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.