Brazil - a country of contrast

I'm trying to get Rio and areas around it in some semblance of order. So I'm going to try and photograph some of my old print photos to see whether they come out well enough to add to this thread.

In the meantime I'll take you to the Samba!

Whilst you're looking at the pictures you can listen to this song. It's Manha de Carnaval from the musical 'Black Orpheus'. The song is much slower, and quieter, than the music at the show.


These type of shows also give them the opportunity to practice for Carnival.



Notice that the woman on the right has three legs

 

Copacabana was the first beach of Rio that became famous and glamorous. Then the fame started to move to Ipanema as they started to build hotels and clubs along it's beachfront. Copacabana has managed to regain its popularity by working hard at it. It has the advantage that its beach is bigger.

These are some old photos that I took in the 1980's

The beach was quite empty at 6.30 a.m. At the far end, on the rocks that are sticking out into
into the sea is an old fort that now has restaurants and bars along its front, but it's still an army barracks as well. At the time of this photo it had not yet been opened to the public.


Looking in the other direction at 9 a.m. there are people already getting comfortable on the beach.


And most of the beach viewed from Sugar Loaf. Our hotel was the tallest one in the middle of the picture. It allowed for wonderful views from our room.


Those photos of the beach were taken when the tide was out. Coming forward to 2014, these were taken from the fort when the tide was in.

 

The fort is a good place to go for a leisurely lunch or dinner. The food was quite varied and good.






And there was entertainment

 

Across the Bay is the town of Niteroi. This used to be the capital of the region when Rio was the capital of Brazil but, when Brasilia was built and became the capital, it was relegated to just another town.

There is a bridge between Rio and Niteroi that is nearly 14 km long! When it was built in the 1970's it was the second longest bridge, over water, in the world. Now it's still the longest bridge in Latin America but there are many longer bridges that have been built since then.






On a cliff overlooking the Bay is the Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer who was world famous for designing free form buildings in concrete and glass. He won dozens of awards and received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

He was 89 when he designed this museum and continued working and designing until over the age of 100.






The gallery is cantilevered out over the Bay.

 

Outside the Museum is an 'interesting' installation. It



The Museum has some residents




Sugar Loaf and Rio are just across the Bay


An interesting rock formation just below the Museum


and the beach nearby isn't exactly all the rage

 

Further around the Bay is a very impressive fort.

There are a number of abandoned forts on the Bay but the Fortaleza de Santa Cruz is still in use. Although it allows visitors to tour around inside, they are under escort by one of the soldiers who acts as the guide.

In the days when it was protecting the Bay it would have been a daunting sight for anyone wishing to invade. There are dozens of cannons and guns. The building itself is impressive and would have taken a lot of work to build.

The approach to the fort is along an easily defendable road


Just outside the gates of the fort is a little welcome that the kids enjoy.


It's still a working fort after 400 years




Guns point out into the Bay and across the Bay

 

This is an old depiction of the fort. They added more cannons all round the ramparts.


The fort was built directly onto the solid rock face and it would have been difficult for an assault to scramble up the rocks before reaching the walls.


Once through the entrance and past the guard stations it opened out and there was a small chapel with lawn around it.




Some of the light fittings were interesting



This was our escort/guide

 

It was extremely hot when we were there and the military had umbrellas for us to keep the sun off!





There were dozens of these archways and on multiple levels. Each archway contained a cannon.


Even the fishermen used umbrellas



They had a number of jails. Some were deep inside the building and were large, stone, rooms with no natural light at all. Prisoners were kept in there with no artificial light and many of them crammed to a room.

Others were 'luckier' and were kept in places with some natural light. The bottom cell had a low ceiling and people couldn't stand upright, whereas the upper cell was posher and had sufficient height by the door. I think these two are still in occasional use.



This fellow seemed to be a resident and not too bothered about people around him. Don't know what he was doing awake in the heat of the day!

 

The archways stretched around three sides of the fort as the fort was on a promontory sticking out into the Bay.


The whole place felt extremely solid and didn't appear to have deteriorated in four hundred years.


Of course, not everyone was interested in the history of the place


The cannons had a good provenance


We were given instructions on firing them


and about the ingenious way for making sure of the aim.

Each cannon was fixed in place and there were sighting holes in the wall to each side of the gun. A man was stood at each hole and the hole was angled so that it would only be able to sight on a ship when it reached where the cannon was aiming.

 

The Tijuca National Park is a forest in the mountains just behind Rio and the Statue of Christ and covers almost 10,000 acres.

It can get quite hot and sticky but, at least, you can keep in the shade most of the time.

A few hundred years ago there was a lot of deforestation because of the expansion of coffee plantations but in the 1860's King Don Pedro I ordered that it be reforested. It's now the most popular recreation area in Rio and has hiking trails, horse riding trails, lots of waterfalls and a lot of children's sport and play areas.

There are a number of roads that weave through it and they get very busy at holiday time (we were there at New Year).


There's a fairly famous waterfall that you can get close to - but can't climb up it.
This is a very old depiction of the area as it was then.