Observatory Tower (historical)

Rio de Janeiro. Hotel Arena Copacabana.. Guide: Rayol

Weather today is about 26° with the possibility of rain in the afternoon. Yesterday the temperature got up to 30°.
We started the day with a lovely breakfast in the hotel. We were picked up at 9:00am by Rayol, our guide for today. Rayol is pronounced Hayol because the Portuguese pronounce the letter R as H (eg. “hestaurant”).

We drove downtown to the district of Santa Teresa to see the famous Selarón tiled steps. In 1990 he began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house. At first, neighbours mocked him for his choice of colours as he covered the steps in fragments of blue, green and yellow tiles – the colours of the Brazilian flag. It started out as a side-project to his main passion, painting, but soon became an obsession. He found he was constantly out of money, so Selarón sold paintings to fund his work. It was long and exhausting work, but he continued and eventually covered the entire set of steps in tiles, ceramics and mirrors. Originally, tiles for the work were scavenged from various construction sites and piles of urban waste found on the Rio streets. There are 215 steps measuring 125 metres long which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. No sooner than one section of the steps were 'finished', Selarón started work on another section, constantly changing it so that it was an ever evolving piece of art. Selarón considered the work as "never complete" and claimed that "This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death", He died January 10, 2013, at the age of 65.
Rayol made it a lot of fun by giving us a challenge over a bottle of water. If we could find a tile for Toronto or even Canada, he would give us a bottle of water and if we couldn’t find one, we would give him one. Well we found about 15 from Canada and even one from Toronto so we won. He was quite surprised about the one from Toronto as he didn’t know it was there. Funny, I don’t remember getting our bottle of water!

Next stop was a visit to the Metropolitan Cathedral. The Cathedral was designed by Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca in a modern style based on the Mayan architectural style of pyramids and built between 1964 and 1979.The New Cathedral, as it is sometimes called, is in the center of the city. It is conical in shape with an internal width of 96 metres (315 ft) and an overall height of 75 metres (246 ft). Inside, the area measures 8,000 square meters, which gives it a seating capacity of 5000 seats and standing room for 20,000 people. The cathedral's four gorgeous rectangular stained-glass windows soar 64 metres (210 ft) from floor to ceiling. It looks like it’s made of concrete in a cone shape and every little cell is a ventilation cell.

From there we walked to the Santa Theresa Tram station and at 20 Real per person, (approximately $4.00 USD). We got onto a replica of a 32-person tram. It started off going across an old aqueduct called The Arches of Lapa, a series of 42 Roman style arches built in the 18th century to improve water distribution. Today it serves to connect two transit stations. That was the smooth part. From there it continues, jolting side to side with many sudden stops on rails set in cobblestones all uphill for about 6 km. And then it turns around and comes back! It was a bit like a one-hour bumper car experience but very interesting. The route travelled along the side of steep cliffs lined with expensive houses many of them sadly blemished with graffiti. There were many stops along the way to let passengers on and off.

Once back at the starting point, we walked between the Petrobras building (a petroleum company) and a bank, and Rayol said that the best place to meet a husband or wife was on the bridge that went between the two buildings. He said all you had to do is go there during lunch time and just smile.

We walked around through a market selling clothing and some souvenirs. Then we continued through the downtown shopping area where the streets are closed to traffic.

We stopped for lunch at the Confeitaria Columbo which was founded in 1894 by Portuguese immigrants Joaquim Borges de Meireles and Manuel José Lebrão. Its architecture, inspired by the European cafes, was representative of Rio de Janeiro's belle époque. Between 1912 and 1918, the interior halls were renovated with an Art Nouveau flair, with large crystal mirrors brought from Antwerp, framed by rosewood trim friezes. The interior wooden furniture was carved at the same time by the artisan Antonio Borsoi. In 1922, its facilities were expanded with the construction of a second floor with a tearoom. An opening in the ceiling of the ground floor allows you to see through to the skylight of the tearoom, decorated with stained glass. It is reputed to be one of the 10 most beautiful cafés in the world. Currently, the second floor houses the restaurant Cristóvão. We ate on the main floor in the cafeteria area surrounded by floor to ceiling mirrors. It was gorgeous in the extreme and packed with people.

From there we continued walking through busy narrow streets and more open streets lined with majestic old buildings in both good and bad condition. We walked by the very modern looking Museum of Tomorrow after which we wandered along a wide promenade by the ocean and admired some spectacular mural art by an artist named Kobra. A long hustle back to the car still parked at the Cathedral where we started our tour. It started to rain as we returned to our hotel. Good timing.

After our tour with Rayol, we put our feet up and had a brief snooze and both then worked on our respective days of tours. Rodrigo picked us up at 7:30 pm and took us to another Churrasco restaurant There was an extensive buffet of appetizers, salads, cheeses, sushi, and fish. As we were just settling in, the waiters started coming around with their swords of meat. They were all encouraging us to try their specialty. We met an American family, who were stationed in Rio with the armed services, who were out celebrating their Thanksgiving. We also met 3 young fellows from the British Royal Navy that had just come in from the Falkland Islands.Read more