Rio de Janeiro: Day One

It had been a dream of mine for many years to visit Brazil, and in particular the city of Rio de Janeiro. In fact, I remember that during the 2012 Olympics in the UK, I came up with the plan of going to Rio for the 2016 Olympics, and perhaps making that part of a longer South American trip. But as it happened, I ended up in Germany during the Rio Olympics, and I would eventually visit Rio over 6 years later than originally planned. But it was definitely worth the wait!

Although the weather for most of our trip wasn't the best, and we had 2 days of non-stop rain - something we hadn't expected when booking the trip - I found that I loved the city even more than I thought I would. The days we spent there were really a trip of a lifetime, and it was particularly special to go to one of my dream destinations with Claudio.

We started our first morning in Rio with a trip on the train up Corcovado mountain to the most iconic sight in the city; Cristo Redentor, or Christ the Redeemer in English. The train ride takes you through Tijuca National Park, a beautiful area of rainforest, and is the most scenic and relaxing way to arrive at the monument (you can also go by van or hike up there). During the short journey, we saw lots of huge jackfruits hanging from the trees in the forest, and I even caught a glimpse of a toucan!

We definitely did not have the best weather for our visit to Cristo Redentor, and at times the statue disappeared completely behind the clouds! We also couldn't see any views of the city below. However, in the moments when the statue was clearly visible, it was very impressive to see. It is 30 metres tall (38 with the pedestal included), and it really does look huge when you see it in real life.

The area around the monument has several cafés and gift shops, which came in useful when it started raining heavily. We bought white plastic raincoats, which kind of made us look like we were dressed as Jesus in front of his statue, haha! (It turned out we'd be using them quite a lot over the coming days...)

Claudio actually has an interesting story about Cristo Redentor - he went to see him when he first went to Brazil in 2015. At the time, his dog Jack had gone missing for a few months, so he asked Cristo Redentor to bring him back. And luckily, Jack did come back shortly afterwards! For this reason, Claudio always wanted to return to Rio to say thank you to Cristo Redentor, and he was very happy to get to do this 7 years later.

I hope that both of us can come back to see Cristo Redentor in the future (hopefully on a clearer day!). Overall, it was a really amazing experience to visit this Wonder of the World.

After taking the train back down the mountain, it was time for us to visit one of Rio's other iconic sights: Copacabana Beach. (Fortunately, the weather down there was much warmer and drier than it was up on Corcovado!) This huge beach is a very vibrant place, filled with people selling traditional Brazilian drinks and snacks, and with great views of the mountains, including Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), which we would visit the following day.

We had a bit of a walk along the beach, and then we had lunch in a nice vegan café, and watched some of the World Cup final there. It felt like quite an experience to watch a big football match in Brazil - everyone in the streets was getting really involved!

Afterwards, we went to the hotel to get our swimming things, and then we came back to the beach to swim. Even though it was a cloudy day, the water was warmer than a swimming pool, which was quite strange to experience after having only swum at beaches in England and Chile (where the water is notoriously cold) in recent years! The ocean in Copacabana is very shallow, so you can't really swim properly there, but it was still a lot of fun to ride the waves.

Once we'd finished swimming, we went for a walk over to the Pedra do Arpoador peninsula between Copacabana and Ipanema, and sat for a while enjoying the amazing views over Ipanema and Leblon beaches. (We liked this place so much that we decided to come back the following day to take some photos!)

We finished off our beach trip by buying caipirinhas (Brazil's most famous cocktail) to drink while sitting on the sand on Copacabana. It's a very nice-tasting drink made with lime and sugar, but it also contains an incredible amount of alcohol, and I found that the effects were too strong for my liking! But it's still something I think you have to try at least once during a trip to Brazil!

To sum up, our first day in Rio was a fantastic start to our trip, and it was a dream come true to visit Cristo Redentor and Copacabana Beach. Our second day was also really memorable, as we visited Pão de Açúcar, and Botafogo, Ipanema and Leblon beaches. I'll be writing about it very soon!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Two here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Three here!

Read about Rio de Janeiro: Day Four here!

Read about Arraial do Cabo here!

Life in Chile: Update 7

Following several posts about my recent trip to Peru, it's now time to take this blog back to Chile again! 

I'm feeling happy at the moment, because it's definitely become summer here over the last couple of weeks, and I'm really enjoying the warmer weather. It's going to be like this until March or April, so we'll have lots of time to make the most of it! My summers growing up in the English countryside were much shorter, and either rainy or uncomfortably humid, so I'm really excited to experience a long, dry summer like this! It will also be the first time Claudio and I will spend the whole summer together, and we've got lots of plans to spend weekends visiting nearby beaches, and to take one or two longer trips as well.

As for what we've been up to over the last couple of months, we've been discovering and rediscovering some more places in and around Santiago, and experiencing new things! Here are some highlights:

My walk through Santiago Centro

At the end of September, I decided to go on a trip down memory lane, by taking a walk around Santiago Centro, which is the comuna where I lived when I was studying in Santiago in 2018. I really liked living there, because it's where most of the city's main sights are, but unfortunately it's become quite run-down over the last few years, and crime has risen there. This is most obvious in Plaza de Armas, where I started my walk. This used to be a nice square and a popular tourist spot, but it's now an area where you have to be extra careful. However, it is still a beautiful place, and it was nice to return there and see the city's cathedral again.

On my way to my next destination, I passed by another one of the city's important churches: San Francisco church, which is also in dire need of a clean-up.

The next place I visited was Barrio París-Londres (Paris-London Neighbourhood), whose name comes from the fact that it has picturesque cobbled streets and European-style architecture. This was actually where I stayed when I arrived in Chile for the very first time, spending the night at Hotel Fundador, before moving into my apartment the following day. I still remember well my feeling of amazement at being on the other side of the world for the first time, and how excited and nervous I was about the semester to come.

Fortunately, the neighbourhood is still as pretty now as it was back then, and I really enjoyed walking around it and feeling a bit like an international student again!

Then I passed by La Moneda presidential palace and the wide avenue of Paseo Bulnes to get to the next stop along my tour: my old apartment! 

I stayed in the Livinn Santiago student residence during my semester abroad, and actually lived in two apartments there; I had to move out of the first one due to a plumbing issue, which came about at a very low point for me in the semester. Moving into the second apartment felt like a real new start, and the weeks I spent there turned out to be some of the best of my life. (This was when I met Claudio!)

On my walk, I also stopped to look at this old colonial building, which I had been able to see from my window in the first apartment. (The second apartment overlooked an inner courtyard.)

Finally, I walked over to Basílica de los Sacramentinos, which was inspired by Sacré-Cœur Basilica in Paris. I used to walk past it to do my shopping in the nearby Tottus, and I've always thought it was the most impressive church in Santiago.

It was very nice to go for this walk around my old comuna, which brought back lots of memories. I liked living there a lot, but I'm also very happy to now be living in the comuna of Ñuñoa and to be making memories here!

Iglesia Ortodoxa Griega de los Santos Constantino y Elena

After visiting a Russian church recently, I decided to go and see this Greek church, which is appropriately located on Avenida Grecia, next to Estadio Nacional. The church is small but very pretty, and it would almost give you the feeling of being on a Greek island, if it wasn't for the busy traffic and overhead cables!

MIM (Museo Interactivo Mirador)

One weekend I decided to surprise Claudio with tickets to Museo Interactivo Mirador, better known as MIM, which is Santiago's biggest science museum. The surprise didn't work, as I wasn't able to buy the tickets online before going, but we still had a great time there! We'd both enjoyed going to the science museum in Quinta Normal back in 2019, so we'd meaning to go to this one for a while, and it was a really entertaining afternoon out. Some highlights included lying on a bed of nails (it doesn't hurt like you'd expect it to!), experiencing a recreation of the 2010 earthquake, and looking at various optical illusions.

Hiking in Parque Natural Quebrada de Macul

One of Claudio's colleagues told him about this park on the eastern edge of the city, where you can hike to a waterfall and then swim in the pool created by said waterfall. We had the impression that it was a hidden gem of Santiago that very few people knew about. We also had the impression from online reviews that the hike was so easy, that it was more of a walk.

So we decided to get up early one Sunday morning at the end of October to have a nice day in nature. However, once we got there, we realised that all our preconceived ideas about how this hike was going to be, were completely wrong!

Firstly, it was randomly one of the last colder days of the year (even though the day before and the day after were both hot), so swimming was out of the question. Secondly, we arrived at the entrance to the sight of a completely full car park and a huge queue to get in - apparently this place is very popular, even though neither of us had ever heard of it before. And thirdly, we realised that the hike is definitely a hike and not a walk! Okay, so it's definitely not as challenging as other hikes I've done (Cerro Manquehue and Machu Picchu come to mind), but it is a long, uphill and at times, steep route to get to the waterfall. 

On the positive side, the hike is very scenic and takes you past lots of little waterfalls and native trees and plants. It was extremely misty and quite cold on the way up, which really made us feel like we were in the south of Chile.

After about an hour and a half of uphill walking, we arrived at the waterfall, which was unfortunately very disappointing. For starters, it was much smaller than we expected, and the huge crowd of people around it made it impossible to get a decent picture. But worst of all, the surrounding rocks were covered in graffiti. :(

We scrambled up some nearby rocks, and were able to get a slightly better view from up there. I actually quite enjoyed that part (even though it was a little dangerous!), because I'd done a little bit of indoor climbing at university, which I got to put into practice! But overall, it did feel like an anticlimax to have made such an effort to arrive at this spot that was so underwhelming.

Fortunately, on the way back down, the sky started to clear a bit, and we had some nice views of the park and even of the city.

Afterwards, we both agreed that the hike itself had been more interesting than the destination. Although the day hadn't been what we'd expected, it had at least been something different, and we felt glad to have tried something new.

National Aerospace Museum

The weekend when we went hiking was actually a long weekend for most people, as the Monday and Tuesday afterwards were both public holidays, but Claudio had to work on the Monday. However, we decided to make the most of the Tuesday, by visiting the National Aerospace Museum, which is free to enter!

The museum is really interesting - it teaches you all about the invention of aviation, the history of Chilean aviation, and the history of space travel and astronomy. It also has lots of different types of planes, helicopters, and even drones and control towers that you can look at. I'd highly recommend it if you're looking for somewhere free and unique to visit in Santiago!

Teletón 2022

One of my goals for this year was to have more experiences (like indoor surfing!), and one idea in particular that I had was to go to my first concert, as I recently realised I'd never been to a proper arena gig before. So it was at the age of 27 that I finally did this!

Every year in Chile, there's a charity event called Teletón, which is kind of like Red Nose Day in the UK. Part of the event is a free concert in Estadio Nacional (National Stadium), just down the road from where we live! So we went along and queued for a while, until we finally got in. Then we met Claudio's mum inside and managed to find seats up near the top of the stadium. We couldn't see very much from up there, but it was very exciting to be part of such a big event with thousands of other people!

Artists from all over Latin America performed in the concert, and although I hadn't heard of many of them, I recognised most of the songs. Overall, there was something for everyone, and it was a great night!

Monticello

Less than two weeks after my first concert, I went to my second concert, which also coincided with my first visit to a casino! This time Claudio, his mum and I went to Monticello, which is this huge complex with an arena, a casino and lots of shops and restaurants. It's located in the O'Higgins region, about an hour south of Santiago, and it's kind of like a Chilean Las Vegas!

We went to a concert by Luis Jara, one of the artists who we saw at the Teletón. I only knew one of his songs beforehand, but I still enjoyed the concert, especially the faster songs at the end.

After the concert, we went into the casino. As it was my first time there, I was given free entry, plus 20000 pesos to gamble with. We played roulette and watched a live show of singing and dancing, so it was a fun night. And it also turned out to be my lucky night - I won 30000 pesos!

When we were leaving Monticello, we spotted Luis Jara in one of the restaurants, and he waved and blew kisses at us! My mother-in-law was very happy afterwards!

Overall, we had a great time at Monticello, and I'd definitely go back there for another concert in the future.

Festival Hecho en Casa

Last Sunday, Claudio and I attended Hecho en Casa art festival in Parque Balmaceda, after seeing a video about it during the week. I'm not sure why it's called Hecho en Casa (homemade), when many of the art installations are by foreign artists, but it's a lot of fun to see and even touch these huge sculptures. My favourites were Burbujas (the giant bubbles) and Mascota (the orange, pink and yellow sculpture), which pays tribute to pets and the happiness they give us. ❤

Museo de la Chilenidad

After the festival, we went over to Las Condes to visit Museo de la Chilenidad. This museum is housed in a colonial hacienda, and gives you an in-depth look at Chile, its culture, and what makes it unique. Plus it's free! It's only a small museum, but you can spend quite a long time there reading all the information and listening to the audio guide. Topics include the role of horses in Chilean culture, native plants, huasos (Chilean cowboys), and folklore.

This is a place that I found out about through VisitSantiago, a website I recently discovered. I'm looking forward to visiting more places from the website over the coming months!

Other news

In other news, Covid finally caught up with me and Claudio. After four vaccines and over two years of pandemic without either of us ever getting the virus, Claudio came down with flu-like symptoms last Monday, and I started experiencing fatigue (which I assumed was just hormonal). Then on Thursday, I woke up with flu-like symptoms too. We then both tested positive and stayed in isolation until Saturday evening. Covid hit us harder than we expected, but luckily now we are almost back to normal. 

One disappointing thing that came out of this was that we had to cancel a trip to Bahía Inglesa we'd planned. It's considered to be one of the most beautiful beaches in Chile, so it's a shame not to have been able to go there.

But staying on the topic of trips, I have some exciting news: Claudio's been given a week off work before Christmas, and we've booked tickets to go to Rio de Janeiro! This city has been at the top of my bucket list for years, so it's hard to believe I'm finally going to go there. Claudio already went there for a short trip several years ago, but he's really looking forward to going back and seeing the iconic sights there with me, as well as some places he didn't get the chance to see last time. We can't wait!

I'll be writing here again soon! 😃