Category: Trips

We woke up and got ready for the 9AM pickup for hang gliding.  If you don’t know this already, I am scared of heights.  So the idea of hang gliding has been spoken about the entire trip and I sort of dismissed.  I wasn’t trying to think about it too much.  So when the guy picked us up at 9AM, it started to seep in that this was actually going to happen!

The hang gliding Gods were not with us that day as we were heading out the door and the guy picking us up received a phone call indicating that the winds weren’t good at all so we would have to postpone until the afternoon.  Free day to ourselves!  Without any plans!  What to do?

Chris, Vero and I headed to Copacabana beach which we had only seen in the night with three million other people.  We strolled down the sidewalk (which as a very famous cobblestone design), checked out some merchants wares, bought some excellent percussion shakers.  I am quite jealous of the giant fish shaker that Chris bought (named Bob the Fish).  He was going to be the star of the new shaker band “Bob the Fish and the Minnows”.  Classic title!

It was getting hot so I decided to take a dip in the water while Vero and Chris hung out on the beach.  The water was cold.  Refreshingly cold!  It was quite the change from the warm water over the past week.  I loved it!  When I returned to the beach, we got some cheese on stick with some herbs on it.  It’s really good.  Essentially, think of a giant block of cheese curd on a Popsicle stick sprinkled with herbs and then grilled for a few minutes.  Yummers!

Copacabana definitely had a lot more merchants around trying to sell you stuff.  It got annoying when you are trying to relax on the beach and there’s people walking up to you trying to sell their bottles of water or tanning oils.  All in all, I prefer the Leblon beach a lot better.

We headed into the street along Copacabana and bought some souvenirs.  We also called the hang gliding place but no dice, we weren’t going to fly today.  It was time to return home to tell Audrey and Florent as they were waiting to hear back from us.

When I got home, I took a nice afternoon nap and after that, headed down to the beach where I enjoyed the nice refreshing water.  I even swam for awhile as it was gave me lots of energy!  It was a great afternoon of just relaxing and enjoying life.

That night we had to wait a long time to eat but it was worth the wait.  When Philipp and Erica showed up, we headed out to this amazing buffet where you have your standard buffet tables but at the same time, the waiters are carrying around giant swords of meat that they place onto your plate.  You have a sticker on your table that you turn over to the green side (“Green is Go!”) and they’ll just keep hammering you with selections of meat…pork, beef, chicken, roast, awesome filet mignon.  For all the days that we had not eaten much, we gorged on all this meat.  I want one of these places in Ottawa!

After the gorge-fest, Philipp and Erica went home as it was getting late and we headed out to some bar which played some good old rock and roll music.  This was quite the hopping place and reminded me of all the bars back home…grimy pub chairs, small dance floor, random artifacts around the bar.  Excellent!  I feel at home again.  Especially since they were playing a killer mix of tunes from the early 2000s..a lot of Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, JET!  The only problem is that they would also intermix the ladies favourite…anything from the 80s.  This proved to be the only downfall of the DJ that night.

We started off the night with a few drinks and Vero took one sip of her Caipifruita and then realized it was not for her!  Chris and I ended up finishing it during the rest of the night up on the dance floor.  The dance floor had its motley crew of people…I swear I was dancing with some Egyptians at one point (as they reminded me of Mina.  That’s my only basis to that assumption) and there were some hilarious dancers out there as well.  I especially enjoyed the homosexual trying to bring me up some stairs to ‘show’ me something.  He kept saying “Just go up to the third step, you’ll see.”.  Chris figured he wanted me to go up to the third step, turn around so he can check out my ass!  In the end, no stair climbing occurred but it made for a hilarious moment in the night.

The air-guitar had to end at some point so we headed home around 2AM as we knew we would have to get up early the next morning to go hang gliding.  It also didn’t help that the DJ threw in some Madonna around that time which made Vero go wild, but made Chris and I realize that we would rather be home than here!

Woke up quite tired. Couldn’t sleep. No more night swim for me! Vero let me sleep in for our second attempt at the Cristo Redentor statue.

Anticipating the worst, but hoping for the best considering it was a Tuesday, we took a thirty minute bus ride to discover great success! No lineup whatsoever! Turns out that it was so cloudy that you couldn’t even see the statue if you were next to it. We thought about it and decided to get a ticket for 1PM when it might clear up. That was three hours away so we had a morning to kill!

We walked around on this hot muggy morning. It was quite a disgusting walk being amongst the morning traffic and the smells of the city of Rio in the morning. Vero commented a lot on the smells that were found in Rio. I think she prefers the stagnant smell of Ottawa.

We soon realized there were no activities on the street to Cristo so we sought an Internet café. They couldn’t break a $50R for the $4R/hr charge, so w went to the bar next door where locals where already into the sauce at 10AM. They couldn’t break the bill either so we finally found a store that could.

We checked the weather report which reported different outlooks on different Web sites. After killing an hour emailing and updating the blog, we headed back, enjoyed a ham and cheese sandwich (without that crazy liquid cheese that was a favourite in the apartment) and had some ice water. I loved taking the water from the freezer each morning. Yum!

Before we knew it, we were heading up the mountain to the train. Thirty minutes of scenery later, we arrived at one of the new wonders of the world. Walking up the massive steps, we finally arrived at the summit of the statue. We walked away from the statue into the hundreds of people and continued without turning. Finally, when we were far enough, we turned and I was taken aback by how majestic this statue (built in the 1930s) was. How they got the statue up there is a wonder in itself. It was quite an impressive sight, standing over Rio, protecting both the rich and the poor.

Heading to the snack shop, we picked up an iced tea and a bag of chips as there was not much else to choose from. We missed the next train back and waited for the next one while asking questions like “Favourite Tom Hanks film’ or playing “What would you choose to do?” on the iPod. Did I mention it was killer hot that day?

We returned to the apartment to find Chris in better spirits today.

This is where my original journal entries end and everything else from this point will be from memory. I personally hate when this happens to me as I forget some minor details and they are lost forever.

Chris and I had some fun taking pictures of our underwear flying from the ceiling fan. Phil’s camera takes some excellent photos! Phil had a good laugh until he noticed we took a picture of our underwear on his nice camera bag. Sorry Philipp!

I am assuming we headed to the beach for a swim before supper that night. I do recall that night of supper being a pasta and rice dish. Philipp and Erica arrived fairly late from work that day and we were starving! It’s hard to eat around 9-10PM! They also left pretty soon after dinner and I remember a few of us heading to the beach for a night beer (no swim for me anymore!) as we were going to call it an early night due to us going hang gliding the next day!

We are waiting until 1PM to go see the Christ statue in Rio. We tried the other day, but Vero got sick and when we brought her to bed, I ended up sick from some bad coconut juice. People have been getting sick over the past few days, but hopefully we have seen the worst of it.

I am keeping a journal which will be the account of our travels. i will transcribe it when we are back.

Iteniary to date (for Uncle Gary)…Rio…beaches, ssugar loaf mountain, reveillon on copacabana beach, riding some crazy ass rickety old street car up a mountain to some ruins which we found out were closed on Monday, going to some local markets, having fever dreams at night due to the hot nights…

Coming up…hoefully see the Christ statue today bvut it is cloudy…hang gliding tomorrow, then two days of relaxing…priobbably go to Copacabana and check it out (only saw it at night so far). I have been trying to buy a ukelele (or the Brazilian equivalent) but the cheapest I can find is $200.

Flying back at 1055PM on Friday and arriving in Ottawa on Saturday around 5PM. Yee…haw…

A great sleep was had by all but Chris. He thinks someone switched the fan to the wrong setting which didn’t bring the cool air down, so he decided to stay home for the day. Vero and I headed for Santa Teresa to see some ruins.

We arrived at a market and bought an amazing egg-burger for $1.30R! THIS was authentic working-man hot dog stand food from Brazil! Two buns are inserted in a bag, the patty and egg added, some crunchy things and some rose sauce are the final ingredients. A free cup of juice as well! Score!

We stumbled in three separate instrument stores. Unfortunately my quest for the Brazilian version of the ukelele (the cavanquinho) was thwarted by the price of $200R minimum! A little too much than I was willing to pay considering I can probably pick up a uke in Canada for $50. Dang…now I realize with the exchange rate that it was closer to $100CDN which WAS what I willing to pay! Argh. Maybe I’ll get Philipp to ship me up one.

I did find a Spider-Man (the French pronounce it Speeder-Man!) digest which reprinted Issues 99-101. An interesting format that I have never seen (or only have seen with Archie comics). The newsstand that I picked it up from had comics that were sun bleached and not taken care of. I wonder if they have some proper comic stores in Rio somewhere? They must.

After some navigational woes, we finally found Le Bonde – the streetcar station to go to Santa Teresa. There was a lot of shade and benches so the 1.5 hour wait didn’t feel long at all. We chatted with a few girls from Chicago who were on a winter break. There was also a guy with them with a shirt that said SOU and then had a guitar and I couldn’t figure out what it said. I finally realized that the guitar formed the letter ‘L’ and the word was SOUL. I gotta get me one of those t-shirts!

We boarded a rickety old street car, the only one still in service and what a ride it was. It lurched forward and felt like it would break anytime. One time I swear it went off the rails and I could feel the heat from the engine beneath my feet as it tried to get back on track. Locals jumped aboard and hung on for dear life. We weren’t going fast so cars were passing us on tight corners. We kept climbing on past the sign for the ruins and I got concerned because I really had no ideas where we would end up. Perhaps even in the favela (slums)! We finally got off when it was turning around to go back down because Vero realized I was a baby. We then realized all we boarded onto was a streetcar ride up the hill to a neighbourhood in Santa Teresa! We were thinking there was something to do at the top of the hill, but there was only the choice of riding back down, or walking. Or getting a ride to Corcovado, home of the Cristo Redentor statue. I wondered if this was secretly a faster way to get up to the statue instead of the two hour line-up!

Vero and I hoofed back down the barren street and snapped photos. We found a little bit of civilization when we bought some excellent grapes and found a souvenir shop. Vero bought a notebook which I am quite jealous of.

We made it to the cutoff to the ruins and finally got to the gate of the ruins to find it locked! This was not the biggest surprised in the world considering we had read in her tour book that it was closed on Mondays! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the trip.

We then went searching for an old artistic community where they had spruced up the area years ago. After some help from some dude in his windows, we found the stairs we were looking for. The Escadaria Selaron. An artist (Selaron) had laid ceramic tile along the vertical edge of each of the hundreds of steps. Looking down, nothing. But looking up, what a sight! I was quite impressed. They even had ceramic tiles on the walls of the neighbourhood. It was quite colourful.

There were many tiles depicting a caricature of a pregnant person. I believe this may be a caricature of the artists himself.

A local invited us into a gallery of artwork and showed us (along with two girls from Munich) some celebrities on this famous stairway. U2 in the Walk On video, Ed Norton in the Incredible Hulk. Very interesting.

At the end of the stairway, we found ourselves quite close to where we started off. Got a Metro back to find Chris still in rough shape. Philipp and Erica had returned from Philipp’s first day of work which was decent. We ate a nice meal of pasta/rice, went to the beach for a swim which was horrible due to the eaves being quite lame.

A night of death by heat was what we experienced but we were resurrected and we emerged victorious! I felt great the next morning and Vero was 80% operating capacity.

We ate some fruit and fell back asleep in the heat for a few hours more. Interesting as there are no window screens in Rio…too hot for bugs.

We headed to the apartment to find that Chris was in fine shape.

Everyone except for Vero headed to a Sunday market to purchase some wares. I picked up some fridge magnets as souvenirs which I don’t think made the ‘Vero’ cut as she’s still looking for souvenirs! (I have since found out that she thought they were fine.) I also picked up a beach blanket with the Brazil motto on it: Order and Progress.

I was going to buy Vero a handbag but it turned out to be $88R. A little too pricey (but now with my new found knowledge of the exchange rate, a steal of a deal!). The art around the market was nice as well but I didn’t see anything that moved me. Florent and Audrey picked up some art and Chris had his eye on a few pieces but was going to wait till later in the week to make a decision.

We went to the shopping center to exchange Philipp’s $180R pair of shorts (a gift) and checked some emails on the trusty iPod Touch. Lord, I love that thing. I picked up a smoothie for Vero and found her awake and chipper when we got home.

I was running low on energy having only some fruit and an apple in my stomach for the entire day so the five of us searched for a restaurant. We hit the jackpot and each had a giant Bohemian beer (chilled at -4.3 degrees!) and I had a filet mignon sandwich and fries. Yes! Two bites in, I was full. So was Chris. That’s how small my stomach had become.

A thought about eating in Rio: to this point, I have eaten very little and still managed to fare well (energy-wise). Or did I, considering I got sick yesterday? I blame it on the coconut. Why don’t we listen to our bodies as to when we should eat? Why do we eat so much in North America? I have started (upon my return) to eat less and to see how that works. I theorize that I will still have enough energy to get me through the day. I have long argued with Vero that she gives me way too much food on my supper plate and she says it’s because she grew up that way. I encourage everyone to break their habits and eat only when they need energy! Or at the very least, when you know you’ll need energy in the near future.

We headed home in hopes of a good sleep.

That night I could not sleep well at all. I have since realized that it may have been due to me swimming beforehand which got my energy up.

We had decided that this was the day to go up to the Cristo Redentor statue, otherwise known as of the new wonders of the world!

WE headed out fairly early but Vero want not looking too well. She rested her head for the very long bus trip (which we found out later would have only taken us 30 minutes if we had taken a different bus!) When we arrived she vomited on the street and we knew we were in trouble.

She still wanted to see Cristo Redentor (her stubbornness shines at times) so Chris, Philipp and I waited in line while her and Erica went elsewhere in the shade.

A note of hindsight for this journal…a Saturday after Reveillon is NOT the time to wait in line! It snaked its way for two hours and it was HOT! Two hours is a long time to wait in line in mid-day in Rio. Temperatures were hovering around 32 degrees without the humidex factor.

There was a guy in an orange shirt that somehow managed to sneak his way in behind us and he tried his way past us but the people called him on it.

In the end, it was 12-1PM when we got our tickets and the earliest time they had to ride the train up was 7PM! We had to do some emergency planning as Vero still was not well. We decided to go to Erica’s parents apartment which was closer.

We put Vero to bed right away as she was too weak to move. We all then left her in the care of Erica’s mother and aunt for the afternoon while we headed to the beach.

It was the hottest day I’ve even seen and the sand burned like fire. It was 38 degrees without the humidity! Chris, Phil and I headed to find some Kahlua to make some Whiteys. In the end, we ended up with some Crème du Chocolat which wasn’t a bad substitute.

We then made the mistake of the day (in my opinion). We had some coconut juice which was prepared differently than before. It seemed to be filtered through ice and water to cool it down or to clean it. I had been careful not to drink the local variety of water up to this point.

Halfway through my drink, a brick formed in my stomach. We returned to the beach where Erica, Alexandre, Vanessa and Diego were waiting. I took a snooze immediately but still could nto feel good. We headed back to Erica’s after picking up Chris who was sleeping under a tree and I proceeded to be sick. Not a good scene! Coupled with my lack of sleep, I was out of commission. Chris and I were fighting for use of the washroom. I may have touched cloth waiting for him. I hope whoever is reading this is having a great laugh right now!

The decision was made for us. Vero and I would go another day. The others managed to sell our tickets in a heartbeat to some man and his pregnant wife. Also found out that Chris had a horrible time as he ended up violently ill at the top of the mountain, poor guy. The train also was 45 minutes late so they only managed to get some night shots of the area (which turned out beautifully).

Vero and I died in the hot room while trying to get some rest. For the life of us, nothing could help us sleep. I shut off one of the fans due to noise, shut the window due to noise, and forever battled with the ceiling fan due to noise. I tried many times in vain. In a feverish dream, I imagined that each noise was fighting each other to become the one remaining noise…like the Highlander of ceiling fan noises…but they just kept coming. It was horrible.

Woke up late and decided upon a nice leisurely hike considering all of us were good to move. Went on the bus and ended up sitting with a girl who chatted with me (much to Chris’ jealousy) who taught me that ‘barbada’ = bad driver (or woman driver). We had a good laugh at that.

We got to the base of the mountain next to SugarLoaf Mountain and decided to hike up. Not a bad incline, all is going well until we head into the ‘real’ rail and my year of inactivity catches up with me. It’s a little killer trudging up those dirt steps, tripping over tree roots and whatnot, all the while stopping to get a perfect photo of Vero. She’s thinking “I hope he got a good shot” and I’m thinking “I’m surprised I was able to hold that camera steady without keeling over!”.

 

We got to the midway point and saw some monkeys in a tree. We then climbed the rest which was significantly easier and we then realized that we had climbed to the second cable car to SugarLoaf! Not knowing this beforehand, we were lucky enough to have some money on us to afford to go across as it was on our list of things to do, so why not do it now? You can imagine the confusion when we thought all along that we would hike up SugarLoaf, but it was really only accessible by cable car or rock climbing. I’m no Sly Stallone so I opted for the cable car along with Vero and Chris. We had to wait 30 minutes for the line but we enjoyed the ice cream and tales of Chris and Philipp’s journey to North Conway in the US.

We took the cable car across and was witness to the greatest sight of Rio on our trip. The sun was starting to set across the mountains around Rio and we had the best view. Chris introduced us to the panoramic view on our camera and we got some great shots of the ocean and the city. It’s amazing how such a beautiful city can also be known for its crime.

I picked up some bow and arrow trinket from the souvenir shop and then headed back down and took another (free) cable car down to the ground level. Yay to no hiking back down in the dark!

We head to an amazing restaurant which had a view of the bay, SugarLoaf and the most amazing moonrise. We also ate some miniquebas which were some meat product to dip into some excellent mustard. Accompanied with that were some potato wedge-like things which were from another root plant. This restaurant was quite expensive judging from the 38R for the two appetizers. We would have got something more but we were low on funds in our pockets as we left all spare money and cards at home due to the hike! This posed a major problem for us all when the bill came where they charged us each $7R cover charge because there was a singer that night. While her voice was beautiful, her body was not, and w were not informed of these arrangements beforehand. After scrambling together, each person had enough to pay and have bus fare of $2.20R each.

Chris, Philipp and I also came up with the grand idea of operating our own Crazy van business under the name “Chopper and The Whitey”. Chopp being draft beer and Whitey being a white russian (our trio’s drinks of choice!). Now, you may be wondering what the heck a Crazy Van is. Turns out that there are these vans that run up and down the beach strip and have some loud music playing and a guy screaming to get on board instead of waiting for the public transportation! The ride costs $2R (cheaper than the bus) and is pretty well faster than the bus as it zips down the road! Plus they usually have some great tunes playing! What more can you ask for? Comfort? Bah, only if you are lucky. The first Crazy Van Philipp and Chris took had them crouched over as there were no seats left. But who cares?

As for our business idea, we would serve drinks in the vans while transporting people across town in the first foreign operated Crazy Van where no driver speaks Portuguese! We also talked to Diego and he can handle trademarking as he is a lawyer. Vero also signed up to be our marketing person although I must ask how much marketing do you really need for an awesome idea like ‘Chopper and the Whitey’?

We felt dirt poor that night and we didn’t even have enough to get a beer from the beer stand. We did manage to secure a spot on the Crazy Van which was amazing! Cheaper, faster, and way better music than public transit! I had a great time hunched over as they zipped us home!

Woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head.

Decided to to the Parc du Catacombo which I assumed had some catacombs.  I found out they did not.  Audrey, Florent, Vero and I walked to the park around the lake in the middle of Rio.  It was raining out which didn’t help my feet in sandals as they were pretty tender from walking in the rain the day before.  We started along a nice path and admired the flora and fauna.  The lake is quite nice and is surrounded by views of the mountains.  In some ways, Rio reminds me of Gaspe.

We finally arrived at the Parc to realize it was closed for some reason.  It may have been due to the rain or due to the Reveillon.  We then made the ultimate decision to continue around the lake…a 7.5 kilometer walk.  Not an easy trek on an empty stomach and wet feet.  At the end of the walk, my feet started developing blisters on the toes.  Not fun at all.  When we got back to the apartment, it was timed nicely as Erica, Philipp and Chris had returned from a disastrous shopping trip where they accomplished nothing.

We picked up some beer and supplies for the night.  I was amazed that Erica had some magical account number at the grocery store which got us some discounts on our purchases!  I then picked up some band-aids to protect my toes.  The thing is, I heard that you should wear footwear in the water at Reveillon as there is glass everywhere in the sand.  So this meant continuing to wear those darn sandals.

Upon returning to the apartment, we found tout that we could catch the buses to Copacabana Beach all night long!  This allowed us to have a nice pasta dinner and then go swimming again.  Rain or shine, we are going swimming every day.  Erica did not want to join us as she thought that it was too cold outside at 24 degrees.  I find it interesting that as a Canadian, I find the water as warm as it is on the warmest summer day in Canada, but the Brazilians just find it too cold!

The waves were huge this time and you get tired after being pummelled by them constantly.  Especially when you get salt water in every orifice of your body.  Florent had a waterproof camera used for diving so there are some excellent shots of us in the water.

The guard at our apartment offered to keep our keys for us while we swam but we never realized what he was saying until it was too late.  We thanked him upon our return.

Apartments around Leblon area (and pretty well all of Copacabana) are well defended.  Each place has iron gates and security guards for each building.  While this creates a safe environment, I am constantly reminded by the fact that I am in a potentially dangerous area.  However, I do feel safe walking the streets.

We got changed and headed for Reveillon at Copacabana Beach, home of six kilometers of sand, and 3 million party-goers.  The streets were full of life as we drove towards one of the biggest parties in the world.

When we got off the bus, we entered into the streets where the entire city was taken over by the thousands.  We made our way to the beach where we met up with Alexandre, Diego and Vanessa.  Vanessa was one of Erica’s friends that had taken a liking to Erica’s twin brother and there were many times during the night where they disappeared into the crowd.  May I also point out that the other guys witnessed him performing the 270, which is a 270 degree spin-kiss.  I can’t say I was witness but it was the talk of the town for the rest of the week!

We navigated the crowd to get to a spot on the beach.  I can compare the crowd to the KISS concert at Bluesfest this summer.  It was crazy.  There was a concert going on and supposedly millions of people on the entire stretch of beach.  I saw two other concerts within the stretch of beach.  We parked ourselves around dancing locals and had a great time waiting for the fireworks.

Considering I don’t know how the countdown from 10 to 1 sounds like in Portuguese, the only indication that something was going on was the explosion of champagne bottles and fireworks.  Kisses went around as well as some champagne in the hair.  A crazy fight between two women broke out in front of us.  This was a From Russia With Love fight to the death where at one point one of the women had the other in a choke hold!  It was a strange fight as they would stop and argue once in awhile.  We realized that they must have been high on something, and it wasn’t the fireworks!  I joked that they were fighting over the opportunity to speak with Chris Soulpatch.

The fireworks were spectacular…imagine the end of Canada Day fireworks happening across the sky for twenty minutes.  I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of colour to the fireworks.

Later on, we lit a candle on the beach which is part of the religious experience of Reveillon.  Erica explained to me that by lighting a candle, we have opened the area around us to a ceremony where people would dance around.  We started off the dance and before you knew it, there were others who joined in showing off their dance moves.  Vero loved this.  She even learned a few new moves from the locals that I’m sure she will pull out at the next Canadian wedding.

At one point, a man asked me what the significance of the two candles were.  We had shaped them like breasts and told him so.  I brought Chris over to further explain and we realized we were quite stupid to suggest that a religious ceremony could be demeaned so.  Erica explained that the candles can signify whatever we wish in the New Year.

An interesting quandary is how to urinate amongst millions of people on the beach.  The answers lies in the water.  Armed with my sandals (in fear of cutting feet on glass), we went into the water to offer some flowers (an offering to the Goddess of the Sea) as well as myself offering something else to the ocean.  I can’t say we were the only ones…out of millions of people, I would estimate that only 100 stay on the beach all night long!  At some point they always come into the water!  Scientifically, there is no real harm in swimming around in this either.  You’re probably more prone to getting a rash from lake water than a giant ocean!

The water was quite full of trash, however.  At one point, I joked with Vero that a condom had landed on her shoulder.  There was garbage everywhere we swam.

We went back to the candle pit and enjoyed the night of reverie which included Skol beer, Chris’s overpriced Bohemia beer, dancing with the locals and listening to live music.  Giant video screens showcased some crazy belly dancing on stage.  Can I point out how amazing it is to celebrate New Year’s without snow?

The second shameful moment of the night happened when we were packing up to leave around 4AM.  Chris had joked about swimming the area with a candle between his butt cheeks.  We then had him pull down his shorts to get a photo of a candle sitting above his cheeks.  All innocent fun until we noticed someone came over to Diego and began pointing at Chris looking annoyed.  We then both realized what we were doing may be considered sacrilege and felt pretty bad.  We apologized to Diego and he said it was not a big deal and we should not worry about it.  We continued to apologize profusely about how we didn’t want to taint a religious symbol and he smiled and said it wasn’t the candle that the man was annoyed with, it was the white ass hanging out in front of his kids at 4AM!  We felt a lot better after that, although it was a good lesson in what *not* to do in a foreign country.

Another point: The tide came in and started sweeping everyone’s stuff away, glass bottles included.  Very scary.

We took the bus back and hunted for a bite to eat while Chris & Phil passed out.  Vero and I opted for a slice of pizza.  Funny enough, the takeout box was lined with foil which made no sense to me considering we were sitting in 30 degree weather and Canada can only afford cardboard boxes.

*something seems wrong with the photo upload.  Maybe I’ve broken the bank.  Be patient!*

Woke up around 9AM and hit the road after breakfast.  Went on the bus/metro with Audrey & Florent.  They are fun people.  There are from France and seem to want to do the same things we’re doing while in Rio, which is to explore and not just sit on a beach.  But they are here for an entire month!  Lucky!

Saw the Saara Market…city blocks of merchants booths…selling t-shirts, shoes, electronics.  Not much tourist stuff.  Didn’t find any new shades or a hat either.

Went into a church where Mass was taking place at noon on a Wednesday!  Is that normal?  Got sprayed full of holy water with a scepter and managed to not burst into flames.  Mom would be proud.  We then headed to a Theatro only to find it was closed.  This was upsetting as we hoped to sample some authentic cuisine.

I must say that downtown was fairly typical outside of the market area.  Skyscrapers full of office buildings…there was shredded paper being tossed out of the windows at all times.  We assumed it was in celebration of Reveillon or someone losing their job!  Turns out that it’s a protest of workers who are scheduled to work during New Year’s Eve (Reveillon)!  I had a good laugh about that.

We managed to eat a small buffet which was great.  It cost $10R each (which, since returning back to Canada, I have realized that the exchange was quite in our favour being at 0.62 instead of 0.82 as I had thought the entire trip!) and we sampled some good eats.

Toured the waterfront while it poured rain and then returned home where we encountered a delay on the metro.

Arrived home to find Chris who is pretty excited to be here.  He is also sporting quite the fetching soulpatch on his chin.  Philipp was ridiculing it but I thought it was quite fetching.  So that night, I shaved my own soulpatch to go along with my moustache.  Someone at Reveillon said I looked like Don Juan!

Discussed how to arrange rental expenses.  Went to find a bank machine.  The first Citibank machine in the shopping mall did not charge me for $300R.  However, a different machine charged me $10R!  Strange.  Picked up groceries and saw that vodka (export, Smirnoff) was $80R but the local variety was $8R!  Quite the difference.  Beer was also cheaper at the grocery store than at the gas station.  Speaking about gas stations…they are from another world.  At this particular Shell gas station, there are no less than 50 guys working there.  Heck, in Canada, you’re lucky to find one!

Came back home and then went swimming in the rain.  We were quite the sight.  Six pale-skinned foreigners walking down the street in our bathing suits!  We got plenty of comments (especially from the Shell gas station guys).  We got to the beach and had it all to ourselves.  There were giant spotlights along the beach so we could always see.  The waves are quite large sometimes..if you don’t go with the flow, it smacks you pretty hard.  My shorts came down a few times and my beer was soaked with salt water.  That’s the last time I bring a beer into the sea!

We walked back and someone asked me for directions!  I thought that was quite hilarious and tried to explain I only spoke English.  I did find out later that I can say “No fala Portuguese” which means “You don’t speak Portuguese.”  I’m kidding, it means ‘I don’t speak Portuguese.’  I’m not looking for an incident like in Hamburg again!

Erica’s brother (Alexandre) and cousin (Diego) showed up and we headed out to find a place to eat.  We had a great meal at some restaurant which was quite happy to refill our chopp (draft beer) at a moments notice.  Diego taught me some excellent Portuguese phrases to impress the ladies; voce gustaza (very hot!).  We had some chicken, bean dip, rice, some sort of greens.  There was also some excellent chili sauce.  I found out that its bad luck to eat any type of bird on December 31 as birds walk backwards in life and that would mean bad luck for the New Year.

After supper, it was still early in Rio hours (only midnight) so we went to a bar down the street and shared a bucket of beer.

Some observations at this point: Because there are no freezing temperatures, everything is ‘open’.  Open windows, sinks in the back patio, restaurants having patios year round.  However, there seems to be a lot of rain so everything is resilient to the rain.  Sidewalks are made of cobblestone, building fronts are the same.  It’s funny, now that I look back on this entry, I realize that it’s doesn’t rain all that much at all!

Also, because the temperature is so hot, there are no bugs, hence no windows have screens.  I thought that was very different from Canada!

Rob was gracious enough to give Vero and I a lift to the Ottawa airport on Monday morning.  Checking in was simple enough, even with the supposed extreme security measures being in effect due to some terrorist.  I was surprised to see that YOW offered up free wifi, so I took complete advantage of that for the next hour trying to set up my blog to allow for email submissions.  Alas, it did not work so I will have to remember to set that up before I leave on my next trip.

Vero had bought a neck pillow which straps around your neck so you can sleep.  I had used one in Uncle Greg’s car once and I must admit it was kind of neat.  I put it on for show in the waiting area and Vero had a good laugh as I appeared as a man with no neck…The Necklace/Neckless Man!  A great name for a superhero!

When we arrived in Philadelphia a few hours later, the first mission of the day was to acquire the fabled Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.  We settled into a nice airport restaurant where I ordered an excellent hoppy beer (which, let me tell you, they weren’t lying about!).  The cheese steak sandwich suspiciously came with cheese whiz and it cost extra to put on things like green peppers and onions.  Strange?  It wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be…I preferred the cheese steak from Broadway’s with the hot banana peppers, but at the same time, I realize that an airport restaurant may not be the best place to dine so I maintain optimism that the next time I hit up Philly, there will be an authentic steak sandwich in my hand.  I did notice that Paul mentioned that supposedly the cheese whiz *is* authentic. Interesting.  Speaking about the restaurant, that beer was quite expensive.  In the end, the beer cost $9.24 and the sandwich cost $9!

I’m writing this entry from bullet points in my journal and it took me a second to realize what the heck the ‘keyboard cat youtube’ meant!  We were watching the news in the airport and they showed us some hilarious phenomenon on Youtube where people tack on this cat playing keyboard at the end of a youtube video.  Mildly hilarious after hearing the tune a dozen times.

After Philly, we hit up Charlotte, North Carolina which I heard is home of NASCAR.  There were enough posters of NASCAR around the airport to make us believe in it.  The cool part about the airport is that Google was providing free wifi!  Sweet!

11PM and our final plane of the trip left for Rio.  Let’s recap, shall we?  We had already been on the road for 12 hours and still have yet to leave the United States.  Bah.  The flight was…interesting.  It took forever for a movie to start.  An hour into the flight, we ended up watching Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughan.  A funny movie, but it’s no National Lampoon’s.  They left the lights on in the cabin and served a hot meal after midnight.  Is that normal?  Here I am trying to sleep, but it just wasn’t happening.  I finally pulled the small blanket they provide me over my head to block out the light.  Sometime into my sleep, they turned off the lights which was nice.  I’m going to assume this happened around 3AM.

All in al, an awkward sleep but I think I had better one than Vero.  She lent me her neck pillow which probably saved me.  During the trip I listened to a St.Vincent album (Actor) which I didn’t feel fit the mood of a ten hour flight.  I also finished a Sudoku game from the in-flight magazine much quicker than the day before.  I hadn’t done one in years so it took me awhile to get the hang of it again.  Brain must be well rested and processed patterns to look for!

Upon arriving in Rio, it took one hour through immigration/customs but finally we emerged to find Erica waiting for us.  She haggled with the taxi drivers ($50R) and we were off.  Vero and I thought we could bus it but after the trek through town we realized it would have been a LONG trip!

Distinction between rich & poor very apparent.  We started out by driving through some slums (favela), went through a tunnel and emerged into rich man’s land; Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon.  We arrived and had a hard time finding Apartment 101 within the building.  They sent us to the 6th, 4th, and 2nd floor.  The guard kept reading 101 as 404 and didn’t understand our broken Portuguese when we were saying “um cero um”.

Finally, Philipp, Audrey & Florent found us!  Sure enough, we were directly behind the guard’s desk on the first floor.  The apartment is nice.  Two rooms, kitchen, back patio with a fire pit.  Also, three separate doors, a security guard, three separate locks on the last door, and a high fence to our backyard.  While this place seems safe, it also looks like there needs to be a lot of measures in place to ensure that safety.

After a few beer and hanging out, we walked five minutes to the beach.  Beautiful…mountain to our right, islands out in the sea, warm water…this is what we needed after a long flight!  Philipp was excited to be here for a few months…Rio has now become Philippsville!  We also drank some agua de coco coco (coconut water, yum!).

Returned home, Ericas showed up after work and we went for some authentic Brazilian cuisine…at the Australian Outback Steakhouse in the mall!  Because it was raining, we could not go to the other place she had in mind.

After appetizers and beer, we returned home after a walk by the beach, bought some Itaipava and Skol beer (both worthy beers), and settled in for the night.

Before I forget..it’s REALLY strange to see Santa Claus around town in +30 degree weather!