Rj Chapter 2 - Atmosphere, Cuisine, and Nightlife

What’s up people. A couple weeks flew by since I wrote something so thought I’d bring everyone up to speed.

It’s been over a month since I got here meaning that my soccer skills have dramatically improved, my Portuguese went from non-existent to toddler level, and I’ve eaten more steak than over the course of the last year.

Jokes aside, I’ve gotten a lot more familiar with our neighborhood and where to eat, beach, and go out at night. Our apartment is at the intersection of Copacabana and Ipanema which are the most popular neighborhoods for tourists. We have a nice place with 3 floors and a rooftop overlooking a favela. Classism at its best.

Daniel and I have been working quite a lot during the week so we didn’t get around to doing a whole lot until recently when Daniel’s GF and her brother came to visit us last week.

But before I get into that.

Rio is so far proving to be my favorite place that I’ve been to in South America. You’ve got incredible beaches within walking distance. The scenery is absolutely stunning. If you’re not a beach person that’s not a problem. Rio is a pretty mountainous city so you can go hiking to some pretty incredible places just 20-30 minutes from where we are. If you’re more of a city person. Well, you’re in a city of 6ish million people with skyscrapers, condos, and an endless number of restaurants and bars that are more than a third the price of Toronto, and have way better food and atmospheres.

From what I’ve seen it’s a super rare combo to have all of these things in one place. If a place has a beach it’s usually a smaller beach town. If a place has great hiking trails, it’s usually inland. And if it’s a city, it almost never has both of those in close proximity. These reasons alone are what make Rio top of my list.

Let’s get into the stuff that matters though.

Despite our restraint during the week, we’ve been hitting the bars every weekend. And by bars, I mean bar. We found a place called Bosque bar which is in the wealthy neighborhood of Leblon, adjacent to Ipanema and only like a 10-15 minute uber from our place. Ubers are incredibly cheap by the way. I can uber the distance from Toronto - Montreal for 100$ here. I don’t even want to start to think what that would cost in Canada. Anyways so this place bosque has a really high cover to get in which makes sure that only the well off people of Rio will be able to afford it. Richer people tend to be better looking thanks to the laws of hypergamy so the talent at this place is top notch. Brazil in general has close to the best looking women I’ve seen in the world, with the only real contenders being Montenegro and Argentina, so this bar has the best of the best. We’ve been here for 4 weekends and we go twice a week every week, it’s getting ridiculous. Asides the girls, what makes this place so good is that it’s a good balance between a casual bar and bumpin club. It’s outdoor so you have fresh air and there are different areas of it so if you want to listen to music there’s usually a live concert going on. If you want to chill and have a drink with your friends you can go to a different section. It’s also a very easy place to approach people.

The first weekend we went here I met this girl who was with her friend. We were chatting with them and all of a sudden some Portuguese song that everyone knew (expect us) came on and the girls started this weird vibration dance. I looked at Daniel as if to say, what the hell is going on, because neither us of had seen anything like this. No amount of salsa classes in Mexico could prepare me for this feat. I remember not even knowing where to stand relative to her. Behind…. in front…. to the side? My answer was to go get another drink and wait it out.

I learned that this is the Brazilian dance called Samba. Since that night I’ve said I am going to sign up for classes but I still have yet to google where to go.

Another experience we’ve been frequenting is the cuisine. For the first 3 weeks I ate out every single meal at restaurants because it’s like 10$ for a steak or chicken with 3 sides and it’s better than anything I could ever cook. 3 weeks in I made the mistake of checking my bank account so I started buying groceries.

One of the most well-known restaurants here are called “Churrascarias” which are all you can eat buffets where the servers come around with different cuts of meat every couple of minutes which you can say yes or no to. There is also a buffet where you can have your sides (or mains if you’re vegetarian). I’m not much of a foodie but it’s the best cuts of meat I’ve ever tried (with Argentina a close second). The best part is that the best churrascarias cost like $50-$60/person and you can find some for like $30.

The only part that has sucked until now has been the weather. It’s been cloudy and rainy since we got here. This weekend was the first one where we actually had decent weather. When I asked around, this is really unusual for Rio. Anyways, it’s almost summer here so November and December should get a lot of a sun and be way hotter. Up until now it’s been a comfortable 25 degrees everyday.

The last thing to cover is transportation. Rio is a massive city and they have a really well developed underground metro which I’ve taken a total of one time. For me, everything I need is in walking distance and when I need to get somewhere a bit farther, I just Uber because it costs like $3-7 to get to most places.

Something that’s also surprised me is how safe I feel. Everyone told me that Rio is more dangerous compared to other parts of South America. A month in, I haven’t had a moment where I felt in danger. Not even a weird look from a stranger and I walk by the favela behind my house almost everyday. I still have all of my belongings (even my Airpods) too. There is a lot of homelessness and you see people sleeping on the street at a lot of intersections but they don’t bother anyone and I have yet to see one crackhead yelling at a tree.

I told Daniel we should go for a walk in the favela to check it out because the conventional wisdom seems to be that it’s safe for tourists as long as you are respectful and don’t take pictures. Daniel has yet to be convinced but I will break him down eventually.

As I mentioned earlier, last week we had guests come visit us. Daniel’s gf, Sharon and her brother Alex. Alex is 22 with the maturity of a 19 year old and hormone levels of a 17 year old. His impression of Brazil was that he would show up as a white guy and clean up every single night. This is a common misconception with North American guys visiting South American countries. The reality is that if you’re a 6/10 in Canada, you’re a 6/10 wherever you go in South America. Yes, you will be able to generate initial interest easier than you would otherwise because you’re more exotic when you look different, but you still have to maintain that interest beyond the initial “I’m not from here”. So every night out where we all went out as a group ended up with a drunk Alex asking us where he went wrong.

Alex and Sharon’s arrival also prompted Daniel to have to actually do some of the touristy stuff we’ve been putting off for weeks not. Last week they went to Christ the Redeemer (Jesus statue) and Sugar Loaf Mountain. I stayed in to do work so I can’t comment on how it was. But based on what they told me, it’s exactly what to expect. Jesus statue is underwhelming considering it’s a Wonder of the World. Sugar Loaf gives a great view but you just go and take pictures and come back. There’s nowhere to walk around or anything.

Last weekend while they were off doing their own thing, I went to a beach known for its surfing over in a neighborhood called Barra de Tujica. I haven’t attempted surfing since Panama in December so it was rough. To call it surfing would be an insult to the sport. More aptly named would be falling and ingesting semi-lethal quantities of salt water. I definitely need to get a lesson to refresh whatever I knew before.

In other news, in a couple of weeks I’ll have more friends coming to live in Rio. My friend Jordon who I met in Mexico 2.5 years ago is coming from Bali as well as my friend Matt who I met around the same time as Jordon and met up with in a few different countries since then. I can tell the activity level is already increasing compared to when I arrived here because summertime in Brazil is peak season. November/December should be crazy.

Wish me luck

-MS