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Published: August 9th 2016
A quick blog today at the end of Day 3. We will be back at the Olympic Park in the morning for Tennis all day on the 'side courts' -- not the main stadium, but courts 3 to 9. We just arrived back at the apartment and while our Men's Basketball game tonight ended around midnight, it is now just after 4:00am. For some reason the subway was not working this evening, so a parade of buses brought us back from Olympic Park to the Lapa area (normally about an hour on the subway). Needless to say we arrived back here wanting to get as much sleep as possible before we turn around and do it all again tomorrow morning.
Having said that, it was our first trip into the Olympic Park and the Barra de Tijuca area of Rio. We will write more about this tomorrow, but what a 'tale of two cities'. The Rio were are staying in (central area, close to historical neighbourhoods and where the middle class live) is NOTHING compared to the Barra region. If you only saw the Barra part of Rio, you would have zero appreciation for the City and how the majority
of society here lives. It reminds us of the people who head to an All-Inclusive Resort in a sun destination like Mexico or Jamaica and then never venture off the resort, but will say they've been to Mexico...well, not really!
The Olympic Park though, wow! Absolutely gorgeous. Again, despite the negative media, all of the venues are Games ready (FINISHED), new, bright, beautiful and modern. The Park itself is massive, with tons of space for the tens of thousands of daily visitors. Every detail looks great, from beautiful landscaping to what we estimate to be millions of hand laid stones that make up the walking surface throughout the park. Most of the key events are here in the Park - Tennis, Track Cycling, Indoor Volleyball, Diving, Swimming, Water Polo, Judo and Basketball (too many to name). It is also the site of the Rio Mega Store for merchandise and memorabilia. Smack dab in the middle, of course, is a McDonald's as well. Many people don't know this but each participating country in the Olympics has a selection process for McDonald's employees to come at work at the Olympics. A few from each country are chosen to work and it
becomes a work experience and cultural exchange. Think of the United Nations of staff at the restaurant.
We haven't mentioned the actual basketball game at all yet. Well, truth be told, it was a blow out. France handily beat China. We were a bit surprised at first based on the size of the Chinese team, but they just didn't have the speed or skill of the French players. The main basketball venue, Carioca Arena #1 (the biggest of the three stepped stadiums) is a perfect venue for basketball. Not a bad seat in the house. The crowd was loud and into it again tonight, despite the wide gap in score.
In the morning (or should we say in a few hours) we are off to Tennis. If we play our cards right, we will get to cheer on Eugene and Gabby play Women's Doubles and maybe even the tag-team duo of Nestor and Pospicil later on in the day. We are there from 11:00am until 8:00pm, so lots of opportunity to see world-class Tennis stars do their thing!
Shout out to a few more Canadian medals today (how about those swimmers?) and a congrats to Brazil for
their first Gold Medal as a host nation.
More pictures below.
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Karen Morley
non-member comment
Love you guys
You have made us feel like we are there experiencing the Olympics. Pictures and details are so informative. Seeing both sides of the country is interesting and not surprised. Look forward to next update. Have fun and enjoy. Luv A Karen