Brazil was the first destination of my 2 month Latin America travel in Dec 2022. It has been on my bucket list for the longest time because I have heard so much about the Brazilian Churrasco (BBQ), and I have a few Brazilian friends too.
Rio de Janeiro was my first stop.
Is Rio worth going?
My review is a 100% yes!
Rio is an amazing city, it has beaches, mountains, interesting downtown stuffs to do, favelas to explore etc. People are very friendly, even though I have heard that this city is dangerous, but I felt mostly safe here.
I think it is best suited for outdoorsy stuff. It reminds me of the south east asian tropical climate, warm and humid. I think it is definitely a unique place to visit, a small city that packs a very diverse range of stuffs to do.
Food
I love to explore local food and supermarkets.
Public transport is pretty good here! I am saying it is comparable to Singapore, where I am from, and this is a huge compliment.
I immediately went to my Airbnb to crash because I had a very long flight from NYC to Rio . Sadly the airbnb is now unavailable but it was a comfortable little room hosted by a lovely Argentine lady for about $20/day. A quick nap later, I heard some noises downstairs and guess what
World Cup 2022: Brazil vs South Korea
Yup, totally didn’t expect it. I was never a football fan before this trip, I barely even watched World Cup before. I roughly knew that it was World Cup season but I did not research the matches before my trip at all. So imagine my surprise when I got caught up in the World Cup 2022 round of 16 match where Brazil obliterated South Korea 4:1. I mean, I knew Brazil is a strong football team and most Brazilians are football fans but I was not expecting shops to be closed, people stop working just to watch this match!
Funny thing was that I was the only asian person around, and when South Korea scored a surprise goal towards the end, I was being jokingly “pushed” by a local as if she was angry. No offence taken at all because Brazilians are friendly and warm, in fact I was welcomed to sit with a Brazilian family at the start of the match.
Now how do I tell them I am not Korean in Portuguese? Fun fact I didn’t know Brazil was the only country in LATAM that speaks Portuguese and not Spanish.
Copacabana Beach
After the match, I hit the famous Copacabana beach which is just beside my Airbnb, talk about convenience!
Just as you would expect of a Brazilian beach, there’s lots of people sun tanning, many half-naked, and gotta say I kind of enjoyed it, but it was too crowded for my liking. I did not see many asians though, not that I was concerned or anything as I am pretty adaptable, but I did get a little bit of stares here.
Christ the Redeemer
The second day I decided to visit the famous Christ the Redeemer, landmark of Rio. Quite easy to get to because of the train system in Rio, there were lots of people at the top, but otherwise the view was amazing. I have always felt this statue is so iconic, especially after seeing it in the 2016 Olympics.
Rocinha Favela
Rocinha is the largest and one of the most well-known favelas in Brazil, located in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. A favela is a type of “informal settlement or shantytown characterized by a lack of formal infrastructure, often built on hillsides with densely packed, makeshift housing.”
So I took a booked a favela tour I found on airbnb, the tour guide lives in Rocinha and is familiar with the roads inside (checkout his Instagram @riofavelatour ). So apparently favelas are “lawless” and police do not really have influence here. It has its own ecosystem and residence of favelas may also work in the bigger cities. I am not sure how true is that although I did feel that as a foreigner it may not be convenient for me to explore the favela by myself (I saw many tour groups but no individual tourists). However I did see some Airbnb listings of Rocinha favela apartments and the tour guide told me there’s some foreigners who came and live here for few months.
Not entirely sure how safe it is/ how it works, but the residences I met are very friendly. Overall 10/10 recommended activity in Rio but it may be turning into a tourist attraction nowadays.
The next day is Quarter Finals!
World Cup 2022: Brazil vs Croatia
Quarter Finals is the start of serious business because everyone’s expectations of a team like Brazil to be at minimum, top 4. And this match is against Croatia, the 2nd team in World Cup 2018. Although Croatia was 2nd last time, Croatia was still considered as a “black horse” compared to Brazil, which had 5 World Cup wins in total. Needless to say, this was exciting.
For the most part, it was 0 v 0 and it was INTENSE. Croatia’s goalkeeper blocked so many shots until Nemar finally scored in the last few minutes.
But as we all know, Croatia did a last minute score as well and brought it to free kicks and won this match. I gotta say, for the rest of the day, every Brazilian I met was so sad. Someone even said the Brazilian team got cocky after they scored and celebrated too early.
This kept me thinking, if Brazil got into Semi-finals, they would be playing against their archenemy Argentina, that would be CRAZYYY! (I only got to know about Brazil, Argentina rivalry during this trip).
Leblon beach
I then strolled around Leblon beach which is quite close to Copacabana beach. They say this area is nicer, higher-end compared to Copacabana beach. I certainly felt this is calmer. I had to take a bus over though.
Centro (Downtown)
You know you gotta hit the downtown sometime whenever you are in a city! So I went to a bunch of tourist attractions in downtown, I think its an interesting mix of Portuguese and Asian vibes. Surprisingly found a lot of similarities to Asian cities here, maybe it is the same hot and humid climate?
Lapa
Really close to downtown is the Lapa area, which has more touristy stuff like the Selaro Steps, and Lapa Arches. I did not manage to go to Museu do Amanhã (The Museum of Tomorrow) which is iconic and in the same area as well. I took some nice photos but I have to say the Lapa Arches area is shady, I did not feel safe there at all.
Lapa was a really quick stop for me because there were so many tourists haha. But it is a good area to soak in the festive feelings of Rio!
Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Sebastian
In all honestly, I didn’t know much about this place, I just researched that it is cool so I went in. It happens to be just around the Lapa neighbourhood too! It turned out to be a really unique architecture! I took a little rest in this Cathedral before heading to my next stop.
Random Photo Dump
Too many photos, but just want to show some of the highlights:
Thoughts
Definitely want to go back sometime, such a big country, very diverse mix, Rio especially has a reputation for being dangerous but I didn’t feel it at all. Very nice people, cool favela, I did feel a littleeeeee out of place as an asian, but overall this city reminds me a lot of Asian in terms of infrastructure.