Rio airport has the vague inklings of Bombay airportesque "was state-of-art once upon a time" look. I was the curiosity as the only Indian face and it felt strange to be the recipient of curious gazes. No gun-toting federales agents - pleasant enough border security. They were carting away the info kiosks of Rio+20, arriving as I did a week after Manmohan. The weather was in the 70's, very pleasant and the drive through the favelas, passing a few tunnels bored through hills, smack in the midst of a modern urban landscape, we reached the equivalent of old-school sindhi/gujaratii enclaves (?) of Marine Drive - Leblon and Ipanema. The beaches at these places attract some of the most lithe and tanned bodies of Rio, so I was definitely in the right place.

My hotel was two blocks from the Ipanema beach Posto 9 and had the functional, catering-to-beachgoers chic right on an arterial road - Visconde Piraja. Tons of shopping options nearby - mostly lingerie and shoes and Brazilian women's freedom index must be pretty high. Not many English speakers - they do passable third-language competency when they do speak English. My hosts were mentioning that usual k-12 education is all private schools (as expected the American school charges 5K Reals per month, citi gave me 2 reals for every dollar) and the prestigious thing to do for college is to go to one of the public universities. The one in Sao Paulo is pretty famous. Most bright kids do 8 years or more of extra school for English after their usual daily 5 hours of regular schooling.

The locals were equally surprised that there always seem to be bikinis on the beach, wondering how they manage to sunbathe seemingly forever. Went to the beach a few times and tried a bite of this popcorn like packets they sell on beach - its called Globo and should be avoided like plague if you hate eggy smell. But it got me intros to the mother-daughter pair sitting nearby who spoke good english.

Will be doing a touristy day trip covering Christo Redonto (christ the redeemer), sugarloaf hill etc. over the weekend.

Restaurant recommendations:

1. Market restaurant http://www.marketipanema.com.br/english/index.html
The quinoa risotto was big on quantity but edible for a decent dinner. Took a sip of the Brazilian Caipiras which is generally catching on stateside - went down with a gush of warmth down the throat, the lime taste was strong.

2. Alessandro & Frederico http://www.alessandroefrederico.com.br/home1024.html
Played safe with penne with pomodoro and a key lime pie dessert.

3. the new happening place is the Lagoon http://www.lagoon.com.br/
Olympic water sports planned at this place - there are four restaurants and the seating in balcony overlooking the water was filled to capacity. The best ravioli money could buy in Rio.

Notes: In restaurants if you want the assorted bread basket up front, you need to "order" it..they charge you for it. The tip/service charge is automatically added to the bill and is usually 10%.

One more thing: Did I say the girls were beautiful? Very athletic and prove conclusively the superiority of a fully protein-rich diet.

atcg wrote:Rio airport has the vague inklings of Bombay airportesque "was state-of-art once upon a time" look. I was the curiosity as the only Indian face and it felt strange to be the recipient of curious gazes. No gun-toting federales agents - pleasant enough border security. They were carting away the info kiosks of Rio+20, arriving as I did a week after Manmohan. The weather was in the 70's, very pleasant and the drive through the favelas, passing a few tunnels bored through hills, smack in the midst of a modern urban landscape, we reached the equivalent of old-school sindhi/gujaratii enclaves (?) of Marine Drive - Leblon and Ipanema. The beaches at these places attract some of the most lithe and tanned bodies of Rio, so I was definitely in the right place.

My hotel was two blocks from the Ipanema beach Posto 9 and had the functional, catering-to-beachgoers chic right on an arterial road - Visconde Piraja. Tons of shopping options nearby - mostly lingerie and shoes and Brazilian women's freedom index must be pretty high. Not many English speakers - they do passable third-language competency when they do speak English. My hosts were mentioning that usual k-12 education is all private schools (as expected the American school charges 5K Reals per month, citi gave me 2 reals for every dollar) and the prestigious thing to do for college is to go to one of the public universities. The one in Sao Paulo is pretty famous. Most bright kids do 8 years or more of extra school for English after their usual daily 5 hours of regular schooling.

The locals were equally surprised that there always seem to be bikinis on the beach, wondering how they manage to sunbathe seemingly forever. Went to the beach a few times and tried a bite of this popcorn like packets they sell on beach - its called Globo and should be avoided like plague if you hate eggy smell. But it got me intros to the mother-daughter pair sitting nearby who spoke good english.

Will be doing a touristy day trip covering Christo Redonto (christ the redeemer), sugarloaf hill etc. over the weekend.

Restaurant recommendations:

1. Market restaurant http://www.marketipanema.com.br/english/index.html
The quinoa risotto was big on quantity but edible for a decent dinner. Took a sip of the Brazilian Caipiras which is generally catching on stateside - went down with a gush of warmth down the throat, the lime taste was strong.

2. Alessandro & Frederico http://www.alessandroefrederico.com.br/home1024.html
Played safe with penne with pomodoro and a key lime pie dessert.

3. the new happening place is the Lagoon http://www.lagoon.com.br/
Olympic water sports planned at this place - there are four restaurants and the seating in balcony overlooking the water was filled to capacity. The best ravioli money could buy in Rio.

Notes: In restaurants if you want the assorted bread basket up front, you need to "order" it..they charge you for it. The tip/service charge is automatically added to the bill and is usually 10%.

One more thing: Did I say the girls were beautiful? Very athletic and prove conclusively the superiority of a fully protein-rich diet.

>>>>Now tell us how you really feel. My brother used to like it, but he also liked Bombay. Keep us posted. Have never been to latin America (not counting mexico, that is), but rio is definitely on the to-do list.

Given that my travel partner was a married gay man, I think we got pretty much the coolest tips on things to do and see here. He did say though that Buenos Aires was his favorite - with european sensibilities to the place/culture-wise etc.

As I sit in the lounge, I look back on the past week with a nice level of satisfaction. I made new friends, including a young Indian couple searching for 'Indian' connections and some locals. I did the pilgrimage to the statue of Christ, the redeemer which our efficient tour guide explained was amongst the new wonders of the world. It felt a bit like going to Velankanni on the coast of TN. Sincere tourists looking in awe at the massive sculpture of Christ with his arms spread wide - symbolically representing a cross, love and grace. The vantage point where the statue is located is probably the highest and it gives beautiful postcard views of the city, its beaches and the sugarloaf hill.

We had lunch at a churascarria where food is kept NY style and its an all-you-can eat affair with great veggie options. Wish I had found these places sooner instead of sticking to white-linen eateries. Spent more time at the Ipanema beach which had the highest density, being weekend.

Two thoughts as i bid Rio goodbye:

1. If you choose to worship beauty, it will consume you. Do a search on illegal abortions in Brasil and read up the '93 stats on use of ulcer-treating drug as inducements for a more fuller curettage at hospitals. Catholics are funny that way.
2. Football is a religion - the best chance for a kid from the favellas to make it big is to excel in the sport. People hang up their favorite team's shirts on bedroom windows.