Rio de Janeiro – American Airlines free ticket – (January 18^th – 27^th)

 

Tuesday January 18^th

I had drinks with Malone straight after work to get the skinny on things to do in Rio, along with a napkin detailing various choice phrases touse.  After a quick couple of pints it was off to meet Jon for a quick bite at Chipotle before catching the bus from Grand Central, which ended up being extremely fast.  The ridiculously cold weather only heightened our anticipation for the trip.  Regretfully this was to be one of the last times I would get to use my status to check in quickly, all the more reinforced by the fact that it took Jon over 45 minutes to wait on the line.  I waited around and had a beer before passing through security. 

 

We worked the system well so that we could easily stow our bags into the storage bin behind us as our exit row seats had no storage to speak of.  However an angry obnoxious brazilian woman behind us started kicking up a fuss and proceeded to move our stuff from the overhead bin, which I’ve never seen before.  I was ready to throw down but Jon relaxed me as our stuff was only moved a row or two back and getting in a fight with a bitch with a kid was a no-win situation.  Exacerbating the situation was a 2 hour delay on the tarmac, ostensibly because of ‘the cold’, apparently since it’s the first time they’ve ever tried to take off in winter. 

 

Finally we take-off, and as per usual the staff doesn’t bother to notify us as to when the movies start, regardless of the fact that the movies were not what was specified to begin with.

 

Wednesday January 19^th

Bizzarely have to get off the plane and do a security check in Sao Paolo, even though we’re about to get on to the same exact plane and same seating and aren’t going through customs until Rio.  Fortunately plane’s arrival in Rio is only delayed 45 minutes or so as opposed to the 2 hour delay from JFK. 

 

Cristiane is waiting for us and drives us to the hotel.  Weather is warm & muggy, a welcome relief.  We were stopped by a military checkpoint when exiting the airport, but Cris pulls out the army ID to speed things up.  Rio is geographically breathtaking, with all the lofty hills, the sea, the Jesus on Corcovado.  Sugar Loaf mountain isn’t even that inspiring in comparison to some of the other large hills.  The drive is interesting as we pass by hillside slums (Favelas), through tunnels, past lakes.  Check in at the Ipanema towers and a representative is waiting.  The apartment is excellent, with a master bedroom and smaller one, but also two bathrooms which is unexpected and a balcony with a reasonable view.  Cris is naturally late for an appointment as per the Brazilian way. 

 

We pay the remainder of the weekly fee for the apartment in an interesting combination of cash & paypal before walking down main street which is a block away.  It is quickly apparent that the prices are geared toward tourists and are large even by NYC standards.  We stop by a Citibank which rips us off for a charge of 6 Reals for the transaction, a note to use other banks like HSBC which do not charge extra.  Buy some necessities like sun block but cannot find decent clothing for Jon who apparently has nothing suitable for the warm climates.  We get a quick snack at a place where you get the bill before you eat but pay after you eat, which adds some complexity when you want to get something else, such as another drink.  Off to nap, then up to get ready for dinner. 

 

Dinner is in the Leblon section near Ipanema and is a churruscaria frequented by local Rio inhabitants known as Cariocas much as the inhabitants of Buenos Aires are known as Portenos.  The food is phenomenal, with a surprising amount of excellent sushi & sashimi complementing the excellent meat.  Perhaps unfairly I found myself comparing the meat overall this vacation to that of Argentina.  The meat was good, but because of the exchange rate the places we were able to go in Argentina were better and thus so was the meat.  There were some interesting cuts of meat, notably the tiny chicken hearts they brought, the meat that was fried in cheese as well as the meat that was covered in fried garlic.  The local sushi special was a roll that was covered in cheese and deep fried.  Mmmmmmmmm.  We alternated between Caprinhias with various fruit in them and something called CapreVodka, which was the same thing except for Vodka substituting instead of Cachaca.  Although the food was overwhelming we still managed to find time to have 3 fantastic desserts.  Truly an excellent meal. 

 

Afterwards we picked up Cris’s friend Sylvia and went to the Jota bar for somebody’s birthday.  There were some intense conversations going on between Cris and the bouncer, but all of this resulted in a wait of around 30 minutes, something that we’d never put up with in NYC.  Once we eventually gained entrance it was hard to see what the wait was for.  There was a cheesy band playing pop culture staples like the Beatles & ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, really quite bizarre.  Speaking of bizarre, the method of payment for drinks definitely registered on that scale.  You get given a card, which you hand over to the waitress/bartender every time you need a drink.  At the end of the night, you have to hand this card to a cashier at the bar, then you present the card to the bouncer upon leaving.  Still, we hung around dancing and drinking until 3am when we decided we’d had enough.

 

Thursday January 20^th

Took the opportunity to relax and take my time getting up.  A relief that Jon isn’t one of those early morning gung-ho tourist types.  In fact, I’m relatively more interested in getting up to go do stuff than he is.  Not for the first time, our communication signals are crossed but we are eventually picked up in the late afternoon by Cristiane to go to Jesus on Corcovada.  Since we’re starving, we stop at ‘Bob’s’, which is the Brazilian McDonalds.  I’m not a big fan of going to a fast food burger place in Brazil, would have much preferred empanadas or something but reluctantly went with the group.  The food definitely felt like a poor man’s Mcdonalds, a la Wimpy in England.  Jon/Cris were big fans of the milkshakes there. Two women were in the back actually selling underwear from a bag in the food area, and Cris proceeded to buy a pair.  It was freezing inside, a testament to the lack of concept of climate control. 

 

Once we reached the Corcovada base, the parking situation manifested itself in a battle of wits between driver & random guys who try to help you find a parking spot.  Naturally those guys want you to park far away, but you want to park as close as possible thus making their lives much tougher.  Cris spends several minutes arguing and cajoling before finally obtaining a fantastic parking spot right around the corner.  She then proceeds to leave us completely bewildered by walking us to the ticket booth and then casually mentioning that she’s going off to feed her dog and she’ll meet up with us later in the day.  Why she couldn’t have then just dropped us off, allowing us to catch the 3:20 tram as opposed to the 4pm tram, was quite beyond us.  Yet another experience of the lack of organization in Brazil manifested itself in the chaotic line to get onto the tram, with people just milling around and pushing to the front bereft of any guidance from the organizers.  There were some haphazard tourist paraphernalia in the waiting section but not a lot worth looking at, although the English translations did prove to be amusing.  We waited for about 45 minutes before the the train finally arrived and we took it up. 

 

The Train was pretty slow, and since there was only one track there were numerous stops to move to the side and let other trains go down the hill.  The views were okay but tended to be covered by the forest on the way up.  Once up at the top and walking to the summit the lack of a camera looked to be a major mistake, regardless of the outrageous prices being charged for a disposable.  Having always been used to somebody having a camera with me it was the first time in a while that I’d been on a trip without one.  Looks like I’ll have to buckle down and buy a small convenient digital camera to take with me.  The views at the top of the mountain were breathtaking, and we managed to get a fairly wide circuit before the rapidly approaching clouds covered up the ground before us and resulted in a torrential downpour.  We took turns moving from alcove to alcove before waiting under the awning of a small tourist shop trying to outwait the rain.  After it finally calmed down a little we headed down only to find another free for all trying to catch train. 

 

Eventually we manage to get down and catch a cab on the street back to Ipanema.  The weather has calmed down to the point that I decided to get some exercise by going for a run down the beach.  Walking down one block I see a stage set up on the beach with a brazilian band singing an English pop song.  Interesting as it is I feel the need to get going so I start jogging on the bike path down by the beach.  Soaking up the interesting atmosphere, with people relaxing and having a good time.  The main difference between here and Miami is clearly the abundance of vendors selling beer & caparinhas, one more strike against the prudish US.  Not for the first time I reflect on the interesting dichotomy of going to a party town with somebody who doesn’t drink beer or wine or during the day.  Definite good and bad points to it. 

 

Start working up a sweat in the humidity of the late afternoon, but enjoying soaking up the atmosphere and don’t resort to the iPod.  Starting to tire but the large rock at the end of the main beach proves to be a natural stopping poing.  It’s a nice view to go up top and be able to look down the length of Ipanema to Leblon, as well as down all the way the length of Copacobana beach.  I decide against running back, going for the leisurely stoll instead.  While walking I notice a restaurant that looks like a potential dinner place. 

Upon geting back to hotel, its time to rest up and then go to dinner.  Dinner is decent, a steak reminiscent of the Buenos Aires steak with Juan, fried egg on top along with ham, potatoes and peas.  We look to walk back and find some bars in Ipanema, but take wrong turn at Alberquque, somehow ending up in Copacabana in front of ‘Help’ discotheque.  Rapidly realize that ‘Help’ is not your average disco, with all the friendly women outside.  Jon makes friends with Simone, or other way around.  Out of curiosity and because drinks and admission seem cheap we go into Help.  Its quite an interesting experience, as it still seems like a hardcore club inside.  A large variety of men, a lot of who looked like business men and the average age was definitely on the older side which was a surprise and welcome relief.  Drinks were plentiful but with yet another quirk on payment, having to buy prepaid tickets which apply to different drink prices, but with most drinks at 6-8 reals ($2-$3) doesn’t make sense to go anywhere else.  After a while the drinks and tiredness set in, so it was time to catch a cab and go home only to be ripped off for 20 Real because meter is off and we don’t realize until we get to the hotel only a 5-10 minute ride away.

 

Friday January 21^st

As becomes a habit on this vacation, we get up around noon.  We head out to the beach for awhile to get some empanadas and also drink some coconut milk.  Relax on the beach as much as we can while getting constantly harassed by street hawkers selling all manner of things.  Cristiane texts us to meet her at the Rio Sul mall in Botafogo.  We go check it out as Jon is now in desperate need of summer clothes.  Get something to eat at the first little mall sandwich place, and the food does the trick.  Directly opposite is a typical mall trendy store called Taco, where Jon fills up on shirts, t-shirts & shorts.  I buy a couple of t-shirts and shorts and Jon buys other stuff at Renner.  The mall could easily be anywhere in the U.S.  Go to a couple of other stores, then go wait for Cristiane and Sylvia, who typically are on Brazilian time which means at least 30 minutes late.  Fortunately Jon solves the mystery of Brazilian phone cards so we are now able to get in touch with her other than texting her.  Unfortunately Cristiane let loose in a mall is a bad thing.  After waiting interminably why she tried various outfits on we were saved by the resourceful Sylvia who managed to drag her way from the clothes.  I did find an adequate pair of turf boots to replace the ones I bought in Argentina, although bought them more for the cheap price (99 Reals) than anything else, as well as the real need for a pair. 

 

Yet another lost in translation error as despite requesting a non-churruscaria we went to an old fashioned brazilian buffet restaurant.  The food was different and more local fare, and it was interesting to see a different type of buffet, especially since they offered different types of liquour such as after dinner drinks and others (I’m sure they would have gone broke in NYC).  We then get a driving tour of the city from Cris with some truly frightening driving & traffic.  Apparently red lights are only suggestions here, and there are areas when traffic just mingles with no apparent controls, quite scary even after having seen traffic in all parts of the world. 

 

We manage to park in Lapa after driving through some shady areas near where Carnivale is held, and walk from our car to Carioca de Gema, a well known live music place.  The crowd is really interesting, mostly locals with a smattering of tourists.  The place is absolutely packed and everyone seems to know the songs.  All ages & races.  The line never decreases outside the place.  After a couple of drinks we move on, stopping to wander up the hill.  Jon is quite nervous but there are clearly a smattering of young tourists (probably backpackers) around and the crowd appears to be non-threatening except of course for potential pickpockets.  We only spend a couple of minutes there before moving back to the car.  We go to the pizzeria in Leblon but are pretty tired, so after a quick drink we head back for a relatively early night around 3am.

 

Saturday January 22^nd

We get up at noon again and take a walk down Ipanema beach towards Copacobana.  We’re starving, so we stop at a café across the street from the beach.  Once again, the only real option is steak although at least they have an English menu.  Interesting way of serving the food, seeming to maximize the inconvenience and space taken up by using multiple plates and tables.  A bit tired of steak because the meat & preparation is simply not as good as that in Argentina.  For some reason they tend to serve potato chips with steak instead of French fries or other forms of potatoes, yet another example of brazilian logic.  It’s a long walk down to the end of Copacabana, and an even longer walk back along the sand but still quite enjoyable.  The tide seems to be coming in and the waves are quite sizeable. 

 

Me on Copacobana beach with Pau de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) in the distant background

 

 

 

Jon with the world famous Copacabana Palace behind, and if you squint real good you can see the Jesus coming out of the clouds up behind him.

 

We rest, watch the second half of ‘Midnight Run’ and then head out.  Another eccentricity of our apartment is that the bedroom receives two extra English movie channels than the main room.  Ricardo, our ever useful reception guy tells us its because it’s a different make of TV, which naturally makes no sense whatsoever since the TV’s are both fed from the same cable.  Anyway, we head off to Garota de Ipanema, made famous by the guy who wrote the song ‘Girl from Ipanema’.  The street singers are aggressive asking for tips but lively singers and for a few Real quite worth it.  The food is excellent, a nice piece of Bass along with mushroom, capers, potatoes and the apparently very popular heats of palm, pretty much served with everything.  Two young American kids at the next table asking advice on where to go, but we don’t really have much to offer them. 

 

Randomly Cris texts asking us to meet her at the hotel since we were told that we were going to Samba School but hadn’t heard from her.  Get driven out to Mangueira.  On entering the parking lot, the parkers look highly shady and for the first time I grow quite apprehensive.  Cris turns around and tells us to be quiet, not a problem from my point of view but takes Jon a little persuading.  Upon walking a few hundred yards we are now with a huge crowd, many of whom based on their fashionable clothing are from the south side hence making the place seem much safer.  Tickets are purchased and we head in towards a huge auditorium absolutely packed with revelers, with a band up high on one side as they continue to practice their one song again and again.  We meet up with a couple of Cris’s friends but lose Sylvia in the crowd, and despite the presence of cell phones it inexplicably takes us over an hour to locate each other. 

 

 

The samba band is playing up on the balcony at the indoor samba school in Mangueira

 

Fruit Capre Vodkas are only 5 Reals, and the bartender takes a liking to me after serving me a couple, perhaps because unlike everyone else I wasn’t arguing or trying to negotiate a better price.  After buying 2, on my third he continued to pour the rest of what was in the blender into my drink, also pouring vodka straight from the bottle to essentially provide me with a 4^th strong drink for free.  My ebullient mood unfortunately wasn’t shared by Jon, for whom the parking lot incident had coloured the entire night.  The more he travels the better his radar will get regarding safety i.e. realizing that we’re probably safe in a place where women are carrying Louis Vuitton & Chanel bags, but as always there’s a learning curve. 

 

No doubt the mood was not helped by the torrential downpour, although it was fun to watch the Brazilians dancing in the rain completely ignoring the soaking.  Cris decided to drive home so we went with Ricardo, engaging in a long animated conversation about soccer that ended with him apparently agreeing to pick us up to take us to the Maracana for a 4 pm kickoff for the Rio Cup the next day.  He dropped us at Emporium bar, which ironically was literally right around the corner from Ipanema Towers although we had not realized it even though a guide had told us that there was a well known bar in that vicinity, apparently because its closed and shuttered during the day.  At Emporium I met a couple of French girls from the Upper East (of course) while Jon met some girls from Rio. 

 

We then went to the inevitable Pizzeria in Leblon with Marcia who proved to be every bit the relaxed fun woman that we would meet in the city, especially since she’d lived in the U.S.  Another interesting take is that Marcia tries to pay for her Pizza by check, check being a fairly common way of paying for things in Brazil.  Naturally we cover her for the $2-3 and share a cab home as she’s staying with her cousin only a few blocks away from us.  Arrival at home, about 6am.

 

 

Me & Marcia who we met at Emporium bar.

 

 

 

Sunday January 23^rd

Wake up close to 2, watch TV and wait for Ricardo who inevitably does not call or show up to take us to the stadium.  Relax, then head to local café called Gaitos for a bite.  After resting a bit more, we head over to Vinicius restaurant which is directly opposite Garota de Ipanema and apparently has the same owners although not as crowded.  We have done a pretty excellent job of eating in a new place every day, although I had exactly the same dish as I did at Garota, the bass.  This time I finally got hot sauce, which is actually small peppers in oil.  This proved to be fairly hot.  Marcia joined us for dinner, just having a Guarana Antartica, Jon’s favourite non alcoholic drink of choice. 

 

Marcia needed to get up early to go shopping for clothes before working tomorrow at 1pm (?) but she managed to lead us to Shenanigans, a well known ex-pat/tourist bar.  Unusually it was just an upstairs bar but walking in it was like a typical cosmopolitan irish bar with pool table and lots of TV’s turned to the Patriots vs Steelers game.  Jon has no interest in sports but I was soaking it up, although there were naturally far too many New England fans around for my liking, especially when they started pummeling the Steelers.  Marcia was nice enough to get us one drink but then had to run out, leaving Jon and I scrambling around to find a place to sit in the crowded place.  There seemed to be a lot of people having a good time for late on a Sunday, but the place was scheduled to close by 2am. 

 

As the game wound down we took some advice from locals we met and headed over to Baronetti which was a few blocks walk away.  There wasn’t much of a line to get in although I was a bit suspicious when they asked us if we were American and requested our drivers licenses.  Once we were in though we found that we weren’t being charged the tourist prices as all guys had to pay 40 Reals to get in, unlike the women of course.  The place was packed but dramatically young, almost like being in a teenage bar.  With the drinking age a normal 18 as opposed to the puritanical 21 of the U.S. it also meant the age group was quite young except for a few tourists here and there.

 

Once again it seemed that very few people spoke English so it was almost a fools errand to hang around too long at the place with the music blasting loud and the dearth of room to maneuver in.  By about 3am we were ready to call it a night, although having to run the gauntlet of paying at the window before we left, joining the throng of people.  We finally received a reason for the entire odd phenomenon of ordering drinks via card/menu and then paying at the end.  Apparently because of safety issues a lot of people didn’t want to carry a lot of cash, so by using this method people could just pay for drinks via check/credit card at the end of the night instead of carrying a lot of cash.

 

Monday January 24^th

Getting used to the routine of getting up around noon.  Cris lets us know that she’ll be taking us to Pau de Acucar (Sugar Loaf Mountain) and that after that we’ll be going to the Barra area of Rio.  I pack ready for anything, loading up towels & swimming gear along with my book.  Cris tells us she’ll take us near her work for a quick something to eat, but inevitably that ends up being Bob’s.  The food is even worse this time, but at least mercifully its quick.  We stop by her workplace to check it out.  Cris is quite successfully and definitely aggressive, regardless of what she says to the contrary.  She takes us around to Sugar Loaf and does another masterful job of parking, walks us all the way to the ticket booth before dropping the inevitable bombshell that she doesn’t really feel like going up so she’ll just meet us at her office later. 

 

Now I make the cardinal error of just going back to the car to retrieve my phone instead of bringing my entire backpack.  Seemed a smart thing at the time not to be loaded down but would prove to be much more of a hindrance than anything else.  Regardless, the weather was definitely co-operating and we were able to travel up the dodgy cable car without incident and with a nice view.  The Jesus on Corcovada continued to exhibit a really interesting phenomenon.  The clouds around Rio tend to be extremely low, which results in some breathtaking views of the Jesus shrouded by moving clouds, either emerging or standing tall.  This was the case today as well.  Not quite sure how the pictures came out from the ghetto disposable camera, but worth a shot anyway.  We didn’t spend too much time dawdling before heading up to the second and far more dramatic cable car, which led from the mount across the water to the top of the Plateau. 

 

 

Squint, you'll see Jesus. I promise!

 

Made famous by the James Bond move ‘Moonraker’, it was quite an experience being precariously ferried up via the cable car to the top of the mountain.  More great views, and some interesting walks around the top of the mountain.  Time to go down, and this time a long walk past the parking lot through the military section along the water.  Secluded and nice, but unfortunately time constraints on our part prevented us from finishing the hike as we wanted to make sure we got back in time to meet Cris.

 

 

From cable car, picture of another cable car ascending Sugar Loaf

 

After we caught a cab back to the towers we waited around for her to pick us up, at which point she drove us along Sao Conrado towards Barra de Tijuaca.  We received an interesting geography lesson with more of Rio’s contradictions, such as the beautiful beach being a bit on the dangerous side because of the huge hillside favela so close, yet somehow Sao Conrado manifests itself as one of the most expensive parts of Rio with apartments apparently fetching several million dollars (?).  The pouring rain threatened to put a damper on the proceedings but regardless we ended up pulling into one of the more popular churruscaria chains known as Porcao.

 

Even though it was after 8 the place was mostly empty, as in South America in general they eat so late that 8pm is considered the equivalent of the early bird special.  The food was definitely the equal to the first churruscaria and it was a tough exercise it self denial as to what to allocate to the plate and for precious stomach room.  As we repeatedly went back for seconds the place started to fill up, and as is characteristic of brazilian places they didn’t bother us and left us alone.  Another interesting point is that having the cards set to red for no more meat or green for come on seems to make absolutely no difference as people flocked over to our table regardless.  Eventually after dessert we decided to move on. 

 

We drove by Gavea to check out ‘00’, but the parking lot appeared to be empty so we drove on to Leblon.  There was a long line at ‘Melt’, either for dinner or waiting for a live band so we walked down a few yards to ‘Devassa’, a pub which opened out into the street with wooden tables.  We spend an enjoyable hour playing ‘One frog’ & ‘Spoof’ before Cris decided to head out. 

 

Myself, Jon & Cristiana at a Devassa

 

 

More brazilian confusion.  Cris says to contact her if we need any info, so I explain EXACTLY what we need and to please text me the next day.  Needless to say, we never receive the information, and she also mentions that Ricardo was surprised not to hear from us even though we never had his number and he was supposed to pick us up since he lived around the corner and we were tourists.  Oh well.  We hung out at Devassa for a bit before moving on to Emporium, but it was not as fun as it had been a few nights before so we called it a night at our typical 3am.

 

Tuesday January 25^th

We got up and went to lunch at a place that Cris had recommended to us right near the little square.  The buffet looked small but turned out to be absolutely terrific.  Excellent buttered potatoes, salad, spinach and steak smothered in gravy.  We definitely left feeling full and satisfied.  Jon wanted to hang glide today whereas I wanted to do a more touristy thing in taking the tram up to Santa Teresa, but looked like neither would be doable as the tram apparently had been on strike for 3 weeks while the hangliding was going to run more than we wanted to pay.  Instead we decided to walk up to the lake that we customarily drive by and take a walk around it, partly for exercise sake and partly for something to do. 

 

The dead fish smell occasionally made things unpleasant but on the whole it was a nice walk, with Corcovadar looming over everything.  We passed by a helicopter ride and Jon put the full court press on to take a ride.  The pressure was relentless and the logic inescapable, so despite the hefty price tag (230 reals for 8-9 minutes) we decided to do it.  With only 6 pictures left in the camera we were going to have to be judicious using the precious film.  Purely by accident, I sat in the back while Jon got to sit in the front with the pilot.  We took off and moved straight up to Ipanema beach, where I took one picture that featured our building in relation to the beach.  I was going to take one of Sugar Loaf but we were approaching face on so I made the cardinal blunder of handing the camera to Jon for a straight on shot.  Like a little kid in a toy store Jon lost all reason and our discussion of precious resources and before he could be stopped like a madman proceeded to rewind and snap 5 virtually identical shots of Sugar Loaf.  It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion.  With not a single shot left, we proceeded on our $80 helicopter ride to a breathtaking flyover TWICE around the Corcovadar Jesus, the highest point in Rio.  The view was amazing, but you’ll just have to trust me on that.  Flying on a small craft like this helicopter doesn’t do much for Vertigo though especially given that one of the mountainsides is virtually sheer, but the view was still amazing.  As we headed back down to the beginning a few drops of rain started, and we were tremendously fortunate to miss the torrential downpour that followed. 

 

Second classic blunder after never starting a land war in Asia is giving Jon a camera when he's excited. The next 4 snaps are okay, but nothing compared to shooting down and actually proving there was a 13th story Jesus.

 

 

We went to go and dry out at the hotel, and I decided to use the opportunity to finally go utilize our pool since it was our last day.  Tiny as it was, it was still serviceable and the weather warmed up, reaching 98 degrees at one point.  A couple of mini laps made me feel that at least I’d done some exercise in addition to the walk.  We ended up going to a restaurant just past the park called ‘Itahy’ recommended by Concierge Ricardo, but unfortunately it didn’t match the glowing recommendation from him.  Typically as it was our last night we finally received the communications we were waiting for.  Andy Bond’s fully descriptive email was too late to act on but we did manage to get in touch with Paul Logan after all.  They had been in the city for only a couple of days so were curious about ‘Help’.  Since we wanted to see him and catch up with him we decided to join him, but the novelty had worn off from the first time.  After having a couple of drinks and discussing what we’d been upto, we ended up leaving relatively early by about 1:30am.

 

Wednesday January 26^th

Our initial plan had been to thoroughly relax on our last day by going to the beach and just relaxing, but the inclement weather put paid to that prospect.  We ate lunch at Barra de Torres but it proved to be only mediocre.  The rain came in the form of a tropical storm, highly restricting what we could do.  As a last resort we headed to Shenanigans to see if we could have a drink and play some pool, but as seemed typical of non beach places the bar was closed.  This led to a rather sobering experience of heading back to the hotel soaking wet and sitting in the lobby for several hours before being picked up by our taxi. 

 

The traffic was extreme but fortunately we had allocated plenty of time.  Check-in was fairly straightforward, giving us an hour in the completely Spartan terminal.  Surprisingly boarding and take-off were achieved punctually, but this time our stop in Sao Paolo proved to have a reason as we were going to change planes.  We killed some time buying very cheap duty free chocolate and I decided on a whim to buy some Cachaca to make some Caparinhas back home.  Once again, take-off was surprisingly punctual but I made the fatal error of mentioning how smoothly things had gone.  Needless to say, the spiteful travel gods reacted with glee and proceeded to render our personal entertainment centers inoperative, thus sentencing us to several hours on the flight with no entertainment whatsoever.  Fortunately I had timed my book to perfection and thus had enough reading material left in between dozing off to my iPod.  Jon’s recommended Tylenol PM also kicked in, providing me with a couple of hours of sleep. 

 

Despite being at the back of the plane we did an excellent job of bypassing numerous slowpokes and immigration was fast, as was the cab line.  Tired but relatively happy to be back we braved the cold weather, managing to ignore the daylight robbery of sharing a cab for a total of $70.

 

Brazilian Phrases:

Desculpa: Excuse Me

Obrigado: Thank you

Gustoso: Delicious

Garota: Girl

CapreVodka: Caparinha with Vodka instead of Cachaca

 

That’s pretty much all I got.  I ended up learning more Korean than I did Portuguese!  Kamsamida!