Whirlwind Weekend in Rio (Part 1)

From the sparkling beaches of Ipanema to the unimaginable views atop Sugarloaf mountain it is no secret that Rio is exceptionally beautiful and I had been longing to experience it with my own eyes. Restless heart stabbing into my soul on this holiday weekend, my oldest friend (basically my sister) in town, and my ever willing mum sharing in my pain, it was time for a whirlwind weekend. The flights to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil leave Houston at night and fly back to Houston at night, making it easy to leave work on Friday and head straight to the airport for Rio with the knowledge that I would arrive back early enough on Tuesday morning to make it to work on time.

On the Balcony at the Corcovado Guest House

We landed in Rio around 9 am on Saturday morning and did not waste a moment.  After getting some cash from the in-airport machines (*see at bottom of page) we hired a taxi to take us straight to our bed and breakfast: the Corcovado Guest House in Cosme Velho. The people that run the guest house were just fabulous, treating us as family, making us feel so incredibly welcome. The gorgeous little buildings had stunning views of Rio which we took in from a lovely balcony while settling in and roughly planning out the day. Wandering out of the old wooden doors onto the stairs that would lead us to our next adventure.


Stopping at the Corcovado tram station we learnt that you have to book a ticket online to reserve a tram time in order to go up the mountain. Luckily however, they allowed us to buy some tickets for a tram in 2 hours as it still had some space available. Now then, 2 hours may seem like a long time. However, when you think about travel time to and from a location along with time spent at the location, 2 hours is not long at all. We had originally thought we would head to the beach, but thinking about it more rationally we decided to explore the local area we were staying in. What a fantastic idea!

Greenery and life everywhere! There were even orchids in
pots attached to trees all down the pristine roads (this is obviously the way to have fabulous orchids as mine always die but here they could be seen thriving on every tree you passed).  The roads were miraculously clean with not a piece of rubbish to be seen, and every person we passed had a massive smile on their face. It was like walking through a utopia, a pleasantville of sorts, where even the street art was to be appreciated. We went into a local super market and bought some snacks we didn't recognize with names we could not pronounce and  made our way back up the road towards the tram station. However, while enjoying our nameless delights, our noses caught the alluring scent of fresh Brazilian coffee wafting from a quaint little restaurant and we were forced to make a caffeine pit stop.

Over-caffeinated on the most brilliant Brazilian coffee, it took no time at all to make it to the Corcovado tram station. As there was still plenty of time and the weather was changing it seemed sensible to head back to the hostel to deliver our shopping bags and add a layer of attire. The guest house is conveniently located near the tram station. It is a decent walk back up a gorgeous cobblestone street to a flight of stairs, that would make Tigger feel intimidated, which takes you to the hostel entrance. (The only way to get  into the hostel is from these stairs, either going down from the incredibly steep road above or hiking up the impressive steps from below. Luckily for us we were all happy for the exercise but it is definitely not wheel-chair friendly.)

Looking at Sugarloaf Mountain from atop Corcovado

Waiting in the tram station taking touristy photos in goofy cutouts, the excitement was building. We boarded the tram and once every single seat was filled, it began to move slowly up the tracks. Going through the jungle, with snails racing past us, its was a surprisingly adrenaline filled experience. The tram, at times on the sheer face of the mountain, or passing over ravines on a wooden bridge, did not come across as the most reliable form of transportation as we stopped several times for extended periods while the driver wandered past our car. The door next to my seat would not close, providing a stunning nauseating view of every jungle window. That moment when you are on a roller-coaster going up a steep slope to reach the point where you go shooting

View from the top of Corcovado Mountain

 down the tracks, the incessant "clack, clack, clack, clack" that gets your heart pumping in anticipation, that was the moment that lasted the entire journey but (thankfully) instead of shooting down the other side of the mountain we arrived at one of the most famous sites in the entire world.

You do not step off the tram and find yourself facing Christ the Redemer (Cristo Redentor), you really have to earn it, and are greeted by a stairway to heaven.  However, every single "clack" of the tram and every single step on the way was 100% worth it! WOW! Cristo Redentor is absolutely enormous and has the most unbelievable panoramic view of all of Rio.

Unbeknownst to us, we had booked the tram that put us with Christ at the top of Corcovado in time for sunset, pure magic. Such an image can not be put into words. As the sun went down the mist moved in, shutter clicking all the way back to the stairs I did not notice the ENORMOUS queue until I basically walked into the back of someone. With the temperature dropping and the queue barely moving we were popsicles by the time we were given the last three spots on a tram. Once on, it quickly became apparent that there were in fact only two spots available but we squished in and made it work, hoping nobody would either notice or care.

caipirinhas with Brazilian cheese balls

A driver hired by the hostel was scheduled to pick us up at 9 to take us to the Vila Isabel Samba School. We were back at the hostel by 7:30 giving us enough time to enjoy a delicious homemade dinner and fresh caipirinhas (my new absolute favorite drink!) made to order by the fabulous Corcovado Guest House.

Ticket Window

The driver dropped us off at the legendary Vila Isabel Samba School at 9:30. Upon discovering the ticket windows, which were actually holes about 5" diameter in a 12" thick concrete wall that you have to peer through at a person before inserting your entire forearm to exchange money for tickets, we were prepared for the show. However, the school didn't open until 10, leaving us on an comfy bench enjoying the music coming from various groups of people gathered the whole way down the road.

Once inside the samba school we took our seats at the table we had booked and waited. and waited. and waited. an hour passed in which we were one of two groups of spectators in an otherwise empty building. At 11 o'clock the band arrived and started to warm up and around 11:15 people began showing up to prepare for class. (going to a samba school in Rio does not mean you are going to take samba lessons. To the contrary, it means you are going to watch "professional" samba dancers prepare for carnival.)

We had scheduled for our driver to pick us up at midnight so we called to push the time back to 1 o'clock once the music got going. Boy were we happy we did! It was the dance off for some of the main spots at carnival and the dancers were unbelievable! I felt as though I had been dropped into a scene from a film, the costumes, music, expressions, and hips were like nothing I had ever seen in person before and it made me desperate to go to Carnival one year for the real experience. One o'clock rolled around as they were finally getting into full swing and it was sadly time to go.

It had been a stupendous first day in Rio and it was hard to go to sleep through the excitement of the day and the anticipation of what tomorrow would bring. (Check back tomorrow for day 2 in Rio!)

(NOTE: We discovered upon arriving home that our card information had been stolen and duplicate cards were actively in use busily collecting cash from various ATMs in Rio. The only place all three of the stolen cards had been used was in the airport at the ATM. So word to the wise... Be wary, especially where you may not feel you need to be...)

Dancing in the Rain with Elephants

Hands down, best day of my life by far was spent with one of the largest animals in the world, the Indian elephant. I had been backpacking from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Chiang Mai, Thailand with my best friend: my darling mother. Chiang Mai was the last stop on our adventure and I had been looking forward to my day with the elephants.

Chiang Mai is incredibly touristy there is no doubt about it and about 90% of the elephant events involve gimmicky shows where you watch elephants doing tricks and painting pictures for an audience. I had seen elephants in the wild before and the idea of watching one of these elephant shows did not appeal to me at all. Elephants are in my opinion one of the world's most majestic creatures. I have had this fascination with elephants ever since I was a little girl and when I learned there was a place where you learnt to be a mahout and ride an elephant for the day I had to go.
We were picked up from our hotel early in the morning by a shuttle from the park and driven to the  Baan Chang Elephant park. When you finally turn off the "main road" the van starts winding through the most beautiful fields with an idyllic mountain view surrounding you, taking you to the gorgeous elephant sanctuary. (All of the elephants are adopted or rescued from horrendous conditions and given a magical home.Which makes the experience all the more special as many of the elephants are related and you can see how happy they all are together.).

They debriefed the small group of us  on the rules before being given our blue mahout outfits to change into for the day. Dressed for success we learnt the basic commands we would need to communicate with our elephant, telling them to turn left, right, go forwards, backwards, stop, and to kneel. Once everyone in the group had the commands down it was finally time to meet the elephants. Approaching the gentle giants with gifts of bananas we had quickly made new friends. The instructor even let us meet some of the baby elephants bringing them around to give us "kisses" on the cheek with their snouts. Rubbing the elephants behind the ears and on their backs your hands were met with incredibly rough skin, which was obviously meant to be very tough.

After our meet and greet it was finally time to practice our commands. The first and most important command we learned was to lift knee high (song soong). You would prop one leg on the elephants leg so when it lifted its leg you could use it to jump onto its back positioning yourself carefully on its shoulder blades very close to its head. Once we all managed to mount our elephants we then had to learn how to steer them. "Pai" means go forwards and "How" means stop. These commands were worthless on their own but when used in conjunction with the physical commands the elephants were moving around in no time. (Because the elephants skin is so tough you have to squeeze super tight with your legs to make them stop, making for quite a funny scene as people got going quickly but had trouble stopping, shouting "HOW" a million times as they squeezed away with their legs.) Turning was simple enough and  we were all soon navigating a simple path to show off our newly acquired skills.

We took a break for lunch after our lesson, enjoying a fabulous local meal prepared by the school before finally embarking on the real adventure. You are paired up two people to an elephant. My mum and I were assigned to Bua Tong a large gentle female who was incredibly sweet and fortunately for us not quite as peckish as some of the other elephants on the trek. We began our journey up a pathway into the jungle. It was the most magical feeling, riding bare-back on an elephant through a tropical jungle in Thailand as the rain began to slowly trickle through the canopy. Some of the elephants stopped for a tasty tree branch along the way but Bua Tong kept going, marching along steadily with the group. The trip is broken up into two parts and is separated by a water break where you trade places with your partner. The first half is the easier half as it is on a gradual up hill path so my mum decided she would take the first leg.
                                 Click on this to watch a short clip of us riding through the jungle

After a short water break where we enjoyed a few small nibbles it was time to jump on Bua Tong's back for the second half of the journey. The second leg was mostly down hill and after some time we eventually left the path. The second we stepped off the path the rain began to pick up. By the time we had made our way down a slippery slope and were turning to walk back across the level plain towards the school the skies had opened up and the refreshing Thai rain was pouring down us. It was the perfect moment when you realize the true magic of riding an elephant through the jungle with warm rain pouring down and you can not help but smile and bask in the glory of the adventure. Yet just when I thought it couldn't get any better we made it back to the Baan Chang Elephant Park and it was time for a bath.

Arriving back at the park we hopped off our new found friends and took them into a nearby body of water for a bath. As we were already soaked to the bone walking into the water, scrubbing brushes in hand, did not phase us. With brushes as brittle as the elephants skin is rough we scrubbed down the darling creatures making sure to clean behind their ears. Standing beside Bua Tong, washing her sides, our feet began to disappear into the muddy earth below so we hopped on her back to finish scrubbing the top of her head and her back. To say elephants love the water is a total understatement. This was clearly a fabulous treat for all of the elephants who looked like they had died and gone to heaven being scrubbed away in this muddy pool. (To be fair the same could have been said for all the people giving their elephants a bath.) Elephants and people alike there was not a frown in sight. It had been a truly fabulous day and leaving my new best friend was incredibly hard. After saying our final goodbyes we showered up and changed into our clean clothes to take the shuttle out of this majestic place and head back to our hotel. 

This experience was 100% worth every penny and I hope to do the three day adventure one day. If you ever find yourself in Thailand be sure to make the journey to Baan Chang for this unforgettable experience.

Elaborate Ellora Caves

Bright eyed and bushy tailed from a relatively restful sardine-style head-to-toe-in-a-twin-bed nights sleep, we were off. After rallying the troops we checked out of the hotel and scurried outside to meet our driver at half past nine. Scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, and toast made a happy wait (for our late driver) and we were soon full and on our way to the Ellora caves. (Only stopping along the way to buy two liters of water each to add to the liter we each had already. No dehydration today!)

There are 34 caves at Ellora which are spread out over a vast expanse of desert. A very strange site to take in, the landscape looked as though during monsoon season it is a lush tropical paradise with water running through it. On this day, however, it was a barren waste land blowing up dust storms and slowly killing the emaciated puppies and water buffalo inhabiting it.

Front Face of Cave 16

Unlike the Ajanta caves which are carefully carved caverns in a rocky cliff face, the Ellora caves do not have the same cave like feel. In fact, to call them caves is quite an injustice. The temples at Ellora are magnificent structures built into hills. Some are similar to the caves at Ajanta, but many are large compounds, completely open to the elements, with several levels and rooms. It is also interesting to note that while the Ajanta caves are all Buddhist monuments, the structures at Ellora were built to support three different beliefs. Caves 1-12 are Buddhist, caves 13-29 are Hindu, and caves 30-34 are Jain. This makes Ellora particularly fascinating because each set of caves have their similarities and their unique differences. Visiting these temples back to back in the way Ellora offers, helps you to learn and understand some of the religious differences you may have never noticed going to different complexes on different days.

Elephant Statue

Cave 16, a massive Hindu temple built into the hill, made for a fabulous start to Ellora. As the largest and most ornate temple we saw in Ellora, this was probably my favorite. You enter the cave through an enormous gateway leading you into a courtyard where you find yourself facing two enormous elephant sculptures just to the front and on opposite sides of an elaborate two story temple. As you look around you realize that the gateway you entered is actually one of the four walls surrounding the courtyard, each with two levels of stone sculpting to

Cave 16

enjoy. The carvings included stories of the Hindu gods and elephants everywhere (view pictures below) making your mind thirsty for the stories depicted in the walls. We were lucky to have a friend with us who could explain most of the stories as we wandered through the various parts of the temple, making for a more intellectually fulfilling experience.

View of  central building at Cave 16

Once we had taken in all we could at cave 16, we continued on to temples 10, 12 and 14 which were all Buddhist temples. 10 was simply stunning and took your breathe away as the Ajanta caves had just the day before. You walk into a courtyard towards a two story temple with an open door. The sun is so bright that all you can see is a black hole in the entry way. Once you walk through the door, your eyes adjust to find a monumental cave complete with a cathedral style ceiling and a  massive Buddha in the center. The cave was cool and the ceiling made the echos of the spiritual humming fill the cave making an overwhelming sense of tranquility descend upon the inner chamber. In this idyllic moment it was not hard to visualize how one could meditate in there for hours and we took a moment to just breathe and relax in this remarkable place. On our way out, the cave monitor offered to let us go out onto the locked balcony upstairs to look down into the temple. Obviously accepting quickly and graciously, he lead us up the steps and through the locked wooden door. Yet, another amazing view for our eyes to feast upon and our cameras quickly began snapping away.

Seated Buddha in Cave 10

We trekked back to the car, stopping along the way to buy some small gifts, before being driven to caves 30 - 34. These Jain temples were by far the most fun to explore as they were all intertwined via ornate tunnels within the cliffs. You had to be quite agile to make your way between these caves as some of the steps were very steep and you often found yourself  climbing through interesting gaps. As someone who is somewhat afraid of the dark this maze of Jain temples was made particularly exhilarating by the pitch black hallway or jet black cavern you had to jump down into with a blinding light at the other end which was the way out on the other side. The smell of bat droppings was particularly pungent in these darker areas and I would stand and listen at the doorway for the location of the squeaking bats watching nonchalantly as others went through before me. Each passage brought you to new beautiful rooms devoted to various aspects of the Jain religion.

"window" in Cave 26

After quite sometime we headed back to the car which took us to caves 19 - 26. However, unfortunately for us due to a landslide we could only see 26. This was not a hardship as 26 was an immense Hindu temple with stunning views, gorgeous carvings, and a massive footprint. This temple was also blessed by squeaking bats in dark corners, adding to the mysticism of the place.One edge of the temple sat on the edge of a cliff featuring a balcony "window" where you could sit letting your legs dangle precariously over the edge while you took in the forbidden temples complete with the recent landslide alongside the barren Indian countryside. As we sat enjoying the view we watched a skin and bones water buffalo appear in the distance and walk ever so slowly through the lifeless desert to a stagnant pool of water just below us, where it waded in to the deepest point attempting to escape from the brutal heat of the day.  It looks as though this pool is usually the beginning of a stream that flows through what one can only imagine as lush tropical fields, but still a few months from monsoon season, the landscape is struggling along with the wildlife that depend on it.

Water Buffalo in the last pool of water

Having successfully enjoyed as many of the caves as reasonably practical we headed back to Aurangabad  to shower and freshen up for the sleeper bus back to Mumbai, where I would soon thereafter be catching a flight home. The little I was fortunate enough to see of this Southern part of India was absolutely brilliant and has definitely made me thirsty for more adventures in India!

Inner sanctum of a Jain temple

View from upper level in Jain Temple

Inner sanctum of a Jain temple

Cave 10 from upper balcony

Lower Level at Cave 16

Elephants at base of central temple in Cave 16

looking down from the uppermost level of cave 16