Walking Rio

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Photo: Rio tourism

Rio is visually a strange place to visit. Looking at the city from above,  you see the deep blue ocean, the endless strings of golden beaches and the multicolored favelas clinging to the steep foothills of lush, jungle-clad mountains.

Seen from above, Rio is for sure a Cidade Maravilhosa, the most marvellous city.

But when we came closer and actually walked the streets, we started feeling somewhat disappointed.


A not so tall girl on Ipanema...

The areas next to our own - Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana - are (just behind the fabled, bustling seafronts) mostly streets  with quite drab buildings and not that interesting shops. Just some areas which seem a bit faded since their heyday in the 1950ties.

 Whenever we returned to Vidigal, we confirmed each other: This favela has the excitement, the sexiness and the samba, which we didn't find in the neighboring residential areas.

 

After a couple of weeks, we began venturing further out into the city, and now we discovered the much more exciting areas of Centro and  Lapa, with  lots of beautiful colonial and neoclassical architecture, with tree lined avenues and little-known bars hidden down ancient alleyways.

We explored Gloria - a neighbourhood between Lapa and Centro - where dilapidated, quite rundown townhouses still maintain an architectural beauty as of old Paris.

The more we walked, the more excited we became.



We discovered the magical, bohemian bairro of Santa Teresa on top of a  hill. Here the steep, labyrinthine, cobbled  streets and staircases lead up to this splendid view of the vast Guanabara bay.


We explored the Urca, a small, wealthy neighborhood right at the foot of Sugarleaf mountain.
With its shady streets and interesting art deco, faux Spanish colonial style and mock Tudor houses,  it looks like a small village that no one expects to find in a city as lively as Rio


Photo: Rio tourism

We strolled along the bay of Botafogo with its many giant sailboats moored at the Rio Yacht Club  and we walked through the  urban middle class residential neighborhoods of Flamengo with its museums and the vast Flamengo park created by the fabled Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.


We walked and we walked - and even after more than a month, we still have to go west to see the affluent Barra da Tijuca and beyond. We also have to go further north, to Zona Norte, where we, amidst vast poor neighborhoods, are told  we'll find the world’s largest urban forest, some bustling markets and some of Rio’s best night life.

So may places yet to explore!

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