we thought he was pointing out was not the Museum.  After playing with Google Earth to get a map for you, I realized that the museum is across from the ferry port not the cultural center – But – the whole area is an outdoor museum of Rio’s history and well worth exploring. 

I will try to insert photos in this order – streets of old houses now restaurants and businesses but nicely restored.  Random old churches in which this time around we did not go into but are now on my list.  Universidade Cândido Mendes which I am dying to go inside.  The Paço Imperial, and the Centro Cultural Correios Rio de Janeiro which we went into and are FANTASTIC.  [Please note the hyperlinks which give you addresses and other information.]   

Photos in order.

       

       

   

      

    

Great show of art inside both The Paço Imperial, and The Centro Cultural Correios Rio de Janeiro

    

Ginger’s walk on the Moon (3rd floor Centro cultural

We walked around for over 3 hours plus had a decent lunch in one of the antique buildings, then walked back to the same subway station and home again.  Even with cloudy skies - all in all a great day. 

Rio de Janeiro the “Cidade Maravilhosa”

I have spent so many hours lately cleaning out old files and trying to make my computer work like it should.  It died anyway and had to be replaced.  I guess I could think, if I were an optimist, that all things happen for a reason.  So maybe the reason here was for me to find this poem, written 4 or 5 years ago.  Never finished.  Now I played with it a bit.  Ask and received advice from one of my blogger pals.  Camillo was also ask to read it and give an opinion – his note, “ Publish it someplace”  and “there used to be a samba with the same theme, some of the same wording”,  I promise I never heard it.  If anyone knows the name of the samba let me know, I’d love to hear it. 

So here it goes, a rare occurrence, a poem published.

“Cidade Maravilhosa”

 

And the Lord laid his hands upon the earth saying,               

 “Let this land be blessed.”

 

The rock shall rise up from and of the sea in glorious splendor

 and the sand; produced by the oceans, protecting the soil

as it descends shall touch this land

with soft gentle colors of brown and white.

.

The ocean waves shall be of many shades of blue,

indigo teal and sea foam green,

washing the sands in constant rhythm.

 

And so it was said.  And so it was.

 

And the Lord created man in his image,

saying, “Go out upon this earth and multiply.”

 

So the people came,                                    

lured by the glorious splendor,

arriving by sea from distant lands

from the jungles and the mountains.

And so they came in great numbers

creating by their own name:

the Cidade Maravilhosa.

 

As commanded,  multiplying their numbers

crowding this abundant land with houses

precariously balanced atop the rock,

and tall buildings linked one by one

connected by roads twisted crisscrossed

and filled with noise,

drowning the sounds of the sea,

filling the land, the rivers and the oceans

with signs of their excesses.

 

And so it was said. And so it was.

And the Lord despaired.

Carol’s Brasil: part 111

Finally the promised final segment.

I don’t have a clear memory of when I first began to talk to Carolina, but it must have been in early 2009.  She stopped by ‘flowers’ and left a comment, adding her memories of Brasil as it tied into my post. Then I went by her blog (click link above) and began to enjoy her posts about experiencing Brasil as a peace corps volunteer in the late 60s.  It didn’t take long and we had exchanged personal information and began to email about her hopes of returning here for a visit.   She made plans, they were canceled.  She made more plans and once again they were canceled.  Until she contacted me back in May of this year with her final plan, I didn’t really believe she would ever come.  And, unlike her first couple of plans, this time she would include a stop in Rio.   I offered her a sofa to sleep on and she accepted – finally my first blog related friend was coming to visit. 

Back and forth, back and forth the emails flew.  She was listing all the things she wanted to do.  I was trying to give her input without encouraging or discouraging activities on her list.  I did think from the beginning that the list was way too long but it was her trip and her energy; her four days here would be packed.  She mentioned right from the beginning that she wanted to hang-glide.  And I considered joining her, but visions of actually running across a mountain top and jumping into clear blue skies put that notion right out of my mind.  She wanted to do it, had wanted to for years, and I thought she should give it a try.   

Starting early on Saturday morning Carol began making contact with different ‘hang-glide captains”.  What do you call these guys that take you up and down anyway?   She narrowed the list to 2 possible, asking questions like how much, when, how long, do they provide a video, and do they pick up and deliver?   Then once the priority plans were made we decided on our weekend activities and that she would call them on Sunday night for a Monday  fly time.  On Sunday it was, ‘call tomorrow at 9:00’.  On Monday at 9:00 it was, ‘the wind is blowing the wrong direction, call at 3’.  At 3 it was ‘call at 9’ on Tuesday, and on Tuesday it was a repeat of Monday.  And then she was out of time. 

Learned a couple of things;  there is a wrong direction for the wind to be blowing, and that if the wind was right on Saturday or Sunday we should have made the hang-gliding a priority – course we only knew about number one after Saturday and Sunday were over...... So I guess we only learned one thing – that is to ask about wind direction.  

I think, no I hope that Carol enjoyed her days in Rio – If going by my photos of the weekend are any gage, even leaving out the lost hang-gliding, and the museum workers’ strike, and that the Parque da Catacumba is closed on Mondays, we still managed Niteroi, a walk through the Hippy Square on Sunday, bought vegies at the fruit/vegetable street market on Monday, walked partially around the Lagoa at sunset, she walked the beach once while I napped, she shopped in and out of the Ipanema gallerias while I napped (yes I nap routinely), we went to one nice restaurant for dinner, and last but not least, we had a great stroll through the botanical gardens.  And with all of this said I just have to add, “I can’t wait until she returns so we can finish off her list.”

 

 

Carol’s Brasil: part 11

I know that everyone of you has experienced some disruption of plans during a vacation.  We travel often, and over the years have sat on the tarmac during an air traffic controllers’ strike, a massive snow storm in Paris kept us in Paris 13 hours with the requisite lost luggage, a thunderstorm in Dallas that got us rerouted to Oklahoma city and who wants to go to Oklahoma city, a church in Tuscany that was closed for maintenance and the exterior was shrouded in orange mesh, and these are just a few examples spread out of a twenty year history.   But when on vacation what can you do?  You adjust and enjoy. 

I often wake, here in Rio, and immediately look out the window, glimpsing a very small patch of mountain right behind the Christ.  How this mountain looks tells me what to expect of the weather that day; clear crisp line between mountain and blue sky says good weather all day, cloud sitting on the ridge between sky and mountain say, “oops rain today and soon.”   My mind goes to the poor tourist that held back on the drive up to the Christ and today is their last day in Rio.  Even if they go up, they wont see anything, neither the Christ nor the spectacular 360* view of the city.   Unexpected things just happen.

Now our plan with Carol looked good on Friday when setting it in motion but by Sunday morning we knew we would have to ‘adjust and enjoy’.   Just to remind you her plan was –

“Our short list: she wanted to jump off the mountain in Sao Conrado () – attached to a hang glider of course, see the Niemeyer Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi, see Santa Teresa, and if possible visit the botanical gardens. We decided to start with Niteroi on Saturday and Santa Teresa on Sunday so Camillo could join us, these would include trips on the subway, a Barco. lunch in a fish place and any side-shows we might run across. She would hang glide on Monday and Tuesday we would stay closer to Ipanema so she wouldn’t be totally worn out to travel back to the USA. The plan was good.”

The plan for seeing Santa Teresa included going to Lapa and taking the tram (bondinho) to this charming little bit of Rio history, visiting the Museu da Chácara do Céu, which is one of our favorite places to take visitors and we would lunch in one of the many small family owned restaurants overlooking Centro Rio.  On Sunday, we woke to bright, clear skies and the news of the tram accident on Saturday.  The tram had turned over on its trip back down to Lapa – not yet knowing how bad the accident was we decided to adjust the plan bypassing Lapa and go to Santa Teresa by taxi.  The ‘motorista’ was full of information – the main street into Santa Teresa was still closed for the investigation, six locals and tourist had died, 54 were injured.  A sobering moment, how close we had come to being in the middle of this accident, the difference between choosing Niteroi or Santa Teresa on Saturday. 

And also per the taxi driver....  all the Museum workers were on strike – museums were closed for the day all over the city but he was willing to try and get us up to the museum, the grounds should be open if not the museum itself.    They weren’t.  Now what?  Camillo and the taxi driver decided on the Naval yards..... okay if you have young boys this is option is great – there is an old helicopter, a submarine, an old frigate and the boat of the king from the 1700s.  For us, we were all hungry. Lets go back to Ipanema for lunch.

Later the final story.