My first time in Brazil at Formula 1 Grand Prix in São Paulo, beaches of Búzios, beautiful Rio de Janeiro, and a lot of caipirinhas
Brazil was on my list for a while. I’ve tried to go there several times, but somehow something would always get in the way. This year was an exception: we have decided to go to Formula 1 Gran Prix in São Paulo and check out other parts of the country while there.
After some research we have decided on the itinerary:
- São Paulo: fly there, check out the city and watch the race.
- Búzios — a small beach town north of Rio: catch a quick flight to Rio de Janeiro airport and take a 3 hour shuttle bus to Búzios.
- Rio de Janeiro: take a shuttle bus back to the city and stay there for the remainder of the trip.
Before going to Brazil we’ve asked around for recommendations on places and things to do. Turns out a lot of people did go there at some point. The interesting part is how similar was everybody’s feedback. Almost everyone told us that it will be extremely dangerous, and we will get robbed or/and mugged. Suggestions ranged from “hide valuables in underwear and shoes” to “don’t ever walk on the street and take Uber everywhere”. Not even one person told us that we will be ok. On such positive note we were looking forward to the beautiful country of Brazil…
São Paulo
We’ve arrived at São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport and took Uber to our hotel (Sheraton WTC) in Brooklin neighborhood. It is a relatively new part of the city, which serves as a financial district and a popular location for major multinational companies’ offices.
São Paulo is huge. It is the largest city in Americas (followed by Mexico City, Lima, and New York). For some it can be overwhelming. But I was always fascinated with big cities: how thousands of people live side-by-side; how each city defines its people, and how people define its character and vibe; what each city has to offer — places, restaurants, bars, nightlife, etc.
I’ve expected São Paulo to be similar to other major megalopolises: a lot of traffic, tall buildings, dirty and bustling. But it was not a case. The city was very clean, especially for its size. Paulistas take a big pride in keeping it that way, and it’s not done through a lot of street cleaning, people just don’t litter as much. São Paulo is also very green: there are lot of parks, and you’re constantly surrounded by trees, and grass.
I will be honest: São Paulo is not a big sightseeing destination. There is an old walkable part of the city near São Paulo Cathedral. While there make sure to stop by for a drink at the top floor bar of Edifício Itália (Italian Building) and enjoy the 360 view of the city. SP has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, and Liberdade neighborhood is its center. Avenida Paulista is one of the most important avenues of the city. There you will find Museu de Arte de São Paulo — a popular art museum. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to Museu do Futebol (Football Museum) because of the timing. But basically you should be able to see most of the places in 1–2 days.
Brazilian cuisine has a lot European and African influences as well as all original dishes and ingredients used by indigenous people living there prior to the colonization. São Paulo offers a unique opportunity to taste it almost everywhere: from the small mom-and-pop restaurants to world known celebrity chefs. Some places to check out: D.O.M, Mocoto, Aragon, Suri, Feijoada da Lana, etc. Brazilians love to party and dance all night long, so once you’re done with your dinner grab a drink and go dancing at Trabuca, Villa Mix, Sutton, etc.
São Paulo can be a great long weekend destination, especially if you can combine it with some other event. My friend and I follow Formula 1 car racing, so for me it was killing two birds with one stone: watch the race and explore the city. Brazil has an amazing racing culture and produced a lot of great drivers over the years: Senna (even if you don’t care about racing, you will enjoy the documentary about him), Piquet, Barrichello, Massa, etc. Brazilian fans have a reputation for being passionate and noisy, giving Italians a run for their money.
Brazilian Gran Prix is also notorious for its rains. We were prepared to spend the whole day in ponchos, but to our surprise Sunday met us with beautiful sunny weather and upper 80s temperatures. The track is built on the hills, and since our seats were on top of it, we could see most of the major corners. It was a great race to watch, and local fans did not disappoint.
Búzios
Next day after the race we packed our bags and headed to the airport. There are 2 major airports in São Paulo. We’ve booked our flight from Guarulhos, but if you are flying domestically, you might want to consider Congonhas instead as it is much closer to most parts of the city. Rio de Janeiro is only 45 minutes flight from São Paulo.
Brazil is famous for its small beach towns, where locals go to decompress and relax on the weekends. As a part of our trip we wanted to experience it. Búzios is one of the popular places to go north of Rio. You can relatively easily get there by taking a 1001 shuttle bus directly from the airport terminal. The trip is about 3 hours.
Búzios is located on the small peninsula and surrounded by beatutiful beaches. The terrain is hilly and most of the buildings are built on the side of the hill, so they can enjoy an obstructed view of the ocean. You will not find major hotel chains, but instead stay at one of many pousadas (small local hotel). We’ve had a great time staying at La Pedrera Hotel & Spa. The town centre has some restaurants and bars to go at night.
Be prepared to slow down, relax and enjoy your time. Your day will consist of eating a delicious breakfast with a ton of tropical fruits, chilling on the beach, listening to bossa nova and samba, while sipping on many caipirinhas.
Now let’s talk about important things: drinking. Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail. It is made with lime, sugar and cachaça. Cachaça is a liquor produced from sugarcane similar to rum. Think of it as a mojito of Brazil. Muddled lime and sugar topped with ice and a good pour of cachaça. It’s a perfect a little sour drink for a hot day at the beach or by the pool. Surprisingly you can drink a lot of them and don’t regret your choices in the morning. Lime is a classic option, while you can also go with any other tropical fruit: strawberry, passionfruit, kiwi, etc. If you want to earn the local respect, order one and maybe ask for “pouco açúcar” (little sugar) in it.
Also for some reason, Brazilians absolutely love gin&tonic. Basically anywhere we went in the country, it was the most popular drink. I couldn’t figure out why, and nobody would’ve told me. If gin is your drink of choice, Brazil is your place.
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro was the last stop of our trip, but the one we have mostly waited for. On the one hand, we were looking forward to iconic beaches and scenic views, on the other hand, Rio is famous for high crime rates, robberies and tourist attacks. It is also a birthplace of favelas — a low income housing, usually built on the hillside without any oversight from government and control from police and authorities. Basically it was a flip of coin.
The most famous part of Rio de Janeiro is Zona Sul (South Zone), which includes Copacobanna, Ipanema and Leblon beaches. Most of the major hotels are in that area. If Copacobanna beach is considered more touristy, then Leblon is more upscale residential with Ipanema somewhere in between. Tourists mean money, money brings riff raff, and Copacobanna is the least safest of three. Keeping all of that mind and not looking to pay stupid gringo tax, we’ve decided to stay at Sheraton Grand Rio on the edge of Leblon beach. Thanks to SPG Gold Status, our room view did not disappoint.
Back in colonial times, Rio de Janeiro was a capital of Brazil. After declaration of independence from Portugal, Rio continued to be the capital of Brazil until 1960s when the capital got moved to Brasília. Since then the city hosted numerous international events (Olympic Games, World Cups, etc) and became a famous tourist destination. There is a very simple reason for it: Rio de Janeiro has one of the most spectacular views. It is built between rocky mountains, surrounded by bluest water and lush forests, while all of it is in soft tropical climate. It’s hard to imagine any more beautiful setup for a major city.
If you ever seen any Rio pictures, you will know two rocks: Morro da Urca (Urca Hill) and Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain). There is a cable car, which first will take you to the top of Urca, and from there another one to the top of Sugarloaf. Both rocks provide 360 view of the surrounding areas of the city and the harbor. You will quickly recognize the view from your friend’s (or Tinder) profile pictures who went here earlier. While you are using Uber in Rio, make sure to double check the address. We’ve entered Sugarloaf Mountain as a destination assuming that it will take to the cable car stop, instead the GPS took our driver to another side of Sugarloaf, which turned out to be a military base and in turn resulted in some Google Translate conversations with military guys.
While we were out in the bars in São Paulo or listening to Uber driver’s radio, we’ve started to notice catchy songs with unique beat and Portuguese language lyrics. It sounds like a mix between Miami bass, hip-hop, reggaeton and some African-style percussions. Locals call it Brazilian Funk or Baile Funk, although it doesn’t really have anything to do with traditional funk. It was originally born in Rio favelas similar to samba and quickly became popular across the country. Needless to say, it quickly became a soundtrack of our trip.
Christ the Redeemer is one of the New Seven Wonders Of The World. It is built on top of Corcovado mountain in Tijuca Forest National Park and visible from almost every part of Rio. There are shuttles from different parts of the city run by the Park administration, which will quickly take you to the top and give you line privileges while on top. Try to come either earlier or later in the day and expect a lot of tourists on top trying to take their best shot with Christ in the background. Trust me at some point you will join them and will do your best.
Another must-see Rio’s attractions are Escadaria Selaron, Jardim Botanico and Santa Theresa. There are several museums, sambadrom and some Olympic objects, but we didn’t get to it. After doing all touristy things, we just wanted to kick back at the beach and get the feel of what actually means to stroll down the Ipanema. If you going to the beach, do not bring anything more than you actually need. Leave valuables (cameras, phones, etc) at the hotel, just wear your swimsuit, and bring credit card (almost all beach vendors take it) or cash to pay for chairs&umbrella plus drinks. Look out for groups of kids moving in packs, they can cause a trouble.
There is a huge desperaty between poor and rich in Rio de Janeiro, and a lot of people in favelas live way beyond the poverty level. They got nothing to lose. So be smart and use common sense everywhere. That 4am stroll in unknown neighborhood with a nice watch might not be the best idea. Flashing the new iPhone while taking Instagram of that cool graffiti under the bridge can be considered as a donation to the general cause. We didn’t have any problems, but we weren’t letting the guard down either.
I would recommend to stay in the proper Leblon beach area or at least in Ipanema closer to Leblon. Mainly because it is one of the most expensive parts of the city, and you can see extra police on the street and less sketchy elements around. It definitely felt safer than other areas. Leblon also has a lot of good restaraunts and bars. You can Uber everywhere else from there. There is also Barra da Tijuca and the rest of West Zone, which was developed in preparation for Olympic Games and supposed to be good, but we did not check it out since it was farther away from all tourist destinations.
Tips
- Visa: if you only have American passport, you do have to get the Brazilian visa. It’s a complicated process if you will try to do it by yourself and can take up to several months, but luckily there are several travel agencies, who can get it for you in 2–3 weeks (for example, Passport and Visas).
- Google Translate: Official language is Portuguese, and Brazilians generally don’t speak English. Spanish doesn’t help either as it’s actually quite different, and it didn’t look like Brazilians like it either. Your best bet is Duolingo in preparation and Google Translate while there. We’ve managed to have a lot of very deep conversations over Google Translate, and you can probably do it too.
- Uber everywhere: it is a cheap and easy way to get around Brazil. It’s quite helpful to just copy-and-paste your destination address in the app. We were also warned about regular taxi drivers, who sometimes can take advantage of tourists, and either run the meter or take you to the wrong place.
- Sunscreen: don’t be a gringo. The sun is extremely hot in Brazil. Coming from sunshine California and being used to be in the sun all the time, we both managed to burn. Don’t be like us.
Bottom line
Brazil was amazing. Don’t listen to what everybody else says and go check it out for yourself. Well,… and just be smart about it.
The best part of Brazil was people. Through out the country we’ve met a lot of warm, fun, passionate and kind people. They’ve showed us around. They’ve talked to us over Google Translate. They’ve made our trip the one to remember!
Saúde, Brazil!
Ciao, Denis
