Still enjoying Rio after 3 days and more to do. We started Thursday with a visit to Rio's main modern art gallery. It has a great location close to the waterfront. The permanent collection is a little piecemeal because fire destroyed the original collection some years ago. It is being rebuilt with substantial help from artists and other galleries who have donated works. The most captivating works by far, however, were not from the permanent collection but from a special exhibition of Brazil's Vik Munis. We spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibition - extremely innovative in use of materials and media. Works ranged from old masters repainted with food products to giant sketches created in the desert using a mechanical digger. We were surprised not to have heard of this artist before.
Next it was on to a live musical performance which seemed to wrap up every vintage favourite of samba into one presentation. Because of the time of day, the audience was mostly elderly - and they knew all the old songs, and even sang along. Somehow the promoters managed to cobble together almost 100 songs into one 90 minute performance, and with only a handful of performers. Their stamina was very impressive.
This got us properly into the samba mood and, later that evening, we went to a bar to hear the latest samba music from members of one of the samba schools preparing for Carneval in a few weeks. The drumming is highly addictive. There is very little melody and it seems that just about any lyrics will work. The samba school people we saw were from the Santa Teresa area, and we were able to appreciate all the references to the cable car, since we'd been using it every day.
Friday was our day for hang gliding. We went with instructors up a hill behind one of the ocean beaches and, almost before they gave us a chance to get nervous about how high it was, we were running off the lanch pad and into flight. We each flew tandem with an instructor (who really did all the work). It was very peaceful circling down over the beach - not an adrenalin rush at all -and the views were excellent. One of us landed perfectly, and the other less perfectly. But no injuries and our only regret was that it was all over too quickly. We spent the rest of the day visiting Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. Crowded with beautiful and not-so-beautiful people. However, the sun was brutal and we couldn't sit on the beaches for long. Eventually, we retreated to the air-conditioning of a movie theatre to watch a new release from Argentina.
Saturday began with a long drive up the hills to Tijuca, a national park which is essentially in the middle of Rio. From the end of the road we hiked steadily upwards through semi-tropical forest for about an hour. It was sweltering and the trail got tougher and tougher until we were climbing hand over hand using metal loops bolted into the rocks. Our reward was a fantastic view of the surrounding area including beaches. The only shortcoming was that we didn't know quite what we were looking at. But we enjoyed the panaroma anyway. Back to Ipanema for street samba party - this was no glitzy show but the authentic samba/ Carneval experience which is probably replicated in every neighbourhood. A band leading crowds of dancing, drinking locals through the streets. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
But we wanted more. So in the evening, we went to the sambadrome to see a couple of samba schools practise their full routine for Carneval. Although the Carneval takes place in the streets, the sambadrome has been purpose-built around the main street to improve access and visibility. Basically, there are permanent grandstands, lots of stadium lighting, and even corporate boxes, on both sides of the street. We had a great vantage point to see the practise sessions. Very colourful, very noisy, thousands of participants of every age and ethnicity. Carneval is obviously very inclusive!
Simon
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