It finally started to rain today so it was going to be a day for more indoors activities. Despite the plenty o’ food that’s been going on, we should have burned a few of the calories off with walking. According to my watch our daily average is around 15,000 steps and 10km a day which isn’t bad!

Today we decided to have a look at the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum which was across the other side of the harbour. We got an Uber uptown to where the ferry terminal was, but Uber doesn’t seem to understand Rio very well and would only set a destination several blocks away. Luckily our driver said he knew exactly where to drop us off and did so. It was a bit of a shock to see the scene between us and the ferry building. Little islands of sheets on the ground with the most worthless junk for sale, and the people selling them didn’t look the most stable. Louie told me to keep close to him and keep walking, which I did immediately. I would have loved to snap a couple of photos but I wanted to keep my phone so I kept it hidden. I spotted such treasures as a dusty old bedside lamp, a broken record player (the arm was bent), old transistor radios and furniture that would be a second choice against a couch set on fire outside a Dunedin uni flat.

As you can see from the photo above, the weather and view was a bit shit from the ferry, and they didn’t have the outside areas available, probably due to the unsurvivable weather conditions – slight drizzle and 22°c. According to Louie Rio people can’t tell the difference between rain and cold, and as soon as it gets slightly wet they put on big jackets whatever the temperature.

A very friendly guy on the ferry did a sales pitch with the boxes of mentos he was selling, and we easily caved. Both of us a pretty resilient to people hawking stuff, but this guy could sell real estate on the moon. Louie did all the heavy lifting with the talking, and I did a feeble attempt, and when he heard I spoke English he asked if I came from Miami or Tampa. It seems that’s pretty much where all the English speakers come from who visit Brazil.

We didn’t stick around the arrival area too long, it seemed to still be prime pickpocketing grounds. The way to the museum was a bit of a hike through some less prime real estate areas so Uber it was. The driver this time wasn’t the flashiest, and his technique for rough roads was to go faster. It was clear pretty quickly why one of his headlights was missing, shaken loose no doubt. He was pretty loose in keeping to his side of the centreline as well, and not too keen on coming to a stop when the cars in front of him did, so left the braking until the last minute. Oh, and my seatbelt was missing by the way so no photos of the ride, because I was holding on for dear life. I keep on getting the feeling the criteria for Uber Black in Rio might be slightly lower than New Zealand.

The museum / gallery is a unique building to say the least, and yet somehow it all works pretty well, and is easy to find your way around. That reminds me of a thing we have noticed here – Brazilians are rubbish at signs, especially ones that tell you where something is. So often we have been a bit lost as to where to go in a museum for example. A simple arrow and Start or Entry would be extremely useful. This isn’t such a difficult one to work out, but there isn’t anything that says the entrance to the museum is up that ramp. In this picture is the entrance to the restaurant as well. It’s next to that little black thing sticking up to the left of the building stem.

The staff at the museum were fantastic, really helpful dealing with us dopey tourists who in turn were dealing with the fact that you could only buy tickets off them using cash. If you wanted to use a card you had to scan a QR code and buy your tickets online, using a website that wanted every bit of information from you and then crashed when it came to processing the payment.

The main exhibition was about the buildings of the favelas and the bricks they are made of, which are weird square open ended things. I’m not a building engineer but I’m sure the square isn’t the strongest shape to construct things from. I guess building strength isn’t the primary concern, it’s more about making something that stands up using the least amount of brick material.

All the brick mask photos and videos were very thought provoking. The thoughts were mostly “buggered if I know what it means”.

Surrounding the central gallery is space for all sorts of other works, and they were as thought provoking as the brick masks. Provoking the same thoughts. The view was right proper though.

Trypophobia triggering, but this was one of my favourites, it’s absolute creepy nightmare material.

We headed upstairs and I tripped over the last step because it was uneven, but did perform a fantastic shoulder roll and ended up on my back laughing. The stuff upstairs was mostly nonsense made out of fabrics or wool.

Thanks to the desk staff, we discovered the restaurant beneath the museum. I assumed it would be a typical museum cafe with overpriced Coke and dodgy sausage rolls but it was a full service restaurant. Louie took care of the ordering, he’s probably sick of my complaining about not being able to get a decent pie, and they don’t make chips proper here, and where can I get a pint of Tui.

So we started with linguiça, molho a campanha and pão de alho (pork sausage, salsa and garlic bread). Everything was great, but the garlic was so strong in the bread it was actually spicy and we had garlic breath for hours afterwards.

My main was steak that was dressed in just a hint of cheese, and garnished with sausages. None of this was very clear from the menu so it was a bit of a surprise. The farofa, chips and salsa was not a surprise, not in the slightest.l

Louie had some sort of fish risotto with batata palha (potato straw things) and some red. He said it was very good, but after a run in with a taste of Brazilian cod a few days ago I wasn‘;’t going near it.

We didn’t fancy desert but did have a go at one of their cappuccinos. It was great until I stirred it and the half a glass worth of chocolate mixed in and make it unbearably sweet.

The table had one of the most unique views ever, giving a very science fiction air to the meal, especially with the misty weather outside.

The window extended around the entire length of the dining room, and you’d have to be pretty gutted to get a middle table.

On our way back to the ferry we came across this truck absolutely blasting out the loudest music I’ve ever heard coming from anything that didn’t have a jet engine. The people on the back didn’t seem to mind their eardrums and internal organs were being destroyed, and were happily flag waving for their political party / person / whatever it was.

Since we finished our lunch about 4:30 and were pretty worn out and full we just hung out in the hotel room and I did blogging etc while Louie watched TV. About 9:30 I realised it was 9:30 and we were starting to get a bit peckish and could go for a very light dinner. We thought it was a great time to try out Rio McDonalds to compare what they have here, and Louie could have a Cheddar McMelt which he hasn’t had since he left. There were two about 15 minutes walk in either direction in Ipanema and Copacabana but reading the review didn’t fill us with confidence even by our low expectations. The constant flow of undesirables doing unspeakable things in the bathrooms was the last straw.

Louie then suggested we go and try out the Outback Steakhouse because I’d been crapping on about the blooming onion for months. So off we headed and got there just after 10pm. It was full, but they asked us to wait and in about 10 minutes we had a table. Let that sink in for a moment. We were seated at about 10:30 and the place was full. Most NZ places close at 8pm and heaven forbid you ask for something if the chef has already put away the can opener.

Anyway, somehow we got a bit excited and forgot we were after a light dinner and below is what we ended up with. The onion was fantastic as always, and the rest was okay. Not sure why the have a fascination with covering things with cheese, even the Americans don’t do this as much.

After this we decided not to eat dinner again and waddled our way back to an Uber and home.

Last day in Rio tomorrow before we head up to João Pessoa with Louie’s mum for a week in the tropical north, with the 27c ocean temperatures and clear waters.