Cidade Maravilhosa

In April I was fortunate enough to return to Brazil for the first time since my mission. I went to a trade show in Rio de Janeiro, also known in Brazil as "A Cidade Maravilhosa," the Marvelous City. Besides answering questions at our booth, I had time to see the city and take some photos with a super lo-fi camera phone.


Rio is very different from the parts of Brazil I lived in--Manaus, Rio Branco, Porto Velho--but I have a feeling that 11 years have made a lot of differences as well. It seemed so clean and prosperous, as compared to what I experienced in the North.

It also seemed a lot safer than I anticipated. The only Brazilian who I talk to on a regular basis nowadays gave me a Rio safety tip: "Never ever go to Copacabana Beach!" Good advice, except that that's where my hotel was. However, I did not feel threatened at all. I did use my money belt, I avoided going out after dark, and I looked over my shoulder frequently. And it was worth the trouble.



These photos are an insult to how beautiful Copacabana is. The beach, the water, the mountains, the buildings, and the people all make it a wonderful experience.


Of course, Copacabana is more than a beach. It is also a neighborhood, maybe not the fanciest in Rio, but decent, busy, and a nice place to be. The photo above is a nice little corner store near the hotel that had great deals on bottled water, cookies, drinkable yogurt, and other Brazilian staples. (Most of the time I did not drink bottled water. The hotel and conference center were modern enough that the tap water was fine.)


I stayed at the Pestana Rio Atlântica, which I can highly recommend. The room was not fancy but adequate and had air conditioning. And the view from the rooftop pool is incredible. Unfortunately my room faced the city instead of the beach...you have to pay more than my employer pays in order to get an oceanside room. If you prefer a purely American hotel, there's a Marriott down the street.

But any decent hotel in Copacabana will have English speakers, which I did not really need. My Portuguese was pretty rusty on the first day, but I caught on and did pretty well for the rest of the week. I'm nowhere near as good as when I lived in Brazil, but I can get by with relative ease to get around town. Brazilians seem to appreciate the effort to speak their language, and they are typically patient and willing to speak slowly as needed. Now, dealing with technical language at the trade show was a different story. That was very difficult for me, but fortunately we had a Brazilian at our booth as our go-to guy and me as an able backup, with our two gringos on Alert 5. (One of our "gringos" is actually less gringo than me, having spent half his life in Latin America. But Spanish is of little use in Brazil.)

After the trade show ended on Friday, my flight did not leave until Saturday evening, so I had most of the day Saturday to see the city. I saved some money and had a different experience by taking the subway and bus instead of taxis that day, and it seemed very safe during daylight hours.


There is a little train that you can ride to the top of Corcovado, the mountain that is the home of O Cristo Redentor--Christ the Redeemer. The train ride itself is fairly scenic as it winds through the Atlantic tropical forest and up the mountain more than 2000 feet high:


At the top is the statue of the Savior:


This was an inspiring moment for me. After being away from my family for a week, this was a good spiritual boost to have a very large reminder of our Savior and all he has done for me. I have read that many people see this statue and think "Welcome." In this place, in this land where I was one of His representatives for a couple of years, the impression I got from the statue looking down at me was "Come Unto Me."

The statue sits on top of a pedestal that has a little chapel inside. I thought the trilingual signs saying "no photos of the inside of the chapel please" were sufficient, but most people did not. The Christ has the marks in his hands and feet. He also has a little heart carved on his robes, which I guess must be a Catholic thing.

The view from the top is wonderful:

This photo is to the east. In the distance is Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain).

This photo is to the southeast. Beyond the little mountains is Copacabana Beach, where my hotel was.

This photo is to the south. To the west of Copacabana is a lagoon and Ipanema Beach.

This is to the south as well and proves that I was there.

I also took photos of Maracaná, the world's most famous soccer stadium, but it was cloudy that way and the photos on my lo-fi loaner phone did not turn out.

I took the train back down the mountain and took a bus back to Largo do Machado, where there is a nice square:


Largo do Machado also has a subway station, and I took the subway and another bus to arrive at O Pão de Açúcar--Sugarloaf Mountain. I took the Bondinho (tram) to the top of Morro da Urca and then to the top of the Sugarloaf, 1300 feet high, where the view is stunning. The view from the Morro da Urca isn't bad either:

That's Botafogo Beach, to the northwest, as well as a helipad.

This is looking down one side of the Morro da Urca. The white spot on the side of the hill is a rock climber.

Then I took tram #2 to the top of the Sugarloaf:

In this one, you can see the Cristo Redentor in the upper right portion of the photo.

There's Copacabana Beach.

The Pão de Açúcar has some nice walking trails with beautiful vegetation and lots of shade. I took advantage of some peace and quiet, and I even found places on the trails where I could neither see nor hear anyone else. It was very nice.

Soon it was time to take the trams down and go pick up my stuff at the hotel in Copacabana and then go to the airport, for the short flight to São Paulo and then the long flight home. What a nice week this was, but how wonderful to return to my family.

What else...the heavy traffic surprised me. They have a real traffic problem in Rio (worse than here by far) and the subway is not extensive enough. If you go to a convention at Riocentro, realize that it is a long taxi ride from Copacabana, so plan for an hour or more to be safe. And it will set you back R$77 (about $35) for a fixed-price taxi, R$50-60 for a yellow taxi...There are lots of good restaurants in Copacabana, and many of them have all kinds of delicious food and menus many pages long. There wasn't a ton of Brazilian food in that area, but there was a good churrascaria and an Amazonian restaurant with weird food unlike anything I saw in Amazônia...Most places take Visa and Mastercard. I tried lots of ATMs before I found one that would take my Visa debit card. The one that worked was a Citibank ATM...AAA in the U.S. is a great place to get an inconspicuous money belt. You don't have to be a member, but you get a discount if you are...That's all the random tidbits I have.

I had a great time in Rio de Janeiro, and I'd like to go back again someday.