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Published: June 16th 2012
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Aline Campbell
The art exhibition commences.... Aline is holding an art exhibition in her apartment on the day I arrive. Brilliant timing on my part as usual but she is really excited about it so i step over the couple sleeping in the living room and crash for a few hours before it starts.
My new host has a shaved black ponytail striped through with green, seaweedy purple tatoos swirled up her legs and huge infectious grin. Her apartment is small but with a fabulous view of the city and on her wall she's painted a caricature of herself with the words:
"Love brings us closer" written on her bum cheek.
Well amen to that.
After a couple of hours sleep I get up and decide to do a sight. I suppose there will be much time for navel gazing and philosophizing later but right now i just want to ease myself in gently and do something really touristy.
So I decide to go see Jesus.
I´m feeling a little blue. The last time i came away to South America to travel for a month I just remember feeling completely content and chilled out with the world but this time i
Jesus
The Big Dude have a lingering sense of dread.
I try not to be too hard on myself, I think i´m going to need a while to decompress. The last week leading up to me leaving has been seven kinds of crazy. My last friday in the country and I have my leaving do at work, move all of my stuff out of my apartment and get my boiler fixed finally at midnight on the day my new tenants move in. My mum falls and bruises her face which means she can´t leave the house, my parents internet breaks down which means i can´t skype or print out any òf my travel documents at home. I'm still saying goodbye to friends who can't come to my leaving do and buy essentials like a travel towel for the backpack but on the day before i go my car breaks down at the station and i have to call the AA.
The night before i fly I have my leaving do to say goodbye to all my friends and then friday i´m off. I'm actually quite glad to leave the continent!
Its been less than four months since my boss asked me
Aline's Apartment
Love brings us closer what i wanted to do and i thought:
travel the world, write poetry and fall in love...actually.
And handed my notice in.
In the middle of one of the worst economic recessions the city has seen.
And unlike many of the people i will meet along the way I know that at 36 i am not quitting a job. I am quitting a career.
So what else is there to do except go see Jesus. With Aline´s help i navigate my way to Corvocado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue on the local buses. Not only are they easy to use, fast (as all the drivers seem to speed like demons escaping from Hades) but there is also a little man in a chair with a turnstile that sits behind the driver who gives you a ticket. Not exactly cost effective from a staff resources point of view but the little man in the chair is very good at listening to my shouty pronunciation and indicating when to get off!
When i arrive the tour guides warn that its cloudy up the top. With only 2 more full days in the city i
Corvocado
Queue (monkey) management decide to chance it rather than come back...Whilst waiting for a cable car to the top the queues are enthralled by a couple of monkeys that have swung down from the trees and are skimming down poles to take food from the crowds. They seem like such seasoned pros i start considering whether the cable car company actually have them on the books as paid for entertainers. Up at the top - and sure enough "The Big Dude" (as he´s affectionately known ) is swathed in mist and its impossible to see a thing either below or above. There are crowds of people who have clearly been here for ages waiting for a glimpse of his face. Every time the clouds blow accross for a second there are huge oohs and aahs and everyone strikes their crucifixion pose to try and get a shot....
Later one of the girls on my tour tells me she has done the helicopter tour around Sugar Loaf Mountain that circles the Christ the Redeemer statue and if i go back to Rio i´d definitely look at this option. Its expensive and with motion sickness like mine i'd have to find a way not to barf for 5 minutes! but it sounds like a stunning way to see the statue and landscape below.
At the bottom a Brazilian woman grabs my forearm and rubs the skin between her fingers and laughs mockingly. As we've already established - I don´t speak a word of Portugese but I know for a fact it roughly translates as:
AHAHAHAHAHAH YOU ARE SOOOOO PASTY PALE FACE!!!!!!
Later that night and i go for a meal and a beer in Lapa which is known for being the party 'hood but by myself its a little difficult to party and hell... i have a year for that. I turn in at a respectable 10.30pm hoping to ward off the jet lag.
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