Brazil, perceived as the most happening place in the world, it’s a Spanish culture settled comfortably in South America. The trip to this continent from India is long and expensive so we clubbed it with our Peru trip. We had a short halt at Sao Paulo and explored a bit of the city. Not much to do here as it is just a economic hub. So advice would be to go straight to Rio. The city of Rio provides a lot of variety all bundled in one place. We saw some interesting streets, street arts, rain forests, great beaches, good food and climbed on top of the cliff to have a full view of the city.
Reaching there: Most of the international flights from non-Americas go to Sao Paulo. Doesn’t matter where your ultimate destination is in Latin America, you have to go through this city. The trending ticket prices at that season in 2015 were around INR 90K. But Shilpi is great at finding good travel deals and she managed to find a flight combination with multiple layovers which just costed us INR 50K!
Visa: The tourist visa is not that difficult to get from India. They need all travel related documents (flights, hotels, company leave letter, ..). You can either submit it in person at the consulate or you can go through agent also. It takes around a week’s time after you submit your passport to get it back with the sticker visa.
Accommodation: If you are running on a tight budget (which we usually are while travelling ) then you can either chose a good hotel slightly off the city centre or take a nice AirBnb right where the action is. We chose the later. It was a walking distance from Copacabana beach and many good eating joints were close by. The host also gave us a good overview of the city and helped us out whenever needed. Here is the link to the listing.
Things to do:
–Christ the redeemer: To reach the top of Corcovado mountain you have the options to take the train, the van or just hike. We used the train. There was a big queue at the bottom where you have to take the ticket and board the train. When we were there Switzerland tourism was running its promotion campaign and giving free champagne and barbecue to everyone. So we recovered our ticket money through that 🙂 . The train journey is scenic and you go through the Tijuca national park. The monument itself is rather crowded and it will be difficult to a get a clear shot with it. Still it is majestic to see how the embracing arms of Christ protect the city. Some people say that you can see the Christ from any open place in the city. And we found this to be true wherever went in the city. They illuminate the statue at night which looks really amazing.
–Selaron Staircase: Now what could be so amazing about a staircase. You have to be there to see it. Its a very picturesque place connecting two streets. Both sides are extremely colourful and this stretch of few meters defines the easygoing and colourful lives of the people residing in this city.
–Ipanema/Copacabana Beach: You want to relax quietly. This is the beach. You want to party hard. This is the beach. You want to go for a nice swim. This is the beach. A great place to hang out every day during your stay in Rio. Rent the chairs, get few beers and forget about every thing back home.
–Jardim Botanico: This botanical garden is in the heart of the Rio city. It is huge and has a lot of variety of flora and fauna which were completely new to us. Half a day walk in this place followed by a lunch is not a bad idea while you are in Rio.
–Street arts: Its all over the city. Just walk along the different lanes and you will come across something crazy or beautiful. We found the below one pretty amusing.
–Sugarloaf mountain: This hill is an extension of the Rio city inwards to the ocean. It is visible from the statue of Christ. There are cable cars going to the top of the mountain and it has some good souvenir shops as well. This place provides an amazing view of the city and its better to visit it during evening to get a night view of Rio as well as to see the sunset.
Food: It is a good place to enjoy coastal food and it is not that expensive as well. There are also some restaurants where you pay by the weight of the food that you have served for yourself. The taste was pretty decent in that deal.
People: In general people are polite and fun. Language is a problem as very few people speak or understand english. Safety wise we read in many places about robbery and crime against tourists. So its better to avoid isolated areas at both day and night. For dinner we used to hang out in places near Copacabana and walked till our accommodation without any issue. We even forgot our DSLR in a restaurant and came back after 30 minutes to find it still there. So be cautious and you will have a good experience in Rio.
If you are planning your first trip to this continent then Rio should definitely be on your list.