Chasing Aphroditie: Rio de Janeiro City & Ilha Grande 2/29/07-3/7/07

At first site, the Baia de Guanabara looked more like a river than a bay, and hence claimed the name Rio de Janeiro or ``January River`` by Gaspar de Lemos in January 1502. The Tamoio people lived in this bay and chose alliance with the French in 1555 over the cruel Portuguese, only to be expelled by the victors a little more than a decade later.
Rio de Janeiro City is the capital of Rio de Janeiro State, and previously the capital of Brazil, until the government was moved to Brasilia in 1960. The city is surrounded by beaches and mountains along with skyscrapers and favelas or shantytowns, where poverty, crime, and violence rule the neighborhood and no one from the outside dares to enter.

The section of Rio where we stayed was called the Ipanema Beach (Name that Tune!!)

And just as deserving was the Girl from Ipanema, our hostel, where the Nagorny´s reunited. We walked around Rio quiet alot instead of taking any tours and had a blast . . .botanical garden, walk around the Rio Lake, etc.

The visit to Rio served the sole purpose of meeting up with the Nagorny crew, acquaint the newcomers to a little of the speed of life here, and head for Ilha Grande...an island nearby. Jumping on the ferry as it was just released from the dock was a moment for smiles, exhales of relief...

and wonder . . .The island´s history is a unique one: first it was a pirates´ lair, then a leper colony, and finally a prison for political as well as extremely violent prisoners. We took advantage of the many trails to hike to some amazing beaches including Lopez Mendes(not many pics before Mishka dropped his camera into the water . . . story to come later) and Dos Rios, along with some quaint waterfalls and natural pools along the way.

All of us wore the smallest bikinis we had of course ( although ``small`` WAS a word originally invented in Brazil ) and explored the lands . . .

These are some of our highlights:

There were some amazing flowers and plants. . . the colors man!

Us taking a little break on a bamboo bench on top of the hill . . .
A little shrine on the way to Dos Rios
What a fish might see if very unlucky!?!

Mishka´s and my version of a Corona commercial......
Beach by day, dancing by night, sunrise by morning.... I have to give Seryoshka, my cousin, mad props for the glorious entertainment. He definitely knows how to have a good time and smile the entire time!!! As for my sister, the home girl never slept and never missed a sunrise...This is Mishka and I on one of our longs hikes. Hikes lasted for more than 2 hours uphill at times but we were like machines, unstoppable!! Together . . . we WILL rule the world...

Dos Rios was a beach surrounded by two rivers (aha!)

and the town where it was located felt like a dead place...like in the movies...where the zombies come out of dark alleys and wheezle their way toward you...

This is a photo of an abandoned building by the beach...a tree is growing right through it. Makes you wonder ...

And the prison is located right next to the beach as well. It looked as if God (herself) placed her finger in the middle of the prison and pushed down. Totally caved in and destroyed. We recently learned that the prisoners of this prison (political brains and crazy loonies combined) formed the most feared gang in Rio´s favelas...more powerful than the Federal Police itself!!