Celebrating in Rio de Janeiro: The Best Birthday Adventure in Brazil
I always wanted to celebrate my birthday in summer. Though I enjoy very much being an Aries born at the end of March, I always felt the regret of not being able to spend my birthday by the beach under the sunshine, as I live in the wrong hemisphere, the boreal one.
Nevertheless, I always celebrate it, surrounded by my closest friends, and rigorously on my day, not one day earlier, not one day later.
I never thought that the solution to that issue was as simple as an intercontinental flight to Rio de Janeiro and yep, I would have my birthday party by the beach.
The reality is that life is much more generous to us, than we can imagine. It depends which kind of lenses you want to wear to see the world. If you can read properly, you will see. So, I end up in Brazil for a business trip and as the dates encompass my birthday, I decide to leave one day earlier and take one day off. Precisely the day of my birthday.
So, Céline and I arrive in Rio at the eve of my birthday and as her birthday is in a few days, we decide that we’ll have a joint birthday party.
The vibe in Rio is definitely a party one. Not a “party hard” one, more an “enjoy every moment of your life” and that’s exactly what sets the tone for that day. Being in Rio is pure joy and you can sense it everywhere around you. In the smile of the people, in the iconic places that Rio and only Rio has, in the caipirinha, but most of all, in the music that permeates every place: the Brazilian sound is omnipresent and carries and conveys its joyful vibes and the beauty of being in Rio to anybody open enough to receive them. I would say that most Carioca do so.
( I just put on some bossa nova to help me writing this post).
However, before we start the celebration, we need to fulfill a duty. Even in that, we are lucky, as our duty brings us to a private beach close to the Pão de Açúcar. So, once our mission is accomplished, we switch to “day off mode” for the rest of the day.
We choose our spot, we spread out the beach towel, cover every centimeter of our skin with the solar screen and enter the water. The water is fresh, and thanks to my cold water training in the lake during the winter, I find myself at ease immediately. I’m a mermaid after all, so being in the water is my natural state. We play with the waves but as I don’t know how neither the bottom nor if there is any current, I don’t take the risk to swim too far. We have fun with the photo session and then we go out to dry in the sun before the following point on the agenda, which is actually our self-present.
In fact, to celebrate as we deserve, we choose to do the must number 1 in Rio. If you are in Rio just for one day, that’s the thing to do: the helicopter tour!
For both of us it would be the first time. One thing we share with her is that we prefer to collect experiences than to buy stuff, so the agreement on how to spend the day is perfect. We spent the previous day to book – with Rio2fly – and among the various options we chose the private tour with the full tour video. However, the helicentre is on the other side of the city, so we need to leave the beach one hour and a half before the tour leaves. We did not manage to book for the sunset, but if you have that possibility, just go for it.
We book our Uber (it is considered the safest, cheapest and fastest way to move in Rio, if you don’t have a car) and at 3.30 we are at the helicentre, receive the instructions, listen to the security briefing and sit in the helicopter. The people working there must have military training because they are all big, brawny, not talkative at all and very serious.
We take off and the journey starts…
I consider myself a water creature, not an air one, but seeing Rio from the helicopter makes me wonder if I should not open my mind further and try to be in the air more often. While we slow down so that we can hang our feet outside for a few second it comes to my mind that I should find out if I can combine this with diving and learn how to jump from the helicopter to the sea fully equipped without breaking my neck bone.
It’s definitely a total different way to experience Rio and considering the little free time we have, is the best one. You can see everything from a unique perspective, the Christ Redeemer, the Sugar Loaf, the islands in front of the coast, the specific morphology of the territory that makes Rio so easily recognizable.
Unfortunately it only lasts 30 minutes, that is too short for such a beauty, but the feeling of happiness stays for longer.
From there, I cross Rio in its length once again, to reach Ipanema, where I am going to meet a few other friends and have an amazing dinner at Zazà Bistrò. The restaurant is across the street from Ipanema beach, so once we ensure we have our table there, we go to put our feet back into the sea and in the sand.
My friend Ana, that came especially from São Paulo to see me, suggested that place and I’m very grateful she did as the cocktail are delicious and the atmosphere enveloping. The portions are I give my preference to fish and seafood, with a seafood feijoada. In the end, with the bill, each of us receives a ticket with a customized message.
Mine says:
“Whatever you do today, do it with the confidence of a 4-year old in a Batman T-shirt”.
The perfect closure to a perfect birthday.
That’s how my 49th year of life on this planet starts.
Not bad at all.
