Day 35 – Rio de Janeiro – A Whirlwind City Tour!
We ventured off to the city without any Cariocan’s on Thursday (with trepidation from them). After another early morning beach visit (swim for D&M, walk for Monty), we took the subway to the city while Luisa, Liana and Sylvie went to their pilates class. We exited near the cathedral and found it with little challenge. In true Brazilian style, it is exotic and unique; almost like a pyramid. The partner bell tower is equally unique. The cathedral is surprisingly large at the base so it seats many people – 5,000 with standing capacity of 20,000.
After the cathedral we walked around and noticed there were many people gathering at the city centre. Police were everywhere, as well as news reporters and TV cameras. Helicopters were circling overhead monitoring the crowds. We found out later that it was a mass demonstration because of the murder by police of a very popular black, favela born, bisexual, intelligent political woman. She had been speaking at an event and was chased for 4 km thru Rio for 15 min by police before being shot 5 times in the head, and her driver was killed also. The news was full of the event for the rest of our stay in Brazil – tragic story.
Downtown Rio is a mix of new and old architecture with many interesting buildings. There are views of the favelas all around. Nearby was the bibliotheque, but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. We found a local popular self serve lunch spot. I took a risk and had salad (no after effects!) Then off to the Museum of Modern Art – another modern building which was worthy of holding modern art!
There were several interesting pieces, including:
– photo exhibit of the building of Brasilia in the 1950’s
– early photos of Rio including the building of the Copacabana tunnel
– an exhibit by an artist who painted around nude model bodies in the 60’s
– a video ‘art’ of a tractor turning in a circle and creating a ring / circle with the scoop – 2 of them at different speeds (quite bizarre)
– and a whole section we could not figure out how to get to!
Back home by taxi by which time it was stinking hot – 46 we think we heard??? Another stop off for some more cachaca, and Derek & Marketa headed for an evening swim at Ipanema in the dark (had folks a bit nervous!).
I had promised to make waffles with fresh strawberries – so that was our late dinner before packing up for the farm stay starting on Friday. We also made reservations (finally) for our Ihla Grande stay for Mon & Tues nights (still need to firm up the trip there and back…but that’s for another day)
