Another day in paradise

I know, I know. I’ve been a terrible blogger on this trip. But I must tell you – it’s because we’re having such a great time here and I’m getting an average of 4 hours of sleep per night, so when I have a half hour of free time I’m desperately taking a nap instead of blogging. But I promise to finish telling you about each day of my Brazilian adventure, even if it’s after I get back to the states. I did write a bit more about Tuesday though, so here it is:

TUESDAY continued…

Although our beach day was fabulous, it started to get pretty windy & chilly after about an hour so I bundled up in my towel and went to sleep under the umbrella. It was probably the best nap I’ve ever taken. We were told not to bring any valuables with us to the beach because people will steal your stuff when you’re not looking. We had our bags tied around our beach chairs, and no one came close enough to steal our stuff. In fact, I’ve felt really safe in Brazil thus far. We’re taking any chances though. There were a few vendors walking around on the beach, selling handcrafts & food & drinks. You could pay a guy to go to one of the boardwalk kiosks and bring you back something to eat/drink. I was too tired to eat though, haha. Volleyball courts are everywhere, and people are playing futi-voli, a combination of soccer & volleyball. There are three players on each side: 2 are on the court keeping the ball in play, and 1 is the designated server (they rotate). They can use anything but their upper extremities to hit the ball, and the 3-touch rule still applies. It looks so hard!! But these Brazilians have fantastic ball control using their feet, knees & heads! I’m going to have to try that at some point…

I’ll take a moment to tell you guys about my experience with the Portuguese language & culture. Rebecca thinks I’m learning it really fast. I’ve learned all the basic greetings, and I’ve realized that Spanish & Portuguese are indeed similar but the pronunciation is the hard part. For example, “Rio” is pronounced “Hio.” And “desculpa” (excuse me/sorry) is pronounced “desh-ku-pa.” The Brazilian currency, “reais” are pronounced “hey-ays.” But I find it really fun to keep learning the language and I’m trying not to speak too much English when I don’t have to. With regards to the Brazilian people themselves, its unpredictable. I notice when we’re walking down the street and I smile at someone, they don’t smile back. This is not a very smiley culture. But when I’m having a conversation with a Brazilian, they are typically friendly & want to help us out. I’ve noticed a social structure that is definitely based on wealth & the color of one’s skin. Rio appears to be a melting pot of sorts. There’s not one specific “look” that identifies someone being inherently Brazilian. There are locals of African, European, native American, and Asian descent – and many people with all these ethnicities combined, which makes for a very beautiful crowd! Although there are a few blondes here and there, I still stick out like a sore thumb and get a lot of stares. Rebecca has been told by a few locals that she could pass as a Brazilian. I notice many of the street vendors & people in service jobs around town are black. And remember those prostitutes in the bar? All black. Whereas most of the locals who are shopping & going out to dinner with friends are white. The only place where I’ve noticed more integration is Lapa.

Anyway, early Tuesday afternoon we found a restaurant in Ipanema within walking distance from our hotel and had lunch. It was yummy – rice, black beans, BBQ chicken & beef, potatoes. Then we took a cab over to the Leblon mall, where we were told most of the good shopping is located. Rebecca & I weren’t that impressed with the stores, although I was thankful for the Starbucks inside the mall. It satisfied my sugar & caffeine craving. The milk they serve with coffee at all the hotel breakfasts is chunky (probably not pasteurized) so needless to say I haven’t been drinking coffee w/ half & half everyday like I’m used to.

We ordered a small dinner in the hotel that night before we went out. We ate dinner on the rooftop patio, where there’s a pool and bar. From the roof, we could see Christ the Redeemer behind us and the entire Ipanema beach strip in front of us. The city looks amazing at night, all lit up. This hotel was amazing and I wish we could have stayed here the whole time but it’s VERY pricey.

We went out that night to a bar called Shenanigan’s, which had a lot of tourists, but also quite few locals. The crowd was really young. In fact, I was talking to a Brazilian guy who looked my age and it turned out he was 20. Ugh. The drinking age here is 18, so I guess we’ll feel “old” on a regular basis. There was a live band at this bar. The people we were hanging out with (Paul from Iowa who has been living/working in Rio for 8 months), and Carlos (from northern Brazil). The band was playing Brazilian pop music. The whole bar was singing along and Rebecca & I were like uhhhhhh… But I really liked the music so I had Carlos write down some of the artists’ names and I’ll be downloading some Brazilian tunes when I get back to the states.

We got back to the hotel at a decent hour this time (1am), which is good, because we were leaving early Wednesday morning for our flight to Foz do Iguacu. More about that later!

Hello, Rio!

Wow, Brazil is rocking my world. Sorry I’ve left you hanging the past couple days, but between the late nights (mornings) and the action packed days, there’s not a whole lot of downtime to write this. I’m posting this from Foz do Iguacu (2-hour plane ride from Rio). But let me catch you up…There’s so much to cover, ahhhh!

MONDAY

Monday morning, after getting a good night’s sleep in Copacabana, we got up at 9am and met Ira & Barbeitan in the lobby for our Corcovado & city tour. The breakfast at our hotel was fabulous: pastries, fresh tropical fruit, salmon, eggs, fresh squeezed juices, and bottled water (necessary in this country). The weather was not so great – high 60’s and cloudy. Ira was concerned the fog & clouds would prevent us from being able to see the jaw-dropping views from the top of the mountain. Barbeitan dropped us off at a small station where we boarded a 2-car train with open windows. The train took us uphill through the dense jungle. There was dense fog (and it was really cold!) when we got to the top. Luckily, as we got a first look at the Christ the Redeemer statue (huge!), the clouds cleared and we were able to enjoy the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro down below. The city itself is so dense with skyscrapers & hills that it’s difficult to gauge where you’re at when you’re on the ground. But from the top of Corcovado, Ira provided us an overview of the various neighborhoods & landmarks. Rio’s coastline, which curves from north-east to south-west, is interrupted & scalloped by jutting mountains, bays, and peninsulas. Starting our trip with this orientation from above was really helpful. While we rode the train back down the mountain, a few samba musicians hopped aboard and entertained us. People got up and danced, including Rebecca, Ira & myself 🙂

Ira & Barbeitan then took us on a driving tour along the entire coastline, from Leblon to Leme. During one stop on the beach, a street painter approached us. He was using his fingers to create an oil painting on a piece of ceramic tile. He painted the landscape we were standing in front of, and then he included a portrait of Rebecca and me in the painting (that was Rebecca’s idea). He made one for each of us. I felt guilty paying so little for such beautiful, personalized work (he only asked for 10 reais each – about $6). His nickname is Midnight, and he lives in the slums of Rio (favelas). He has the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. Ira was helping translate for us because he didn’t speak a lick of English except “thank you.” There was a somewhat awkward, emotional moment between Ira & Midnight right before we go into the car. He was grateful to her for allowing him to paint for us. He said most Brazilian tour guides don’t let him near their their clients; they view him as a nuisance.

For a late lunch, we tried a “kilo” buffet. We plopped a bunch of food on our plates and weighed it (like yogurtland but all kinds of food!). Pretty simple, and pretty good! My meal consisted of black beans, white rice, BBQ beef, BBQ pork, grilled squash, and some weird slimy goopy vegetable.

We took a walk along Copacabana beach, and found ourselves at a small outdoor bar. By this time it was around 3:00pm. I drank Cerpa, a Brazilian beer (really good), and Rebecca drank a martini (it took her about 2 hours to finish, it was so strong). We spent a long time there, just drinking, chatting, and watching soccer on TV. We made friends with our bartender, Moein. He’s Iranian, but moved to Brazil many years ago with his mother. He has a goatee that is dyed bright red. He speaks minimal English, but is fluent in Portuguese & Farsi. When it started getting dark, Rebecca noticed a few girls sitting by themselves throughout the bar, which seemed kind of random. Moein told us they were prostitutes! They weren’t wearing anything scandalous; not your typical hooker you see on TV. Moein thought it was funny how shocked we were about the whole scenario.

Moein had recommended that we check out Mudbug that night, a bar near our hotel. We took a catnap, got ready & headed over there around 10pm. We met a couple Brazilian guys, Luis (who loooooved Rebecca) & Angelo (who knew about 3 words in English). Moein showed up too, when he got off work. Mudbug is a country western bar, and it attracted an eclectic crowd. There was a live country music singer there, and we assumed he was American since he was singing Garth Brooks songs with a perfect country accent. But no! Turns out he’s Brazilian and did not even understand Rebecca when she said, “You’re really good!” Ha!

When Mudbug closed around midnight, we wanted to keep the party going, so Moein suggested that we head over to Lapa. Lapa is a neighborhood that is known for samba clubs, live music, and a younger crowd with a bohemian vibe. My cup of tea. We took a taxi there and then proceeded to have the MOST amazing night EVER! We went to this bar with a live samba band. We ran into an American girl we’d met in the Dallas airport during our nightmare layover/delay (small world?). Her friends were fun, as were the rest of the people we hung out with that night. I made friends with a Colombian guy who lives in Venice (in L.A.), so we exchanged #’s and will get together when we arrive back in the U.S. Some Brazilian guys taught us samba moves, which was so fun! Our first night out in Brazil exceeded my expectations for sure. I think I finally got into bed at 6am. *sigh*

TUESDAY

After getting about 2.5 hours of sleep, we woke up at 8:30am Tuesday morning, stuffed our sleepy faces with breakfast, and Ira picked us up & dragged our zombie bodies over to Ipanema, about 15 minutes (by car) from Copacabana. Our beach-front hotel in Ipanema was SO nice. We had an ocean view. And guess what – no more clouds! It was gorgeous outside! We were sooooo exhausted and we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather & go to the beach. The hotel provided us with chairs and umbrella. We proceeded to pass out under that umbrella for a few hours.

We’re about to eat dinner and honestly I’m getting tired of typing this 🙂 I’ll finish later. Until then, boa noite! (good evening)

Are we in Brazil yet?

In my short life I’ve had my fair share of flight delays, waiting on the tarmac, having to land in the wrong city due to weather conditions, etc. Well, it looks like I was due for another flight mishap, because our flight from Dallas to Rio got delayed over 12 hours 😦 Supposedly due to a “mechanical problem.” They gave us hotel & meal vouchers and told us our flight would be leaving @ 10am on Sunday. We, along with many other passengers, were a little pissed that they didn’t give us a flight voucher, but they advised us to file a complaint with customer relations on americanairlines.com and we’d likely be given a free plane ticket. We’ll see about that…At least I got to sleep in a Westin Heavenly Bed last night…

Being stuck in an airport with a bunch of Brazilians did turn out to be beneficial. We met Flavia, a woman in her thirties who grew up in Sao Paulo, but now lives in Rio with her husband. She gave us some great tips about where to eat, which sights to see, what cool neighborhoods to go out in, and some safety precautions to use. She also gave us her email, phone #, and address, and offered to take us out on the town with her friends one night while we’re here. This was a great first impression of Brazilian hospitality! Oh, and she says her 29 year-old brother lives nearby and has a lot of cute friends. Hmmmm…

So, originally we were supposed to arrive in Rio Sunday morning, check in at our hotel and have a “free day” to ourselves. Unfortunately we’re going to miss out on a day of exploring the city, but luckily we didn’t have to cancel the first hotel night. We arrived in Rio around 10:30pm Sunday night (6:30pm Pacific time), and we were picked up by our tour guide, Ira, and our driver, Barbeitan (sp?). Ira is going to be our own personal tour guide during our time in Rio. She’s been in this business for forty years, so she knows her stuff. On Monday she’s taking us on a half-day tour of Corcovado mountain (Christ the Redeemer statue) and the entire southern coast.

By the time we got settled into our hotel in Copacabana Sunday night, it was too late to go out to any bars unfortunately. But we’ll have plenty of time for that!

By the way – the Wi-Fi situation at our current hotel sucks, so my ability to communicate via blog/email/Skype will be limited for a few days.

I’ll let you know how our first DAY in Brazil goes! I love you all!

Another adventure in blogging

I’m back on the travel blog, folks! This time I’m going to Brazil. YES, I was just in Peru four months ago. YES, I’m going back to South America. My best friend of 14 years, Rebecca, just took the California Bar Exam in July and we’re going to celebrate in style! We’ll be spending most of our time in Rio de Janeiro, and we’re staying two nights in Iguazu Falls. We’ll be abroad for 10 days.

We’re in the Dallas airport right now, waiting for our flight to Rio. We flew out of LAX this morning. We’re sitting at a bar, brushing up on our Portuguese via my Lonely Planet Brazil travel book. Soooo…you know how people say “Oh, you’ll be fine. Since you know Spanish, you’ll understand Portuguese”? Well, that’s crap. Some of the pronunciation is entirely different. For example, an “r” is pronounced like an “h”, and a “t” or “d” followed by a vowel is pronounced “ch”. Fortunately many conversational words are similar to Spanish, such as “hello” (Ola), “thank you” (Por favor), and “your welcome” (De nada). Also, I think since we’ll be in an urban area, many people will speak at least minimal English. I do want to give Portuguese a valiant effort though! After all, I am in their country!

Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m traveling to a country where I don’t speak the native language. Weird. I’m finally visiting a non-Spanish speaking country!

Well, our flight is about to board. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on our samba-dancing, beach-going, soccer-volley-playing, sightseeing good time! Tchau!