Tag: Rio de Janeiro

Forces of Light is the Truth

The weapon of choice for the forces of Light is the Truth. For the forces of Darkness it is lies. Truth always wins because the support structures necessary for maintaining a lie always collapse, and the Truth is its own support.

As Darkness Falls
Every Lie Will Be Revealed
The End won’t be for Everyone.
That Choice, Will be Yours.
Consider This the Tip …
Only the Beginning:

Buckle Up – Get the Popcorn
Because I’m Going Till Dawn
Did You check the Date … ?

Forces of Light image is of Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In the 1850s the Vincentian priest Pedro Maria Boss suggested placing a Christian monument on Mount Corcovado to honour Isabel, princess regent of Brazil and the daughter of Emperor Pedro II, although the project was never approved. In 1921 the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro proposed that a statue of Christ be built on the 2,310-foot (704-metre) summit, which, because of its commanding height, would make it visible from anywhere in Rio. Citizens petitioned Pres. Epitácio Pessoa to allow the construction of the statue on Mount Corcovado.

Holy Week: Where it Happened

Virtual Pilgrimage just in time for Holy Week! Join our guide Rami as he visits sites from Jesus’s Passion, Death & Resurrection.

April 17, 2022
The Girl from Ipanema

Brazil enjoys the largest recording industry outside of the United States, so the number of brilliant artists and the wide variety of genres (most people have never heard of), is truly staggering.

The first time I’d ever hear this beautiful language was by vinyl record, as my father had a huge jazz collection, and even before I was born the Bossa Nova was played in my house often, so the first song I can remember, and first words in Portuguese are from the famous song: Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema).

The Girl from Ipanema is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.

In Revelação: a verdadeira Garota de Ipanema (Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema) Moraes wrote she was:

“o paradigma do broto carioca; a moça dourada, misto de flor e sereia, cheia de luz e de graça mas cuja a visão é também triste, pois carrega consigo, a caminho do mar, o sentimento da mocidade que passa, da beleza que não é só nossa—é um dom da vida em seu lindo e melancólico fluir e refluir constante.”

Translation:

“the paradigm of the young Carioca: a golden teenage girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of light and grace, the sight of whom is also sad, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of youth that fades, of the beauty that is not ours alone—it is a gift of life in its beautiful and melancholic constant ebb and flow.”

The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), a nineteen-year-old girl living on Montenegro Street in the fashionable Ipanema district in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Daily, she would stroll past the popular Veloso bar-café, not just to the beach (“each day when she walks to the sea”), but in the everyday course of her life. She would sometimes enter the bar to buy cigarettes for her mother and leave to the sound of wolf-whistles.

As the legend has it (which isn’t 100% accurate), in the winter of 1962, the composers watched the girl pass by the bar (now a restaurant, see footnote), and it is easy to imagine why they noticed her—Helô was a 173-cm (five-foot eight-inch) brunette, and she attracted the attention of many of the bar patrons. Since the song became popular, she has become a celebrity.

While Helô inspired the song, it was another Carioca who carried it beyond Rio. Astrud Gilberto was just the wife of singing star João Gilberto when she entered a NYC studio in March 1963. João and Jobim were making a record with tenor saxman Stan Getz. The idea of cutting a verse on “Ipanema” in English came up, and Astrud was the only one of the Brazilians who spoke more than phrasebook English.

The hit English language song; “The Girl from Ipanema” was the alchemy of Astrud’s child-like vocal, devoid of vibrato and singerly mannerisms, it was the perfect foil for her husband’s soft bumblebee voice. Jobim tinkled piano. Getz blew a creamy smooth tenor. Four minutes of magic went to tape.

Note: One of my favorite places to eat and drink in Rio is the Garota de Ipanema, sure it’s a bit of a tourist trap because of the song “Girl from Ipanema” but seriously the restaurant is really excellent and it’s super casual being just a couple of blocks from Ipanema beach. You can grab a good window seat near the corner if your timing is good and then watch all the Cariocas trudging home from the beach at the end of the day. The draft beer is cold and frothy however the caipirinhas might be as good as you’ll find anywhere but the main attraction is the great food, especially the Picanha, which is thinly sliced beef rump that you grill yourself, right at your table, on a super-hot brazier, similar to a hibachi bar-b-que. (See: Garota de Ipanema Restaurant)

March 26, 2016
Rio de Janeiro Sunrise

The Marvelous City, as they call it, was all of that and more. We stayed in a nice hotel on the end of Copacabana, every day we explored new beaches and every night we discovered new restaurants. This was my third trip to Rio so I’m starting to get to know the lay of the land now, which is very challenging because of the position of the mountains that rise directly out of the Atlantic like giant pointed knobs, often rock faced on the steep sides or otherwise covered in jungle-like vegetation.

The beaches are broad and curved with a cool Atlantic swell pounding in to relieve the masses of sun worshipers who flock here to enjoy the summer heat from all parts of the globe.

The first time I stayed in Rio was between Christmas and New Years, on Barra da Tijuca in a condo across from the beach. All along the beach there are kiosks called Baraccas, and every morning before the sun comes up, the nightlife comes to the beach to watch the sun come up and finish off the party. Many people swim in the sea, take a shower, then have breakfast and go home to sleep off the alcohol. It’s a cool way to close the night and washes the soul with a most magical sunrise to start the next day.

Kiosk da Tijuca – Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro

Planning to return to Rio de Janeiro very soon and most likely to stay in Barra da Tijuca, to once again enjoy the Rio de Janeiro sunrise ritual.

Barra da Tijuca or simply known as Barra is the youngest neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro which was developed around 30 years ago. This neighborhood is famous for its Barra Shopping Mall which houses over 700 stores and restaurants and its 17 km long sandy beach. Barra is home to many luxury condominiums and large office complexes, making it an emerging spot for the rich and affluent. The neighborhood is also known for its American influenced lifestyle.

Surfing, kite surfing and body surfing are popular sports here. It is one of the richest neighborhoods and is known for its public and private safety largely due to the lack of ghettos in the area. The name Barra da Tijuca roughly translates as “Swamp Sandbank”. The value of property in this region has steadily grown for the past 20 years as the neighborhood grew in stature. This region also is well frequented by business travelers as it is close to several convention centers.

Many of the events for the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held at Macumba Beach, which is just down the road from Barra da Tijuca.

December 31, 2007
Macumba Beach

The more that you read the more things you will know, the more that you learn the more places you’ll go.
~ Dr. Seuss

The world’s record for most surfers riding the same wave simultaneously is 42 and was set at Rico’s Point, Macumba Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on the 18th of November 2005.

Recreio translates in English to “school recess” and is an old town that used to be out of the way, from Rio. Favorite area of surfistas is now a prime zone for real estate development and becoming a bedroom community of Rio with Barra de Tijuca just 10 km up the road.

There are 2 roads that connect Leblon and Ipanema (districts of Rio) to this open region of land called a “barra” (sand bar), one of those roads cuts straight through the mountain by 2 lane tunnel and the other is a twisty 1 lane cliff-hanger that circumnavigates the tall pointy mountain, above the sea. That single mountain is all the separates the big crowded city of Rio from the big, wide-open barra and ultimately from the bitter-end, where I find myself writing this travelogue today, at Macumba Beach.

The contrast of leaving Ipanema and driving, either through or around the mountain to reach the barra is extreme, partly because when you get to the other side, to Sao Conrado, you arrive at the foot of the biggest, most famous favela (slum) of all Brazil, called Rocinha, where the shacks of some 160,000 inhabitants stretch up the steep mountain. Sometimes stone, sometimes dirt (often mud) roads go either straight-up or zig-zag back-n-forth like the nightmare of an urban planner but they say the view from the top is awesome.

Nowadays you can rent a guide and take a tour of the massive slum (see: www.favelatour.com.br/ ) but I never felt compelled, since you can see enough from the base. Besides it doesn’t feel right to be gawking at the lives of the poor and then go back to living with the rich. Also, there is risk because frequently gun fights break-out as there’s no law in Rocinha, except that which is enforced by the trafficantes (drug traffickers) that control the place.

After you pass Sao Conrado (home to Rocinha) the area opens up to create a wide open plain which is the barra, the road is a modern highway that whisks you past new shopping malls and high-rise apartment buildings. Every where there is signs of development and growth. I was surprised by how much had been built in the 10 years since my last visit. All the way along the highway there are signs to mark the exits which will lead you to the long, wide, clean and popular beaches of Barra de Tijuca but we keep driving until the mountains move back in to close out the barra and then form the spit of land where Recreio sits.

To mark the spit and end of the barra there’s a most unusual geographical formation. It’s a small mountain 50 meters off the beach, all by itself, connected to the land by a narrow isthmus. Perfectly round and jutting up from the sea to form what looks like the nipple of a woman’s breast or “bico de seio” (in Portuguese). The main street of the town Recreio aligns with the spit of land and comes to an end, with the small mountain like the dot of an exclamation point. On one side of the isthmus you can face towards Rio and even see the city way up the coast. On the other side of the isthmus you face south and towards Macumba Beach, which is a fairly short beach and divided almost in half by a rock formation that juts out to create Rico’s Point, this point causes a nice surf break for surfers when the Atlantic swells are favorable.

If you walk down Macumba Beach and follow the path up and over Rico’s Point, from the top of the hump of the rock formation, you’ll be looking at what I call “the bitter end”, as the mountains rise-up sharply to define an abrupt end to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. On the side of the hill a narrow twisty road cuts precariously into the rock, surrounded by vegetation, curves out of sight, up and around the cornice. This road is one of the best I’ve ever driven but that’s another story.

One other thing you’ll need to know about this beach is that the word “macumba” is frequently used in Brazil to refer to any ritual or religion of African origin (similar to Voodoo in Jamaica). In several places around the rock formation at Rico’s Point and at the bitter-end of the beach, where a small river estuary can be found, you’ll see signs like ritual offerings, from the modern-day practice of Macumba. Don’t be alarmed but also don’t touch.

January 3, 2007
Burle Marx

My good friends from Miami own and operate a successful landscape business, they impressed upon me the beauty of landscape as an “art-form”, and then introduced me to the work of a Brazilian legend.

Burle Marx, as he’s known, was the greatest thing to ever happen to plants in Brazil. He’s internationally known as one of the most important landscape architects of the 20th century. An artist of multiple facets, besides being a landscape designer he was also a remarkable painter, sculptor, singer, and jewelry designer, with a sensibility that is shown throughout his work.

[box]Born in São Paulo (August 4, 1909 – Rio June 4, 1994), Roberto Burle Marx moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1913. During the years of 1928 and 1929 he studied painting in Berlin – Germany, where he was often seen at the Dahlem Botanic Garden’s greenhouses. In this garden he noticed for the first time the beauty of the tropical plants and the Brazilian flora.[/box]

His first landscape project was a private garden for a house designed by the Architects Lucio Costa and Gregory Warchavchik in 1932. Since then, his landscape works improved as well as his painting and drawing.

[box type=”note” size=”large”]In 1949, Burle Marx bought a 365,000 square meter estate in Barra de Guaratiba, in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where he started organizing his incredible collection of plants.[/box]

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx

One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited in Brazil is the Roberto Burle Marx home and gardens outside Rio. Burle Marx bought the Santo Antonio da Bica sítio in 1949 to store his plant collection. The sítio has a marvelous house and a small chapel that dates back to the 16th century. Both buildings were lovingly restored and Burle Marx lived there from 1973 until his death in 1994. The chapel is available for weddings, ladies and gentlemen!! In 1985, the property was donated to the Brazilian government in trust for posterity and became a National Monument. It is now called Sítio Roberto Burle Marx.

In an area of approximately 100 acres, visitors can see more than 3,500 species of plants, an extraordinary collection of religious images and pottery from the River Jequitinhonha Valley, and, of course, Burle Marx’s own paintings. If you wish to be amazed and enjoy a couple of hours walking and gawking at a remarkable collection of bromeliads, heliconias and tens of dozens of plant species with long Latin names, it’s awe inspiring!

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]There are two daily tours by appointment (9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.) and you’ll need someone to drive you there or you can take a bus that will drop you off nearby; call (021) 2410-1412 / 2410-1171 for appointments and information.[/box]

In 1955, Burle Marx founded a landscape company, called Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. (Burle Marx & Company), where he started to develop landscape design, along with the implementation and maintenance of his residential and public gardens. In 1968, Haruyoshi Ono, a landscape architect, became his partner. Burle Marx & Cia. Ltda. landscape studio, created by Roberto Burle Marx in 1955. The office develops landscape projects, and implements, maintains, and restores gardens. It is also requested as a consulting board, giving supervision and orientation in landscape and environmental issues. In addition, it owns a small nursery that produces and sells plants.

[box type=”note” style=”rounded”]In 1985, Burle Marx donated this estate to a federal government cultural organization, Pró-Memória National Foundation, which is nowadays called National Institute for Cultural Heritage – IPHAN.[/box]

[box]Roberto Burle Marx died in Rio de Janeiro in 1994, at the age of 84.[/box]

If you asked most people in Rio what Burle Marx is famous for and 9 times out of ten their going to tell you it’s the abstract wave design in the side walks of Copacabana Beach and other beaches of Rio. In many ways this cool wave concept in landscape design concept was conceived by Roberto Burle Marx, of his inspired concepts, the wave concept may have become his landscape design signature, you see it everywhere you go in Rio de Janeiro and it’s magnificent but the thing that made him famous was his super-creative use of plants.

January 2, 2007
New Year’s Eve in Brazil

Back in my office, sitting at my desk but my mind and spirit are still on the Costa da Sul (South Coast) of Rio de Janeiro and the coolest beach, Macumba Beach (future articles).
Meanwhile, back in Sao Paulo the weather is overcast and still wet outside from the rain last night, all night, so this morning I’ve got my big double-wide windows open wide to let in the fresh air and the sounds of the giant city as it prepares for the big party tonight.

(more…)

December 31, 2006