Ahem….
So Brazil was the last city for me to venture to. It’s currently the winter season which brought the usually hot temperatures down to the mid 60s to low 70s. To make a long story short, if you’re looking for bikini and thong pictures, here will not be the place.
The weather looked like this for the most part, with some breaks in the clouds.
I worked from Naples the morning of (which I’ll cover in another blog) and was delayed so I missed my LGA-IAH flight where I was supposed to connect to another flight to Rio. Because I was behind on time, I ended up flying EWR-GRU and connected on Latam Airlines to Rio. Through my airline, the ZED fare (Zonal Employee Discount) cost me $32.
I recommend connecting to WIFI and constantly refreshing your flight number on Google if you have a connecting flight in Brazil. I was sitting by the gate listed on my ticket for ten minutes past boarding, not understanding the Portuguese announcements about my gate change until I happened to refresh my flight. It was a close call, and the next flight out wasn’t until 6pm.
When I arrived in Rio, I took out local currency from an ATM at the airport which gave me a pretty decent conversion rate. Although credit and debit card use is a lot more common in Rio, I like to use cash just in case scammers have their eyes on my pockets.
The current exchange rate in Brazil is 1 USD to 4.07 Brazilian Real.
My choice of transportation to my hotel was Uber and I recommend using it over the official Brazilian taxis. In the airport, taxi drivers and staff will try to pressure you into using their taxi service which is usually much higher than what Uber will quote. The drivers even went as far to try and convince me the parking lot for Uber’s pickup was extremely far from the airport, but it was only a two minute walk on the airport grounds.
The ride from the airport to my hotel on Copacabana was about 30 minutes in average traffic.
After getting settled, my first stop was at an Arabian spot, Baghdad Restaurant. There were other reputable restaurants I could have dined in, but I mainly came for Shisha. To my confusion there are two Baghdad’s in Rio, one offers belly dancers, an upstairs dining area and shisha but unfortunately Google kept rerouting us to the latter.
I didn’t care much for the outdoor seating at Baghdad. The street roads are very narrow and sitting outside with the Shisha puts you obnoxiously in the middle of the pedestrian walkway.
Also, I’m not sure if it was the culture difference, my brown skin or if the locals could tell we were Americans but there was A LOT of staring going on while seated outside. I’m usually not too off put by staring, but in a country with such a large population of people of African decent, I was utterly confused.
I’ll have to research on this matter later.
I ordered a vegetarian platter which was terribly bland in comparison to other Middle Eastern food I’ve had, but the Shisha was great. I tried Brazil’s national cocktail, a caipirinha and it wasn’t half bad. The lime is a TAD but overbearing but the sugar levels it out. I probably wouldn’t order it again, unless I HAD to, but yay to the experience. 
The next morning, we went to the famous Escadaria Selaron (Selaron Steps). The steps are internationally recognized but it isn’t anything more than a photo op. There’s always an influx of people, between locals and tourists, so try to arrive early if you want to take a bunch of photos with the stairs.
The walk up the stairs is semi tiresome but if you do make it, there’s a nice mural at the top. The stairs and walls of houses along the way are all lined with colorful painted tiles, many from different parts of the world.
After the stairs, we went to Parque Lage. The park is located in the Jardim Botanical Gardens at the foot of the Corcovado. From Parque Lage you can look up and see the Christ Redeemer statue on top of the Corcovado mountain. Somewhere in the back of the Botanical Gardens, there is a trail you can hike to access the statue but, I’m no hiking girl.
Parque Lage also houses an art school and cafe on their property. I ordered salmon with potato puree and asparagus. There weren’t a bunch of sides but the meal was just enough to fill me up and wash down with my mimosa. The salmon was seasoned well and exceeded my expectations thoroughly.
After eating, I went out on Copacabana beach strip to day drink. I rented an electric scooter by Lime and drove down the beach looking for a bar. You’ll find Lime scooters and bikes parked all around the city and once you have the Lime app, you can unlock one and be along your way.
Because it was so cold outside and sitting in an outside bar wouldn’t make sense, I ended up ordering drinks from the vendors on the street.
For dinner, we dined at Satyricon, an upscale restaurant offering Italian-Mediterranean seafood. The restaurant is on the pricey side, but if you’re looking for a quality place with fresh seafood, this is the place to go.
After dinner, we went looking for a night out and ended up at the wrong address. By default because it was close, we ended up at Boate Marrakech Café. To our surprise it was a bar/ strip club. It wasn’t cringe worthy but it definitely wasn’t T.I’s V-Live by any means. I didn’t care for the servers who pushed the dancer girls on you and made them Google translate on phones they wanted you to buy them a drink.
It felt a little odd to try and be a pimp, but I enjoyed myself within the top 40 and Brazilian music.
The next day was a bit of a drag and we spent the day preparing to go see the Christ Redeemer. Because the temps dropped even lower, we went to Rio Sul shopping mall to buy some heavier clothes and layers.
By the end of our shopping trip, one of the security guards told us the weather wasn’t good for seeing the statue at the particular time. The cloudy weather ruined most of our chances for many things this trip and by mid evening, clouds completely covered the Redeemer statue.
After doing some research, I found the site http://corcovadoaovivo.com.br , which shows a live feed of the statue, so you can plan your trips due to visibility.
Since the Redeemer statue wasn’t a go, we went to the restaurant Espírito Santa in Santa Teresa. The restaurant popped up as one of the best places to eat in Rio, and it wasn’t too bad. While I’m becoming more aware of the different styles of Latin cooking, Brazilian food was more of a shock to me. I expected a lot more spices and the food we were trying was barley giving me that.
I ordered the Boyfriend on the sheet (English translation).
The description reads,” Pirarucu filet stuffed with dried shrimp and crab, baked in collard green leaves and served with a nut sauce. Accompanies rice with chestnut coconut and flour crumbs.”
I can’t remember what dessert was, but it was so good we ordered it three times! I do know it was fried plantains, covered in something with a caramel drizzle.
The next morning, the other two of my crew left to head back to the states. I woke up at sunrise and went over to the Christ Reedemer in hopes of getting lucky and seeing the statue.
I purchased my ticket through the official website http://www.tremdocorcovado.rio
Because it is low peak season, my ticket was only $16. You do have to create a profile in order to purchase a ticket and when your order is approved, you are sent a voucher which you can print or keep on your phone to scan. The website lists and address to the Corcovado train station where the trains to the statue are located but, IS NOT accurate. I was dropped off by my uber at the bottle of a hill and walked up about ten minutes before I got a gut feeling I was going the wrong way. The walk to the train station was about 10 minutes from my drop off location, so I recommend typing into Corcovado train station when searching for your uber pickup/drop off.
The website also states you must bring a form of ID and same payment you used to purchase your ticket but the ticket attendees didn’t use either to verify before giving me a physical ticket.
When getting seated, I recommend you to sit backwards and on the left side (to the direction of which the train is driving), so you get the best views. You pass through the jungle on the way and see panoramic view of the Rio between the break in trees.
The train takes about 15-20 minutes to get to the top and it’s about a five minute walk to the statue depending on how fit you are.
It was freezing up there and after taking pictures, there isn’t much to do so I quickly went back to board the next train.
Since check out at my hotel was 12pm and they weren’t offering late check out that day, I booked a room at Casa Amarelo par Robert le Héros (Amarelo House) in Santa Teresa for a extremely good rate of $22 off hotels.com. Casa Amarelo is a boutique hotel with a contemporary interior. The rooms offered differ in size, decor and price and can all can be found on http://www.casa-amarelo.com.I didn’t compare the prices on the two sites, but I definitely recommend the stay
While most of my footage of the hotel is via video (and I’m still unsure how to set that up here), just take my word of this gem.
I napped for a bit before heading out to eat at Cafe Alto, another one of Rio’s raved restaurants.
It was hard to find the English translation of the menu, but I know it was salmon.
After dinner, I rushed back to the hotel, showered and went to to the airport. If I had more time I would have explored Santa Teresa more.
That’s all for now.
Choonks ❤️