The Pulse of Rio

Tourism is very relative.  What people from Germany love, the French might dislike. The Aussies have a different choice when in Bali, that of only drinking and the Americans may do some actual sightseeing with the drinking.

Brazil and India are members of BRICS, which stands for, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. I think within this union, Brazil and India have more close relations in terms of people than the communist China and Russia. Brazil and India . Rio and Mumbai!

Sunny beaches with tropical weather(India without the women),  friendly people  or the multiethnic culture that the two have are a few from the many similarities that we share. This might be the reason that, I as an Indian traveler didn’t find Brazil and especially the city of Rio de Janeiro too different to explore. The past three years of coming to South America and the equation with Brazil has gone to 5 nights in 2010 to only one night in 2014.

As in India we say, Mumbai has not much sightseeing to do like its counterpart New Delhi(yes I personally hate our capital), but a pulse to feel. Only few do feel it and the once who do, want to come back or stay longer.

Christ the Redeemer is the solo-pulling factor to a lot of Indians that travel to South America. That’s the only reason I need to keep Rio in the tour to South America. Well that is what I thought until yesterday.

Last night I asked the Doorman in broken Spornish(Spanish Portuguese) at the hotel in Rio, “Donde es muito bom lugar para comer”, Which might have sounded to him like “where good place to eat is”. To which he said something in his native tongue and pointed me to a direction, “-----dos quadras, derecha----”, I only got two blocks to the right and that was enough from the many words he spoke. It was drizzling a bit and from a distance I could see the words, ‘boitego informao’, which literally meant drinking informally and that’s what I did for the next 2 hrs.

I don’t know whether it was the Caprinha, the local cocktail with vodka/rum cane sugar, soda and lime, or whether it was the two old ladies that were hitting on me, or the three young ones who chose to say ‘I don’t speak English or Spanish’ or the waiter who kept on talking to me about my trip in South America, but that night I felt something in that informal atmosphere.

As the sound of the rain out, mixed with the voices of locals in the bar, I suddenly felt it, I felt the pulse of Rio. The famous Copa Cabana with all those chiseled bodies, the top tourist attractions together didn’t make up for the night in Boitega Infarmao!

 When I walked back to the hotel, (actually it was more of a run), I knew I would stay longer the next time when I come back. For the first time I fell in love with Rio, Brazil!



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