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This post continues from the previous post: How my ICLR in Brasil went (2)
Spoiler: there is no ICLR in this post. A bit of Peru and Mexico replaced it hehe
Day 4. How Brasileiros spend their Sunday
Although I went to bed quite late, I woke up quite early in the morning again. 12 hour gap is literally the biggest difference you can have as a jet lag, and it was definitely affecting me.
Tried the hotel breakfast. It was about 13 USD, which is quite cheap regarding it’s a hotel buffet. But you always pay for what you get. It was not really worth it 😅
I had two choices at this point: either attending ICLR workshops (the main days were over) or go to some of Rio’s touristic places. Well, the answer was quite obvious 🤷🏻♂️
Glória Market
Every Sunday, there happens a huge market in the neighborhood near Estaçao Glória.
How did I know it? It’s the mighty local friend Luana again. Today I’ll be following after how a Rio local spends the weekend. Doing something locals would do is something all tourists want to do isn’t it?
There were items of every type. It was very very big and busy, but the atmosphere was quite chill. Definitely recommend if you plan to spend Sunday in Rio at some point. Loved the vibe.
There was a huge grassy field where you can put out your blanket and enjoy picnic. A lot of people were enjoying their food they bought from nearby food stands.
I didn’t know it, but the Lapa neighborhood, where I visited at day 1, was quite close from here. Visiting here at daytime gave a quite different vibe.
Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião
Or, the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Sebastian, is known for having a beautiful stained glass. Luana said she’d never been here before!
It was a beautiful building, and had a holy vibe. No A/C but still pleasantly chilly
Praia de Copacabana
And now, I arrived at the most touristic beach in the world:
I also went inside the water, and instantly realized that it was so cold to soak myself 🥶
One distinctive thing was that the waves were super stronger than any other beaches I’ve been to! I fell and my palms hurt.
I understood how Brasil became known for good football players… even some ordinary people in the beach have extraordinary level of ball control! They are all just Neymar with different souls
From this point, I fell in love with this drink, and ordered mate com limão every time I visit a restaurant. It’s so good, so please try it when you go to Rio.
One sweet thing I noticed is how people call these servers. In Korea we say “여기요”, which literally means “here”, and in English we say, “excuse me”. Here in Brasil, it’s:
Meu amor,
which means “my love” 🥹
I find it very warm and lovely; an incredibly charming way to interact with people.
Luana told me her favorite spot to see the sunset, so we went there:
Pedra do Arpoador
Where we got out of the Uber was the middle of Praia de Ipanema, because the Uber couldn’t really get to the point we were heading to.
It was a cape-like point that is located at the end of the Ipanema beach. We walked along the beach that was packed with people.
It was somewhat hard to take a good photo because of the crowd, but the view was fantastic.
Fun (but-nsfw) fact about this rocky sunset viewpoint is that this point is a well-known place where gay people frequently gather to do orgies.
There is a news report about this too. I leave the link in case you are interested:
An interview introduced in the report:
I enjoy walking and running, and I've seen everything on the landfill. People doing oral, anal, there's everything there. And that's not all. Many drugged people look for it too. That's why I avoid taking my son there to play.
Boteco Belmonte Ipanema
It was 6pm when the sun’s completely gone, and we headed to the nearby restaurant.
I liked Luana’s menu more than mine haha
I was still not used to the generous portion of Brasil, and couldn’t finish my pork. It would’ve been better if it was served with rice, but anyway, I became super full after this.
There was a small encounter with a Korean guy here:
👤: Hi, just wanted to say hello because you are Asian
😯: (oh? familiar intro)
👤: Could I ask where you’re from?
😯: I’m from South Korea
(Start speaking in Korean)
👤: Oh, I am with my Brazilian friends and we’ve been making guesses about you — my friends thought you were a Brazilian guy who grew up here and I thought you were just a Korean traveler. Now I think I’m right haha
😯: Woah, really?
Honestly, I took that as a superb compliment that I looked like a Rio local 😆
Lost in Rio
This day was technically my last free night in Rio, since my flight is early Tuesday morning. I couldn’t finish my Sunday night like this, so we had more caipirinhas at a bar near the beach.
By the way, Luana drinks really well, and I was the only one who got tipsy at the end 😅
It was a really great time hearing about what it’s like to live here, as well as Luana’s personal concerns. Before coming here, I was in the middle of a busy graduate school life and had become someone who couldn’t really stop thinking about work. Being here I felt genuinely detached from all of that. Rio seriously has something that makes a person relaxed and chill.
Then, Luana came up with another idea to extend the night.
Somewhere in Favela
Favela is an alternative term to call slurm or ghetto area in Brasil, indicating impoverished neighborhoods. They are usually built on hills, and you often see it while you Uber to downtown.
Favelas are indeed a dangerous place as there are higher chance of getting robbed, but some tourists find its unique feature and appearance attractive. And now there are some tours that let tourists walk around safer favelas.
I was not really a fan of it, as it felt like the tour operators were monetizing the people’s poverty (but this could also be one of main ways to support the favelas, so don’t trust me 😅)
But what Luana mentioned sounded quite tempting: there are places where locals often visit just for fun and she even has a friend there working at a bar in favela! It seemed like it would be my only chance to visit favela, and I was quite curious.
A typical way to get to the favela is to ride a motorcycle. There are stations where you can pay for a ride, and once you do, you simply hop behind a skilled motorcycle driver. I was scared to take out my phone and record, but Luana seemed completely fine, casually pulling out her phone to record the video for me.
However, from a certain point, we were no longer allowed to take photos. Apparently, some people there were carrying unauthorized firearms, and they wanted to prevent photos of them carrying weapons from being shared through the media.
The only photo I was able to take here was this spectacular night view from the favela; since it’s located high up on a hill of Rio, you can see a wonderful view of the Ipanema coastline!
By the time I got back to the hotel, it was 1:30am, and this was the last time I got to hang out with Luana. Really grateful to her for making my time here so much special!
Day 5. Last day in Rio
Finally the last day has come. Although I was quite drunk and slept late, I inevitably woke up before 8 😥 — the jet lag isn’t a joke for Koreans in Brasil!
Today I had two things to do: have a lunch with Sangjun, Minho and Sukjun, and buy some souvenirs.
Restaurante Outback Steakhouse
Inside the mall looked quite normal
Brasil is known for good meat… then Outback should be good too
They were overall fine, but I liked Korean Outback more 😅
One last sip of Copacabana
Dropped by a local supermarket (Zona azul) for some souvenirs
In the Copacabana beach, there were some stage work going on to prepare Shakira’s performance that will happen in few days.
There were fancy magnets with various Rio illustrations, but the signpost above touched my heart in an unusual way:
= To travel is to change the clothes of the soul
It’s a famous phrase by the Brazilian poet Mário Quintana. I’ve never heard of it before, but it sounded pretty cool — really matches the Rio’s vibe as well
CR Flamengo is one of the best football clubs in Brasil, representing Rio de Janeiro
From here, all that left for me was to wake up at 3am,
say bye to my room,
grab an uber and enjoy the very last view of Rio,
… to finally start another 61-hour travel back to Korea!
Lima, Perú
The city looked quite flat (geologically)
I’ve been to Lima back in 2020, so I wanted to try something different:
And the famous Miraflores — I had something to do here.
When I last visited Lima, I was a poor undergrad who gave up doing paragliding because it was too expensive (about 100USD)
So I tried this time:
and it was….. so cold 😅. When doing around April-May, everyone, bring clothes.
Also, had a typical Peruvian dinner at Punto Azul
Miraflores is known for being safe and vibrant, and it actually was
After all this, I had to leave at 6AM,
and move again…
Ciudad de México, México
Mexico was in a hurry to finish their construction (due to the World Cup 2026) in the airport
Again encountered a very friendly Uber driver. Every driver I met in the travel is so nice.
How come?
Stopped by a taqueria that is famous among Koreans; Taqueria El Torito, but in fact it was a different one 😅 (where I planned to go vs. where I went)
I asked the owner if there are a lot of Korean visitors, and he said yes 😂 so maybe it’s not just me who got confused.
But honestly, the tacos were super good and I was very satisfied
There was a famous cathedral nearby, and some stage works (maybe again related to the World Cup) were going on
It was very lively and vibrant, and I can definitely see myself coming back here again in the future
And now it’s time to go home…
Two nasty things that this lady did:
- I dropped my blanket and lost it, and it turned out that this lady somehow grabbed mine on the floor and just used it for her. I had to ask flight attendants for the blanket multiple times.
- The way she used my blanket was to block off that particular part of her own armrest, preventing the person behind her from putting their feet on it, just as she’d done to me
Despite the disgust, I stomped her foot multiple times with my elbow and it disappeared occasionally, but she never gave up putting her feet on it eventually 😓
Back to reality…
Everyone knows how it feels like to be home.
I’ve been to many countries before, but Brasil felt a little more special to me.
Maybe it was the warmth of the people, the way no one seemed to be in too much of a rush, or simply the way people here seemed to know how to enjoy life—relaxing on the beaches, gathering to see sunsets, humming while making açaí drinks, and importantly, being good at dancing 😆
Brasil is not only on the opposite side of the world from where I grew up, but also its culture is on the opposite side of the spectrum too. Perhaps that’s why it gave me great lessons and memories in such wholesome ways?
At one point, I genuinely thought I should try living here for 6 months, but that might be exactly the kind of thing a tourist says after spending a few weeks in Rio, without really knowing what it’s like to live here as a resident. So… I’ll take that back haha
My interest in this country somehow transformed my Instagram algorithms to something like this:
Anyway, a part of me would love to come back someday; not just as a tourist, but to see what it feels like to call this place home, even just for a little while.
Having a break is important, and doing it at somewhere very far from where you grew up, live, and work, is even better.
Oh, and ICLR was fantastic.
Thanks again for the school for funding the trip, and even more special thanks to every single person I've encountered during the trip for making me wonderful memories!
I’ll be back with another post, hopefully soon.