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Published: December 18th 2008
RIO
Ipanema beach. A week in Rio...
From Bujumbura, Burundi we flew to Nairobi for an overnight stay to finalize John´s Brazilian visa. After all our travels, countries visited and visas we have obtained, getting a Brazilian visa for a U.S. citizen proved to be the most challenging of them all. The usual visa requirements, for those of us privileged to be from westernized countries where we have easy access to travel permits include: passport, standard photo, visa application properly completed, visa fee, and of course the allotted amount of processing time. For Brazil, (if you are a U.S. citizen) in addition to previously mentioned requirements, we also needed to supply a letter of introduction from our embassy or sponsor, original current copy of our bank statements proving that we had the financial means to spend a week in Brazil, copies of our onward flight itinerary, yellow fever vaccination certificate, and a whopping $130 USD in Kenyan Sterling... Had we not had the assistance of Justice´s mother, who Faxed us copies of our bank statements to our hotel in Nairobi the night of our arrival, ALL our efforts would have been in vain... (Thanks Mom)
After a crazy night
Nairobi
View from our room window... of reconfiguring, we spent the following day with new possibilities on the brain. Thanks to Mom's response to our beckon call we crammed in the local mini bus with the additional necessary documents and headed to the Brazilian Embassy whom we had been in contact with from Burundi for the previous two and a half weeks. Upon our arrival and after a short wait we were attended to by a familiar gentleman whom had responded to our dozens of emails. He took our bank statements and then told us to wait for approval. For fifteen minutes to an eternity we waited with our fingers crossed. When he returned he explained to us that the bank statements had been approved however, John did not have enough pages in his passport to hold another visa! With relief we turned to the last page of John´s visa where we had intended the visa to go and convinced him that it was great idea to put it there. He responded with a positive response and then told us to walk up to the bank to deposit the money for the visa. Woo hoo! When we returned the same gentleman had us sign a statement
Rio De Janerio
Complex centro Rio. that we had been informed by the Brazilian Embassy in Nairobi that it is pertinent to have more pages added to John´s passport before arrival in Brazil. Since we were in Embassy central already it couldn't have been much easier to get to the US Embassy to do just this. After a long rigmarole of security getting into the US embassy, we had twenty new swanky pages added to Johns passport in forty minutes at no cost and a car ride back to the city by an exuberant Boston gal. Walking around Nairobi in the sunshine practicing our English once again, we smiled at each other in relief while clenching hands and sending Mom a special prayer. With all our tasks complete we headed back to the airport to catch the evening flight off the African Continent and toward the Western Hemisphere and South America... after an eight hour layover in Dubai of course...lol
Fourteen hours in the sky from Dubai we touched down in San Paulo Brazil close to midnight. That´s when the irony set in as we stopped at passport control: the lady didn´t even check for John´s neatly placed visa within the new designer pages,
Rio De Janerio
Centro walking tour. until we asked her to! Then when it came to Justice´s UK passport she looked for a visa when one was not required! We explained to her what the requirements were, she agreed, chuckled with a hint of embarrassment and stamped us through. Word to the wise if you are traveling to Brazil and you are a US passport holder be sure to leave plenty of time to secure your visa, chances are you will not get in without it!
Passing customs we hurried through the airport to find a puddle jumper flight to Rio De Janerio where we had hotel reservations awaiting our arrival. The next flight, at an inflated $ 120 USD wasn´t until one in the morning which actually was delayed until two. Making our arrival to Rio at approx. three and arrival to the overpriced hotel at three forty-five. Oh well, at least we had a TV, in Portuguese just like the entire hotel staff! lol
Challenge number two: obtaining cash in Rio was harder then anticipated. Luckily we had changed enough money at the airport to pay for a taxi to the hotel and enough for a couple of meals from
Rio De Janerio
Enormous park rodents.... the grocery store. Beyond that we were unable to find any ATMs that would dispense cash to us. Fortunately being aware of this possible difficulty we obtained several hundred USD whilst in Burundi to change in Rio. Now, if we could only find a money exchange that was open during the weekend!
After sleeping off our jet lag hangovers we hopped on a local bus, driven insanely, to the notorious destinations of Copacabana and Ipanema, hopefully we would find a posh hotel to change our money at a reasonable rate? After being denied by two hotels the third was the charm and at a better rate then the first two. Now with Riel in our money pouch we headed off to the beachfront for a frosty cold one in the sun accompanied by tasty barbecued meat on a stick.
During our week in Rio we were situated in Centro, the downtown area approx. a twenty minute wild bus ride from the main beaches. This was a great place to be for cost and general location. However, when it came to wanting to lay on the beach it wasn´t a very practical location since one of us
Rio De Janerio
Monkeys near Sugar Loaf. would have to take turns watching our daily supplies while the other entered the water. Rio has a reputation of high crime for a reason. While mainly people in Rio enjoy a modest to upper class living the majority of the population scrape by in dyer poverty. Therefore the have-nots prowl the ritzy areas where the haves and the tourists reside and spend their money. We saw several bag snatchings before our very eyes. Needless to say the only parts of our bodies that entered the South Atlantic from Rio were our feet. This was just fine with us as we kept ourselves occupied with other activities.
After another daring bus ride we arrived outside the cable car to ascend Sugar loaf for a spectacular view. When we got to the ticket both we were surprised to find the rate had
doubled from the listed price in the Lonely Planet for this year. Being the budget minded travelers we are, we fretted a little and then declined but not without an alternative plan. We decided that we would see the view from Corcovado another day and that this day we would hike around the beautiful seaside park at
Rio De Janerio
This one was almost big enough to eat birds.... ewwww the base of sugar loaf for the fantastic price of nothing. After a beautiful stroll around the base watching monkeys play in trees and observing wildlife in it´s intricate details, we spied a climbing trail heading up the mountain. Not knowing where the trail would lead us we continued on for the adventure. To our surprise we ascended to the top of the first peak and cable car yielding a spectacular view over the city and of Sugar loaf on the other side. Once on top we spent a fraction of the money on a cold beer and a burger. "Now that´s what we´re talkin´ about!"
As decided, we spent the next day visiting Corcovado without any hesitation regarding spending the money to see it. Funny enough the price was basically the same as the Bible (Loney Planet) suggested. We climbed through the clouds in a small rickety green train feeling the pressure accumulate in our ears as we went. When we got off the train we continued our climb via elevator and then stairs. Surrounding us were clouds as if we were on the outside of an airplane. From the top the enormous statue of Jesus was
Rio De Janerio
View of the hills from the peak next to Sugar Loaf. no where to be seen. Then after patiently waiting and as if by some divine plan Jesus showed his face and wide stretched arms but only for a few moments and then he was gone again, swallowed by clouds. This mystical appearance continued for the good portion of an hour and then the skies cleared for a longer duration and then covered again. The view to the surrounding city was not as clear as the previous days view, however, the element of mysticism was entertainment enough. We polished the evening off over a delicious Italian style pizza, capresse salad and a bottle of Brazilian red. Ahh a day in Rio to remember......
The following days in Rio we anxiously awaited the results of our new President elect. This may seem like a simple result to ascertain once Obama´s win had been determined. However, that was certainly not the case. Portuguese is a lot different from Spanish and is difficult to understand unless of course you speak it fluently. As we said our TV and everyone surrounding us spoke one language as well as us and it wasn´t English. So when it came to the announcing of the new
Rio De Janerio
Looking toward Sugar Loaf. President elect we were able to understand that Obama had most likely won. For example, the television sounded like this to us... Blah Blah Blah Obama Blah Blah Obama Blah Blah McCain Blah Blah McCain Blah Blah Obama. We waited to see if there would be graphs or numbers on the television but nothing appeared. It wasn´t until the next morning when we saw the news paper with Obama´s grandiose picture on it and the Portuguese title implying the first African President for the USA that we celebrated. We can honestly say we are once again proud to live in the USA!
After an exciting week in Rio visiting sights walking around the city admiring the diversity of architecture, parks, and people we once again prepared ourselves for yet another adventure south.
Stayed tuned faithful readers to find out what wild and woolly Patagonian destinations our Dynamic Duo will land in next....
Same travel blog, same travel time........(although, hopefully a little sooner next time)
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