A stroll in Saúde with Rolé Carioca
Last Sunday, a friend and I got up super early (well, 8am, but this was a Sunday remember) and headed to central Rio. Centro is a weird place on the weekend – most of the huge, wide streets, so busy and chaotic on weekdays, are almost completely deserted.
It’s a shame because Centro has some beautiful buildings and excellent bars and restaurants but almost everything shuts down on weekend – you half expect to see tumbleweeds rolling down Avenida Rio Branco. There are some oases, such as the Saturday samba on Rua do Ouvidor, but the vast majority of the city centre is completely fechado.
There are some reasons to be hopeful – I’m hoping that regeneration schemes such as Porto Maravilha will help improve the situation. While we wait for that though, there is another option but it means giving up your Sunday morning lie-in.
The people at Rolé Carioca organise walks through the more interesting, historical areas of the city.
After 3.5 years living in Rio, I am now almost completely Brazilian when it comes to timekeeping. Luckily it seems the tour organisers were expecting that, so when we showed up 30 minutes late for the one hour tour, we were relieved to see that everyone was still milling about and getting organised.
The starting point of the tour was Largo São Francisco da Prainha in the neighbourhood of Saúde. Luckily for me they didn’t leave on time!
There were around 40 people in the group and 4 guides. We split into 2 groups and then headed off to a variety of interesting locations in the neighbourhoods of Saúde and Gamboa. Most of the people on the tour were locals and all the information was in Portuguese, but even if your Portuguese isn’t perfect there is still plenty to see.
The “1 hour tour” (which actually took closer to 2 hours) started off by taking us past this huge, abandoned warehouse.
I was very happy to see these lovely old, red bricks. Bricks like this are very common back in England, but quite rare here in Rio.
The big guy at the back with the even bigger smile was the main tour guide.
On the left you see the more modern paralelepípedos – on the right you see the older style paving which the guide likened to a quebra cabeça (jigsaw puzzle). Anyone who has visited Paraty (250km west of Rio) will recognise this uneven style of paving.
I’m pretty sure that Gamboa and Saúde have the most beautiful buildings in Rio.
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A little later in the tour, we visited Pedra do Sal. Pedra do Sal was originally a quilombo (settlement of escaped slaves) and later was central to the development of Samba.
After spending some time at Pedra do Sal, we climbed up to Morro da Conceição.
The tour finished at Fortaleza da Conceição, with more beautiful buildings and great views across the city.
The next Rolé Carioca tour will be on 24th November in Vila Isabel (9am start). Find more details on the Rolé Carioca Facebook page. If you’re interested in Rio’s history, culture and architecture, I’d highly recommend it!
As the hooker said to the leper: “thanks for the tip”. Will definitely check this out if I ever make it to Rio.
I think you’d like it!
I just finished a book about Brazil’s independence and Pedro I, ‘El Imperio eres tú’ and those buildings rang a bell.
My thoughts are that “once you try a guided tour you’ll never look back” is my experience since losing my guided tour virginity a few years ago.
I’m all for autonomy and doing your own thing but the ability to tap into someone’s knowledge and passion for something truly brings it to life.
Plus audio-guides don’t answer questions no matter how much you beg ;)
Ha ha! I know what you’re saying Chris – guided tours don’t sound like the most exciting thing. We all want to be intrepid, independent explorers don’t we? ;) But as you say, good tours run by people who are really into what they’re doing can be great.
I lived in London for years before one day taking a boat down the river Thames from Greenwich to Waterloo. There was a guy up on deck with a microphone and I normally think that kind of thing is bullshit. But you know what? It was really interesting and I learned a lot about all the buildings and areas of London that I had been passing through for years.
Firstly, the secretary of tourism of Rio de Janeiro should train its people to speak English and Spanish as well because most walking tours are conducted only in Portuguese. It seems that the authorities here in Brazil think that people should take a basic Portuguese course before visiting the country. Secondly, the old buildings and houses should be restored because they’re in bad conditions, even in the South American countries they’re well preserved. I hope that things improve here if Rio wants to be a more international city, recognised by the international community.
Hi Marcos – I too am surprised that there aren’t more tourist services like this in English, Spanish, German, French, etc. Certainly the people in charge of tourism are not doing a good job.
And I agree, there are so many lovely old buildings that are crumbling. If the local government could revitalise these areas then more people would want to live there and then they would buy these properties and spend money on preserving them. Sadly, the fact that many of these areas are deserted during the weekends makes them dangerous, boring or just impractical and so then people don’t want to live there. But I don’t think is an impossible problem to fix – I live in hope! :)
Hi Tom, I happened to be waiting for the boat to Paqueta one Sunday morning, and noticed the same thing; how so many beautiful buildings are going to seed, and are screaming for new life! I envisioned art studios, galleries, dance studios, restaurants, cafes, book stores, antique stores, wine bars, microbreweries etc… a inexhaustible list of work/live possibilities. It was so funny, when my parents came for the first time to Rio, then ended up in Centro on the weekend to visit the MAR. My mother asked my dad: “Where’s the nice part of Rio?” Ah, ah, ah! I knew what she meant when she said that!
As for bi-lingual or more-lingual options for tourists, wouldn’t that just be a delight! My Portuguese is getting there, but I’m sure I’d be bugging my husband most of the time for a translation if we went on the tour. Are you volunteering to do it in English? hint….hint…
BTW. We drove by Sal Cisne in Cabo Frio, and thought about your post. Keep up the good work.
Hi Solare! How was Paquetá? I’ve been meaning to go for ages, but every time we plan to go, we get lazy and stay in bed too long in the morning and then miss the ferry! :-/
I feel exactly the same way about all those lovely old buildings – when I saw that huge brick building it made me think of loft conversions in London and New York. That whole area should be the coolest part of town, where people flock after work and on weekends! It’s full of great spaces and also close to the downtown area of the city – should be perfect really.
As Alex says below, I think that whole area may well be transformed in the next 5-10 years. If I had any money, I’d be tempted to buy up a whole load of property around Gamboa. Could be an amazing investment.
As for “Tom the Tour Guide” – I could be persuaded! One day maybe… ;)
Dang Marcos, it seems like you really hate Rio :/
Anyway, these neighborhoods have huge potential, especially because they are right next to the huge redevelopment of ”Porto Maravilha”. In five years (or less) it’s going to be unrecognizable. Right now the Zona Portuária is scary and a horrible place to be ”welcomed into Rio” (it’s where the bus terminal is) but they’re blowing up the Perimetral as we speak so it’s just a matter of time until this becomes one of the hottest neighborhoods in Rio (outside of the ZS norms)
Hey Alex – yeah, I’m really interested to see what happens in that area of town over the next few years. As Solare said above, it seems like it has a lot of things going for it. I hear the decommissioning of the perimetral has caused traffic chaos, but I have to say I’m delighted to see it go – it was so ugly and I hated the way it dominated the streets around there and made everything so dark and claustrophobic. Good riddance I say! :)
Yeah, the perimetral demolition has caused a lot of controversy, but most people don’t realize that they are building a giant tunnel below the whole port area from Centro in order to alleviate the traffic. The whole reason behind the closing of the perimetral was so that the neighborhood would no longer be ”cut off” from the bay, so now things can start to integrate.
I truly think that this WILL be one of the best neighborhoods in Rio once it’s done. There are hundreds of awesome projects about to break ground over there, as well as tons of redevelopments/reworkings of the old buildings, which is very important. They are also putting all the electricity and telephone wires below ground and have a nice ”arborização’ plan, which will make the neighborhood much more attractive urbanistically.
Hopefully this works well, so other neighborhoods can follow! I think the ZS neighborhoods like Flamengo, Laranjeiras and Catete are the next ones to see something like this happen, because their location is awesome, they have great character, are already great neighborhoods but I can see room for improvement. It’s just a matter of time !
Sorry, I’m going a little bit off on a rant, but Real Estate is my calling and that’s why Rio/Brazil excites me so much!
:P
Abraço
We went to centro for lunch one Saturday and my oldest (chatterbox) said that during the weekend centro looks like we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. I had to agree. It can be almost creepy!
That said, I can’t wait for the new port. I love going to centro! Like you said, the buildings are amazing and there are some great spots to grab a bite or get beer.
Yes! Zombie Apocalypse is just the right description! Nice work Chatterbox! :D It really is eerie – especially when you see just a few homeless guys staggering around. Sad really…
Looking forward to seeing how Porto Maravilha turns out – I hope they do it tastefully!