Patricia

AUSTRALIA


Joined June 29th 2007

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Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro

June 30th 2009 12:31
Just over the hill from Copacabana, at Ipanema, the broad golden sands, the rolling waves, the beach volleyball nets, the black and white wave patterned pavements, the kiosks on the promenade, the lifeguard stations, the tent cafes, the deckchairs, the sun umbrellas, the seaside luxury apartments and the avenues of palm trees continue. So does the society of sunseekers, surfers, joggers, volleyballers, buyers and sellers. It’s the same coastline and the same beach culture.

But for all that, Ipanema is quite a different place. It was a chic, rather exclusive and relatively quiet beachside suburb until Vinicius de Morais wrote his legendary song, The Girl from Ipanema, and made it the Bossa Nova capital of Rio and the world.

La Garota di Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro
Inside La Garota da Ipanema


The street where, each day, the girl from Ipanema took her walk to sea is now Rua Vinicius de Morais. The café where Vinicius watched, sighed and purportedly penned the song is now a shrine. Its original name has long been forgotten. Today, it’s Garota da Ipanema. The lyrics and music are inscribed on the wall. Nearby is a framed newspaper article showing the once “young and lovely” garota, as a middle-aged aspirant for the local council. The café teems with tourists. But it’s still clearly a neighbourhood haunt, where locals meet or wander casually through, often in bikinis and speedos, on their walk to the sea. Just up the road from the cafe is the Vinicius show bar, one of Rio's most famous clubs, also known as "the Bossa Nova Temple"

Although Vinicius’ girl from Ipanema has grown old, her tall and tanned “grand-daughters” stroll down the streets of Ipanema to the sea in their hundreds. So do their lovely brothers. Over the years Posto 9 or Lifeguard Station 9 has become the meeting place for Rio’s gay community. A rainbow flag flies nearby and at holiday and festival times, like Carnaval, this spot on the sands of Ipanema becomes a gay (in both senses of the word) international village.

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Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro

June 18th 2009 00:35
If the statue of Cristo Redentor represents Brazil’s conservative Catholic soul then Copacabana beach represents its totally unabashed body. Its wide golden sands are domain of the bronzed, the bold, the beautiful and the not quite so beautiful, in bikinis that are barely there.

Copacabana Beach at sunset
Copacabana Beach at sunset


The body beautiful, and even not so beautiful, is high maintenance and from dawn and dusk, thousands of Carioca (people of Rio) jog, bike and skate along the pavements of Copacabana. Thousands of others tan, or belt volleyballs over nets on the sands. Some swim and surf the waves.


Copacabana Beach at sunset
Copacabana Beach at sunset


On the weekend Copacabana is a city of beach umbrellas and deck chairs. Business booms in tent cafes and chairside peddlars ply everything from ice-creams to colouring books. For millions, locals and tourists alike, the year begins and ends at Copacabana, with one of the world’s greatest New Year parties. Fabulous fireworks light the sky at midnight and big name bands play through the night. The beach police, in runners shorts and caps, keep Copacabana safe at all times, doubly so at New Year.

The Copacabana palace Hotel
The Copacabana Palace Hotel


But Copacabana is more than just the stretch of sand that runs from Posto Dois or Lifeguard Tower Two to Posts Seis. At either end of the beach are two historical forts. At the north end Fort Duque de Caxias, was built in 1779 by the Portuguese colonists. Fort Copacabana, at the south end, was built in 1914 and went down in Brazilian history in 1922 when 18 officers (Os 18 do Fort) mutinied. Today, a giant ferris wheel turns above the old fort building which houses an army museum and the Café do Fort, an institution among Rio Cafes.

The fort looks back across the beach to the promenade. Here is one of Copacabana’s most striking features and one that has come to symbolise the beach, the black and white mosaic pavements in the pattern of stylised waves.

At the north end of the promenade a Feira Hippy, or hippy market, does a roaring trade in crafts, art, food and souvenirs, including pareos, or sarongs, printed with the famous Copacabana wave pattern. Apartment buildings, restaurants, clubs, bars and hotels line the rest of the promenade. Star among them is the stunning Copacobana Palace, an Art Deco icon built in 1923. Lesser and more derelict sisters of the same genre lean at her shoulders. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made their dancing debut at the Copacabana palace in the film Flying Down to Rio. Today, the red carpet still rolls out for celebrities, royalty and the fabulously rich.

But while there is extreme wealth in Copacabana, there is also extreme poverty. While there are streets lined with opulent apartments and de luxe hotels like the Copacabana palace, there are also favelas or shanty towns like Morro dos Cabritos, Pavão-Pavãozinho, Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia Leme. High walls and heavy security defend the former from the latter. In this, Copacabana mirrors Rio and even Brazil.

The beach, however, is another country, open, boundless and free. Copacabana is just the beginning of miles of glorious coast and many more stunning beaches.
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O Cristo Redentor, Rio de Janeiro

June 2nd 2009 03:44
He stands at the summit of Corcovado, the highest point of Rio’s jagged skyline, with his head against the sky, the lush green of the forest under his heel, the sprawling city at his feet and the Atlantic Ocean sweeping away into infinity beneath his outstretched arms.

O Cristo Redentor, Rio de Janeiro
Cristo


He is Cristo Redentor, the largest art deco statue ever built, the picture postcard image of Rio, the symbol of Catholic Brazil and one of the seven man-made wonders of the world.

Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro
The view from Corcovado


The Catholic Circle of Rio proposed the idea of a national monument, in the form of a statue of Christ, in 1921. 2,330 foot Corcovado seemed an obvious and auspicious site. The first stone was laid in 1922 and in 1923, a national fundraising programme, Semana do Monumento, (Monument week) raised the $250,000 for construction. The statue was designed by Carlos Oswald. Its reinforced concrete core was constructed by engineer Heitor da Silva Costa and its soapstone outer layer was sculpted by the French sculptor Paul Landowski. When statue was inaugurated, on October 12, 1931 the Cardinal of Brazil, Cardinal Leme consecrated the Brazilian nation “to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, acknowledging him always as its Lord and King”.

Cristo stands 38 metres tall on its pedestal. Its arm span is 30 metres wide and it weighs 635 tonnes. On the statue's 75th anniversary, the Archbishop of Rio consecrated the chapel of Nossa Senhora Aparecida (the patron Saint of Brazil) in the pedestal of the chapel. Baptisms and weddings are held here and many of the visitors to Cristo pause for a moment of prayer. Dress codes apply, so leave the bikinis and the speedos on the beach. Cover the midriff and the chest.

Tijuca Forest, Rio de Janeiro
Plants on Corcovado


The trip up to Cristo on the Corvado Railway from Cosme Velho, the old town, through the Tijuca forest is an experience in itself. Built in 1884, the train is vintage Rio and the first electric railway in Brazil. It rattles straight up the mountainside at an alarming angle. Looking forward, branches of Brazilian rosewood and cedars tumble towards you. Through the open windows of the train you can smell the cinnamon trees, see the butterflies and feel the soft, cool air of the forest. Looking back, if you can bear the vertiginous sensation, you can see the city fall away into a pattern of rooftops.

There are 220 steps from the train to the statue and it’s worth walking them rather than sailing straight up the escalator to the foot of the statue. The stairs give a different vista both of the city and of Cristo. There’s a sense of tanticipation and a feel of the pilgrimmage, with relics (souvenir shop!) and sustenance (café!) en route. Then the breathless, slightly light-headed state on arrival adds to the (literally!) awesome moment.

Standing in Cristo’s mighty shadow, dazzled by the shaft of sunlight that falls across his shoulder, with the clouds turning above me, the treetops of Tijuca swaying at my shoulder, the shining white towers of Rio below and the infinite Atlantic surging beyond them, I was lost for words. When I found them they were words like grandeur, majesty and splendour.
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Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro

May 17th 2009 11:14
High on the hills overlooking downtown Rio sits Santa Teresa, one of Rio’s oldest, prettiest and most fascinating neighbourhoods. It takes its name from the Convent established here by Portuguese nuns in the 18th century. In the 19th century influential colonials settled in Santa Teresa and built the grand mansions and the turreted castle which give the area its distinctive architectural character. In the 20th century, when the wealthy abandoned the hills for chic new beachside suburbs, it became “the Montmartre of Rio” an enclave for artists, patrons of the arts and the Bohemian set.

One of Santa Teresa's lovely old mansions
One of Santa Teresa's lovely old mansions

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Rio Centro, Part IV; Cinelandia

April 30th 2009 02:55
As the name suggests, this was the land of movie dreams. It was built on the vision of Mayor Pereira Passos at the beginning of the 20th century.

Cinelandia, Rio Centro
Avenida Rio Branco, Cinelandia

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Rio Centro, Part III; France in Rio

April 29th 2009 04:15
Although the Portuguese Royal family had fled Europe ahead of Napoleon’s army, their respect for French culture was as strong as their fear of French military might. In establishing Rio de Janeiro as the centre of the new Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve, they turned to France for inspiration. All over old Rio Centro there are lovely little pockets of la belle France.

Rua Ouvidor, Rio Centro
Rua Ouvidor

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Rio Centro, Part II; two churches

March 13th 2009 22:01
Just as important a part of Brasil’s early history as the Portuguese Crown was the Catholic Church. So houses of worship make up a large part of of Rio de Janeiro’s historical centre. Many of them are clustered around the Praca XV Novembre and the Paco Imperial.

Rio de Janeiro Rua Premeiro de Marco
Igreja Nossa Senhora do Carmo da Antiga Se

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The people of Rio de Janeiro are sea creatures who head for the water whenever they have a spare moment. This probably explains why their beaches are ship shape and their city is not. On the weekend downtown Rio has the deserted, grubby look of a house whose occupants have said “To hell with housework, let’s go out and play!” Nevertheless, Centro is fascinating part of the city. There are many beautiful historical buildings, magnificent plazas with grand monuments and some quaint little streets.

Rio de Janeiro, Praca XV de Novembro
Praco XV de Novembro

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Carnaval 2009 in Rio

March 10th 2009 23:19
The Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes, described it in the Carnaval catalogue as the most spectacular show on earth. For me, the 2009 Carnaval, my first, was all of that and more. The size, the scale and the sound of it were literally incredible, the colour and creativity truly breathtaking, the organisation, simply amazing. For me, this was the show of a lifetime.

Carnaval in Rio
Salguiero's drums

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The Bloco at Barra, Rio de Janeiro

March 6th 2009 22:26
To most of the world, Carnaval in Rio is the spectacular samba schools’ parade. But to many, and especially to the ordinary people of Rio, Carnaval is the Bloco, or local community festival.

Bloca da Barra Rio de Janeiro
The Grand Parade at Barra

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Recent Comments

Comment by Patricia
on My perfect Christmas present

January 15th 2009 08:54
A great post Chris - certain to bring mapophiles out of the closet and into the light where they belong. Now I feel I can confess that I spend hours on planes watching that tiny aircraft inch across the globe on the seat-back screen. I love to browse in map shops (there are quite a few in London) and in my dream mansion I have a map room. My favourite childhood books all have maps in the end papers and I spent many hours of in my youth mapping out the neighbourhood. Enjoy your map!

Comment by Patricia
on The doctor arrived on horseback

January 15th 2009 08:43
A great, interesting and inspiring story. We need these examples of how to grow old and enjoy it. Think I'll spend my 100th birthday in New York!

Comment by Patricia
on Confession of Love

January 15th 2009 08:29
Tania, we're obviously twins! Museums and dancing are great loves of mine too. However unlike you, I had very little formal training - apart from a short stint at Ballet as a small child and later a couple of years in a jazz ballet group as an adult. However, I've danced my way through many dance crazes since - rock n'roll, the twist, disco - but I really discovered my soul when a guy from Argentina who was teaching at the school where I was working started a dance group. i think some of my best moments were doing the merengay (spelling???) in that school gym. Now there I was in a parallel universe! Love your blog! And the photos - beautiful!

Comment by Patricia
on New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

January 15th 2009 08:17
Chris, thanks for your comment. I love your description 'the new home of an old friend' I guess for me, finally visiting the Met and even New York, was like finding a long lost cousin. Didn't really know a great deal about the collections there but found that they were things I love.
Tania, exactly, museums really are like parallel universes. They do smell special and they do have a life and energy of their own. Love the Louvre too! Thanks for the comment

Yes, I agree, most of us have our little pet phobias, but reading about the real thing makes you realise just how terrible it must be.

Comment by Patricia
on Central Park, New York

December 10th 2008 04:22
I wish, Wilson. Unfortunately I only had 10 days in New York and only had time to spend a day there

Comment by Patricia
on Tall Poppy Syndrome

November 19th 2008 02:49
Gosh, I always thought the tall-poppying practice was peculiar to New Zealand. Half a million of us are over here seeking refuge from it!

Comment by Patricia
on What can you do with photography on a windy day?

September 1st 2008 02:10
Simply stunning! Thanks for sharing them!

Comment by Patricia
on Josefov Prague's Jewish Quarter

September 1st 2008 02:07
Thanks Katyzz, good to hear from you! Yes, those poor people, persecuted for centuries. But still their story of perseverance and resiliance is an inspiration and in spite of its tragic history, there's a wonderful spirit of peace and tranquility in Josefov.

Comment by Patricia
on How not to be a domestic goddess

August 31st 2008 09:22
I had a similar experience with foolproof fruit loaf with which I was trying to impress my in-laws at a patriarch's funeral. It emerged from the oven as a kind of fruit toffee. I wasn't pregnant at the time (cakes always fail for the pregnant, according to the lore of my family and baking should be strictly avoided by anyone in the interesting condition) so I had no excuse. To avoid the embarrassment of arriving empty handed I bought a packet of chocolate biscuits. But even so I wasn't spared a barrage of scornful looks and even a snort or two as I handed them over to the bevy of aprons in the kitchen.