I have two main recommendations for people travelling to Rio, or living in Rio.
1. Tivas and socks: a fashion no-no all over the world, which are climatically inappropriate here (it was 100 degrees today), and an invitation to get mugged. I saw a man today wearing this travesty and I thought I'd just put that out there.
2. Copy today's itinerary that me and my friends did. It is good for ridiculously hot days like today, or not.
First, we headed over to Parque Lage for their Sunday brunch, though the girls opted for waffles. The brunch has 2 options and I chose the R$17 one which includes fresh OJ, different types of bread, a semi cream cheese and chives thing, some other topping things, a slice of sponge cake like thing, fresh fruit, and a choice of another drink (too hot for coffee today). It's not an American brunch persay, but it was perfect for a day like today when it's too hot to eat a huge meal. It was unbearably hot, but it is such a luxurious setting in the middle of the Lage mansion. (See my past entries about Parque Lage and Cafe du Lage)
That's Cristo up there at the top, by the way.
Next, we took a bus to Ipanema, where we went to Museu H Stern. H Stern is a jewelery giant with its headquarters in Rio. It also has a museum which not many people know about, and for sure gets a Rachel's Recommendation. First, let me say it isn't that easy to find; you have to go through this driveway in front of the actual H Stern store.
And the adventure starts there. The free adventure.
First let me say that the museum was one of the fanciest buildings I've been in Rio, and I felt gross from being so sweaty and unput together. But they were so welcoming and polite anyway.
First, you are ushered into an extremely luxurious lobby with "Welcome" written in possibly every world language behind the desk. We filled out a short form and got ID badges. There, they offer you water, caipirinhas, and sodas while you wait for your guide, who showed up in approximately 3 seconds. She was very pleased we spoke Portuguese and ushered us into another room, with more friendly people, who gave us audio guides to the "factory" part of the museum. The audio tour is offered in maybe 15 or 20 languages, but we all chose Portuguese.
The tour is quite quick, and ushers you through the process of making jewelry, from exploiting the stones to putting everything together into a ring or a necklace. The actual factory is there with glass windows so you get to watch the people cutting the stones and making them into jewelery. It is incredibly cool.
After that, you return your audio stuff and ANOTHER tour guide comes to get you. She took us to this similarly luxurious room that looked like a fancy New York restaurant, and we sat down and she gave us a free gift of a box of uncarved precious Brazilian stones with explanations. Then she asked us if we wanted refreshments and we said yes, and she said ok let's do the "demonstration" first and I'll ask for the drinks. So she busts out this box of ridiculously fancy rings with diamonds and such and says, "So take a look, you can try them on, whatever." We started to get really nervous that she was trying to get us to buy something, so I asked some dumb questions but she didn't seem terribly concerned there was no way we were going to buy anything, but then she ushered us to the next part without getting us our drinks.
H Stern's latest ad with novela star Camila
The next part is the diamond hall, where you can see GIGANTIC diamonds and also ones set in jewelery which you can look at with funny 3D glasses that make the diamonds have this incredibly sparkle. Then, you are ushered into the showroom, with H Stern's latest collection and their top items. They are stunning and just fun to look at, even though I know they're for sale and they ultimately are hoping you'll buy something, but there is absolutely no harm in looking and dreaming. You have to see it to believe the incredible jewelery they have.
Here is a sample of some of their new stuff.
After rooms and rooms of their incredible sparking jewelry with diamonds and emeralds and rubies, you head into the gift shop, with really beautiful Brazil touristy crap (with no price tags, just codes!) and then you go into yet another gorgeous waiting room where you can sit and rest and drink iced tea and coffee and read magazines in the unbelievably GLORIOUS air conditioning. The whole time we felt a little funny, almost guilty, since it was free and they kept giving us free stuff.
Then finally we decided to leave after lazing around on the lovely leather chairs and couches and wound up back where we started in the weird garage, where yet another assistant took our badges and asked us if we'd like a free ride back to our "hotel" which is funny because the two girls are in hostels and my friend and I are in my apartment. We had other spots to hit up, so we politely declined.
So we were on our way down Visconde de Piraja and all the sudden we stumbled across a new cafe called Yogoberry, an ice cream place that only serves frozen yogurt. But not just any frozen yogurt--NATURAL frozen yogurt. You can get regular or green tea, and you can get a bunch of ice cream-like toppings or fresh fruit toppings. You can also get smoothies made with fruit and the regular frozen yogurt blended together. I got regular yogurt with blackberries on top. Natural frozen yogurt is kind of like eating yogurt, and has healthy elements for you and tastes much different from sugary yogurt; it has an almost sour cream taste to it. It is absolutely delicious. The shop is very funky-new age looking with silly round lights hung with strings of orange hanging down. It was a necessary stop on an incredibly hot day.
More info here.
The girls headed over to the Hippie Fair, which has lots of touristy crap but also beautiful jewelery, furniture, clothes, handbags, and other fun things. I, however, have been there many many times so I decided to come home and sit in front of the fan. You, however, can brave the heat and go shopping.
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