Niteroi
April 27 2013
Rio de Janeiro sits on the west side of Guanabara Bay. The bay is so large, that when Portuguese explorers first arrived, they thought they had found the mouth of a huge river, because it went so far inland they could not see the other end. The bay is 31 kilometres long.
Besides Rio, there are three other cities on the shores of the bay. Niteroi is directly across from Rio on the east side.
The principal at the girls’ school is from Brazil, and we had been in touch with her brother, Marcos, who lives in Sao Paulo (and whom we would see in a few days). He had said that the Museum of Contemporary Art in Niteroi was very impressive and worth visiting. We had looked up on their website and found reference to a weekend brunch. Now the only question was, how to get there?
You can take a taxi over a bridge that stretches 13 kilometres across the water between the two cities. Or you can take the ferry. We opted for the ferry. We walked through downtown again, towards the ferry docks near the old palace, one of the places we had been on the walking tour the day before. Behind the palace is a raised freeway, like the Gardiner expressway in Toronto, cutting off the city from the water.
Under the freeway there was an impromptu market of some kind, with tables and stalls thrown up in the shadow of the concrete overpass. We wiggled through and crossed a square to the ferry docks beyond. There were small lineups infront of three ticket windows. We got our tickets and headed through the green metal turnstiles into the ferry building.
Inside it was like a metal maze inside a long barn. There were signs about where to wait for which ferry, and metal bars blocking your path in certain directions, so you would stay in your designated area. More people filed in behind us and soon it was clear that it would be difficult to go backwards, while the way forwards was blocked until the ferry arrived.
Eventually, it did. A wide gangplank lowered and people poured out. Then we poured in, and found a spot to sit on the upper deck, near the windows of the starboard side. As it pulled away I was able to take some pictures of the airport where we had arrived. It is just a little south of the docks.
As we crossed the bay, you could see small boats in the distance bouncing up and down on the water. The mountains at the entrance to the ocean were tall and striking.
A short while later, we were on the other side, spilling out with the crowd onto a sunlit plaza in front of the ferry building. We had made it to the other side of the bay, but there was no clear indication of where to go next.
We knew from our research that there was a bus that would take us to the museum. But where to catch it? One man we spoke to directed us to a nearby stop, but it didn’t take long before we saw the bus we wanted zoom past without stopping. We scouted the area a bit more and eventually figured out that the stop we really wanted was a fair distance south of where we were, and also across one lane of traffic. There is a complex intersection close to the ferry terminal, and we needed to be more or less in the middle of it!
Shortly after we made it to the correct spot, the bus came, picked us up, and followed a round-about path along the coast line to the museum.
Marcos was right, it was a stunning building! I had never before seen anything quite like it. It looked like a flying saucer, mounted on a central pedestal, with a winding ramp rising to the main entrance.
The design was actually inspired by a flower. The ramp is intended to be like the stem, and the round main building is the blooming centre.
We spent a short while just enjoying the plaza around the base. You can walk across it to the edge and look down to the water, and across the bay to Rio, and Sugar Loaf, and Corcovado, the mountain with Christ the Redeemer on top.
Nearby is a small island, close enough to see the houses built on it, one of them right at the water’s edge. A small foot bridge connects the island to the mainland.
We found that the entrance to the restaurant is down some stairs from the plaza. The restaurant is in the basement of the building, and is lined with windows that look out over the bay.
Unfortunately, no brunch! Or we had missed it. But they were still serving from their normal menu, so we sat down and ordered some pasta and fish. It was excellent! The best meal we had had by far since we left New York City. The girls especially liked the “smiley potatoes.”
After lunch, we made our way back outside and up the ramp to the main entrance. When entering the galleries, we emerged first into a large main room in the centre of the building. It was lined with small framed photographs.
Outside the room, a continuous circular hallway curves around the building. Artwork and installations greet you in each section, and angled windows provide a spectacular view of Niteroi, and Rio across the bay.
There is a wide staircase that led to an upper level. At the top of the staircase there are several interactive displays where you can make your own artworks. Jill laid out some triangles to make a stegosaurus. Barbara laid out some red yarn to make a flower.
The upper level has its own circular hallway around the edge, but with no windows. Instead, it has openings that look in on the central room below.
The building is a unique space, that creates a distinctive atmosphere for the art it contains. We spent a leisurely amount of time just walking around inside. It was compelling enough that when we returned to the entrance, I stopped at the small gift shop and purchased a panoramic print of the museum with Niteroi and the bay in the background.
We thought about taking a bus back to the ferry dock, but the problem was that on its return trip, the bus did not go past the museum. It took another route back to the ferry dock. We could have headed inland a few blocks to find the bus, but we were a bit leery of chasing buses after our expedition getting here. Plus, it was another beautiful day. We decided to walk around the shoreline. It ought to only take around half an hour to get back to the ferry dock by foot.
At this point of the coastline, the road is at the top of a small cliff, with beaches below at the water’s edge. Unlike beautiful Copacabana though, these beaches were not in good shape. The water was not clear, and garbage floated on the surf and littered the edge of the sand. As we approached the foot bridge to the small island nearby, we could see some people playing on the beach, but they were not going in the water.
Further along, the road turned north and we got a perfect view across the water to Rio. A little past there, the road went by an old fort. Signs said it was the property of the military, no trespassing, but the barbed wire over the gate and the narrow slits in its whitewashed towers made the statement stronger than any sign could.
We made it back to the area near the ferry. It was around 4pm, and we didn’t feel like going back home just yet. I had also developed a sore throat that was bad enough I was eager to find a drug store and some lozenges.
Low and behold, across the street from where we had picked up the bus, there was a drug store! Beside it there was a large shopping mall. We found what appeared to be throat lozenges in the drug store, but they turned out to taste pretty bad. I used them sparingly, and we would save the rest for emergencies only.
The mall was more like what we expected. Our first stop was something familiar: a frozen yogurt shop. After that, we browsed until we found an arcade, where the girls were eager to play a game called Ducky Splash, where they got to shoot water at rubber ducks, to direct them through a tunnel. The game spat out a certain number of tickets depending on how many ducks they managed to get through. They gleefully traded in their tickets for some lollipops.
The mall was much larger than the one we had been at yesterday. We were surprised how much it felt like something right out of Toronto, or Vaughn.
There was a shoe store that carried Converse sneakers, and the girls were in need of something to replace some older shoes we had brought with us that were too small now. We were surprised again that out of the half dozen staff in the store, only one spoke high school level English. He helped us find two pairs of shoes for the girls. I was glad they found two different pairs that they each liked, since it can sometimes be impossible for them to agree on such things when the selection is limited, and only one of them ends up with the one item they both want most.
We were further surprised to find that the shoes cost more here than the last pair of Converse sneakers I had bought the girls at the Toronto Eaton Centre! While Niteroi’s beaches weren’t the best, clearly the fancy art museum and upscale prices set it apart from its sister city across the bay.
It was getting late now, so we headed back to the ferry terminal, and waited for the next boat. By the time we disembarked back in Rio, the sun had gone down completely. There were still people on some of the streets, but they were all clearly in a hurry to get somewhere else. It was a relatively short walk back to the apartment, nothing like what we had done that afternoon when we left the museum. But it felt like a long time. We were watching everyone closely and we carefully tried to stay on the busiest and brightest streets.
As we crossed the plaza in front of the Avienda Central shopping centre, we could see that the entrance, wide open during the day, was now shut like a barricade, corrugated metal sliding doors pulled closed to hide the stores from outsiders. A lone man was crossing the plaza in the other direction towards us. A few people were coming and going from the Carioca subway station, but otherwise, the whole area, teeming with commuters and office workers and shoppers during the day, was all but abandoned now that the sun had gone down.
We made it back to the apartment without incident, and grabbed some more groceries before heading upstairs. More pasta and meat sauce was on the menu for dinner, and then an attempt at an early night, to try and get to sleep before the music got too loud.
Locations
Rio de Janeiro
Niteroi
Transportation
Harbour ferry
Bus
Spending
$18 for ferry tickets to Niteroi and back
$5.50 for a public bus to the museum
$80 for lunch at the museum
$9.00 for entrance to the museum
$17.50 for a poster of the museum building
$4.75 for throat lossanges
$21 for frozen yogurt
$3.00 for Ducky Splash
$98 for new shoes and socks for the girls
$25 for groceries
