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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.
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.
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
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
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
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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
Avenida Rio Branco, Cinelandia
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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
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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.
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.
Praco XV de Novembro
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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.
Salguiero's drums
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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.
The Grand Parade at Barra
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