Rio de Janeiro: From the Deep Ocean to the Peaks!

Your day cannot start without an excellent café da manhã, the typical Brazilian breakfast! For this experience I suggest you take the car and head towards the Flamengo district where your bar awaits you: DarkCoffee Centro Rio! In this typical Brazilian bar you can taste all sorts of coffee bean blend and accompany it with any dish! The variety and taste of the cakes will surprise you!

A few steps from your breakfast you will find another structure that has carried out the redevelopment of the port area of ​​Rio: it is AquaRio, the Marine Aquarium of Rio de Janeiro (in portuguese: Aquário Marinho do Rio de Janeiro). The aquarium opened on October 31, 2016 and consists of an area of ​​approximately 26.000 square meters (280.000 square feet). It is considered to be the largest marine aquarium in South America. The building consists of 5 floors and 28 tanks with various types of fish. About 4.5 million liters of salt water are stored in the tanks, as well as 8 thousand animals of 350 different species. Above the AquaRio, the largest solar roof in urban areas in Brazil has been installed, which consists of approximately 2.000 solar panels installed on an area of ​​6.000 m². In total, the roof reduces the electricity consumption of the aquarium by 30%. In the AquaRio there are 8,000 animals of 350 different species from all oceans. Among the main species present are: the nurse shark, the white tip reef shark, the black tip reef shark and the sand tiger shark.
The AquaRio allows you to carry out various paid activities such as sleeping in the aquarium, diving into one of the tanks, creating a virtual friend to interact along the circuit, seeing up close the equipment that treats the water in the enclosures, the work of biologists and the way to carry out the feeding of the fish. Inside the AquaRio you can see other attractions such as the Virtual Aquarium, a digital aquarium with fish created by visitors, the Science Museum, consisting of the Plankton Station and the Shell Exhibition, the Surf, a space dedicated to surfing developed by the surfer Rico de Souza. The aquarium has inside a café, a scientific research center, a parking lot and a souvenir shop, including some kiosks.
You can also book your ticket directly from the site!

After your wonderful experience at the AcuaRio it is a must to take a break to rest and put something under your teeth! The place that I suggest is Assador Rio's in the flamengo district, 1 hour and a half by car from your location, and it is a paradise for Brazilian meat (and not only!). You can taste every type of appetizer that the restaurant offers and then taste all the cuts of meat.

After having lunch you will take the car to reach the Jardim Botânico which is located north of Ipanema, a two hour drive from the present location. Jardim Botânico is a mid to high-end neighborhood, with small and large villas. The neighborhood takes its name from the Botanical Garden, a natural park in Rio built in colonial times. The Garden has a total of 540.000 square meters of cultivated area and more than 3.500 different plant species from all over the world. The Botanical Garden within the garden was built by order of the regent prince of Portugal, Dom João, in 1808. The Botanical Garden originally aimed to fuel the economy by growing East Indian spice plants, such as nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper. Before its construction, all the lands around the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon were a sugar cane plantation. Again, by royal decree of 13 June 1808, the prince regent ordered the creation of the Jardim de Aclimação (or, Garden of cultivation). It was in 1822, with the proclamation of the independence of Brazil, that the garden became public. Today the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden is considered a national heritage by UNESCO and a biosphere reserve of the Atlantic Forest. In addition, it also functions as a major research institute. The Visitor Center was an old colonial house built in 1576: it first functioned as a mill for the sugar cane plantation and now houses an exhibition on the history of the Botanical Garden. You'll find a turtle lake and a small shop of the Friends of the Botanical Garden Association, which features handmade souvenirs, such as garden kits, jewelry made from seeds, and organic tea and spices. Walking through the park you will see two immense corridors of imperial palms, the symbol of the park. The main one, called Barbosa Rodrigues alley, boasts a beautiful fountain, made in England in the 19th century, and among other things is one of the most photographed places in Rio, after the statue of Christ and the Sugar Pan Hill. Instead, the orchid greenhouse built at the end of the 19th century and restored in 1998. It contains more than 700 species of orchids.

A few steps from the Jardim Botanico you can reach the Parque Enrique Lage, a public park. It takes you 5 minutes by car! The Parque Lage has within it the woods that are part of the Tijuca National Park. It was instead the Brazilian entrepreneur Henrique Lage who had the gardens and palace built for his wife, Italian opera singer Gabriella Besanzoni. Henrique Lage's father, founder of a major shipping company, bought the property in the mid 19th century. Only later would it belong to his son who redesigned some sections of the gardens when the new house was built. The original garden design dates back to the 1840s by British artist John Tyndale, commissioned by the property's previous owner. While the eclectic style house was designed by the Italian architect Mario Vodrel: it has a facade with a porch, a central patio and a swimming pool and frescoes by Salvador Sabaté. As you have seen in the botanical garden, here too you will see rows of royal palms leading you from the doors to the house. You cannot fail to be fascinated by the ponds, the artificial caves, the water fountain, the bridges, the kiosks and the playground. The park has undergone several improvements over the years, such as the last one in 2002. Previously the singer-songwriter Tom Jobim, a lover of botanical gardens in Rio de Janeiro, and his son João Francisco had planted a palm tree in Parque Lage. The moment is portrayed in a bronze sculpture in the park. The villa is now used by Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage and part of the State Secretariat of Culture. The green areas and the architecture of the park are protected heritage. The mansion was used as the hospitality home of the British Olympic team and is featured in the 2003 music video in Snoop Dogg's single Beautiful.

The next itinerary in your program is the Vista Chinesa and to reach it you will need to take your car for 1 hour.
The Vista Chinesa is a meeting point when temperatures get high in RJ and allows you to admire an unforgettable landscape. At the top there is a structure reminiscent of the Chinese pagodas from which the name derives.
In 1811 a group of Chinese migrants reached Brazil from the Macao region, then a Portuguese colony. Historian Milton Teixeira tells of the difficulties of the group of Chinese immigrants to integrate in Rio. The Chinese were then honored through the construction of a pagoda-style pavilion in 1903 of the Vista Chinesa monument. The initial structure had a bamboo roof but did not withstand the elements. It was thus re-erected and assumed its current appearance.

After enjoying the Chinesa View it's time to eat! To reach Zona Sul you have to take an hour and a half by road with your road. It is a grocery store that has an excellent and typical very cheap restaurant inside. I recommend it to you to try the typical experience of eating like a local but at the same time good! I recommend to you my favorite dish: the pizzas!