Rio!! Beauty, fun, a small accident, and a little bit of guns!!

---

SORRY - I THOUGHT I PUBLISHED THIS MONTHS AGO!!!

So Pricilla and Fabio (the couple I had met in Maceio), along with their good friend/cousin, Luis, picked me up at the airport in Rio after my plane landed late at 1 am. It was totally terrific to see them again and I felt so lucky to meet such nice people willing to pick me up so far away at such inconvenient hour. We went to Fabio’s place, who lived with his parents and grandmother (as is common in Brasil). It was a large, beautiful condo style flat, as is very typical in Brasil, filled with security to the brim. Fabio gave me his room all to myself, it was nice and comfortable with ultrahigh speed internet!! Yay!

The next day we went to visit... I forget but according to Fabio its the largest urban park in the world. A beautiful tropical forest situated in the mountains. It was too bad that it was practically raining most of the day so we didn’t get to the trekking we had originally planned. Instead we sat on top of mountain overlooking all of Rio, where some hippies were singing beautiful songs and playing unusual instruments, like a swiss hang. I practiced some calisthenics, then taichi, then karate, for about an hour and a half. It was relaxing.

Later that night, they took me to Lapa, where you can find some of Rio’s best night life. We listened to samba over a few beers and had great conversation. We made jokes and laughed the night away, practicing French and discussing our travels around the world, as Fabio had travelled around the world too. We all turned in early at 3 am, hoping we would maybe get an earlier start the next day.
On the way home, I watched all the beautiful historical buildings covered in graphite and barbed wire, all fenced in with tall fences covered in spikes. This was common to Brasil, especially Rio, but to me it didn’t look ugly, scary, or strange. It was just a part of south America. People here where a little paranoid about safety and so bars, locks, cages, had become the norm. Even the balcony on the pretty condo where I was staying was fenced in. But all this protection was not really required, only I suppose because if you didn’t have it you would be the only one, and therefore a target.

The next day they took me around downtown to the market, and then to Ipanema beach, which happened to be windier than hurricane Katarina!! I thought I might die, it was freezing!! -but beautiful and really cool. Then we went to this lovely French festival at Forte Coppacabana, which was like the old fort kind of like a pier by Coppacabanna beach. It was divinely tasty and enticing but unfortunately I did not have the cash to enjoy it adequately. Nevertheless, the sunset was beautiful. Expensive glasses of champagne were in the air, along with fine French pastries, and the smell of coffee. There was a band and a women singing old French romantic melodies, and even though the atmosphere was divine and i had enjoyed myself I was ready to leave. The air was filled with romance, and I couldn’t help but miss certain people. I wasn’t sad... well maybe a little, but I just felt that I would enjoy this atmosphere later with someone special, after all this was just the beginning of my life, right? I maybe would have stayed but it was rather freezing so we left. We visited Pricila’s adorable mother and aunt (who made me tons of coffee), and it was nice, but rapidly despite it being only 7pm I became profoundly exhausted. Even though Fabio was terrific I found it very tedious to talk to him on the car ride home. He kept asking me questions, and I wanted to sleep so bad I could puke. Maybe it was the endless Portuguese... I had to think twice as hard just to understand and talk this foreign language. It was interesting cause I could do it but it actually took like a firmly tangible effort, one that was exhausting...

By the time we got home i pretty much collapsed in my lap of luxury at Fabio’s home.
The next morning Carlos came over to pick me up and we took the bus to his brother, Vanghino’s house, but not before getting lost. We missed our bus stop and had to grab another bus back - it was classic. Lol. But I wasn’t mad or upset. It was harder now to get upset or mad over silly things, and I wasn’t in a rush or anything. - it was a beautiful day and I was just happy.

The next day we tried to go hiking up a famous rock near the beaches downtown but the second bus we took took us the wrong way. Lol. I suppose it was kind of funny. Cau was a little upset but I was having a fantastic time. The crazy little bus wound up and down through the narrow little mountain roads like an out of control rollercoaster. I saw the tiny urban communities located sporadically in the midst of the jungle located in central rio. The bus was filled with school children and was fantastic to watch the fascinating way of daily life. It became obvious we were going on the bus to nowhere, at least nowhere we had planned to go, but the biggest clue was when it stopped and we got to the “end of the line”. No worries the bus driver said after lunch he would return back to where we came from and so could we. So here we were walking in this tranquil strange residential mountain top neighbourhood in central rio. It was not favelesk, well maybe a little, but there were also beautiful home, and mostly sort of regular looking places (regular by south American standards). But it really was quite nice, a place i wouldn’t mind living in for a while, especially so close to downtown. Rio is soooooo huge, really... Usually its not uncommon to take two hours worth of bus rides just one way... Puta que pariu!!

So after our “failed” trip we returned to the beach and lay there under the setting cool sun. Winter in Rio is not hot, sometimes not even warm, but it is not too cold. Maybe around 18-28 degrees (dry) depending. Afterward I said lets go home to enjoy beans, rice, and fruit smoothies- my normal diet now.
The next two days I opted to do literally nothing. I was tired of sightseeing, and even though I hadn’t seen too much of Rio I got the gist of this beautiful city. A city I would be sure to return. Dangerous? Naww..... an exaggeration!! Sure armed robberies occur, even regularly but its not like you imagine, not at all. There are so many safe places to go, and even robberies, if you are unfortunate enough to be robbed, need not be dangerous. You need to know where to go, or more importantly where not to go, and when not to go. What to wear, but more importantly how to behave and what to bring and what not to bring, but really although there is need for caution, there is no need for concern.

So I spent a couple days just playing tennis and practicing yoga at Vanderlei’s apartment.
The next day friend of Vanderlei’s, Micheal, came to pick me and Carlos up to go rock climbing near Poa de Azucar. It was a brilliant, beautiful, sunny day, and the touristic beaches of Rio beamed with beauty and upper class prosperity. I enjoyed the hefty hike up and around the mountain to the point where we would begin to climb. I was tremendously looking forward to finnaly getting a chance to climb!! -but I also had a little reservation. I had to wear Carlos’s climbing shoes with two pairs of socks (and they still fit too big), and the type of climbing in Rio was really different. It relied more on using your feet than hands, and the walls were very slippery with practically no hand holds, but also not totally vertical, but rather a little slopey. So as you can imagine it was double hard without the correct shoes. But I surprised and impressed myself and how easy it was too climb. Despite my large break, I didn’t feel I had lost my touch! It was awesome.

I scared the crap out of Micheal, and pissed off Carlos, when I insisted they remind me how to anchor when I get to the top (as I was leading the climb, so I had to lead, anchor, set up a belay, which I had never done before, and belay them up from the top). I knew how to do most of it, but it had been a year and I wasn’t going up until I got a review. Carlos protested stating I should already know what I was doing. I think he mostly felt uncomfortable because he had told his friend I had a ton of experience and not to worry and then i was asking simple things like how to rapple. Hahahha. Whatever... I knew how to do everything but I was tired and I wanted to be absolutely sure and so I just wanted to double check.

Despite that - it was awesome!! I let Carlos lead the first climb as I was unsure how it would be climbing this strange, slippery looking wall. I then let the second climb. It was without flaw until the last clip. I clipped and had to climb up beyond and anchor to the bottom of a bridge to set up a belay, but there were NO hand holds, and the dangerous thing about climbing here is that the wall was not compleately vertical. It was nearly vertical, but that meant that if you fall you slide down along the wall (not pleasant) and bump all the way down- whearas if you’re climbing a vertical wall and fall, its likely smooth falling in air all the way (hopefully). Anyways, I got a little nervous. My shoes were crap... How was I going to negotiate this last stretch? The rock had a rough bumpy area that i could kind of wedge my fingers on but.... not really... hmmm.m..... so i told myself, i need to really on my feet like they said. I looked for the slightest little ridge i felt could hold the edge of my big toe (about 0.75-1.0 cm). I balanced with my weight against the rock, focussed all my muscle to lift me from my right big toe up but towards the rock, maintain my core as not to fall back wards, and by pulling down on the wall with my hands flat on the granulated edge I rose up, and up, and up. Yes! I quickly grabed the bridge by one hand - totally enought to secure my life (ok I’m being a little dramatic now- the worst that could have happen is a really bad scrape across my whole body). I quickly clipped my daisy chain to the bridge, anchored myself, set up a belay station, and called the boys over. Silly boys.  (I should mention the interesting a challenging thing about this climb from a safety perspective is that it was totally diagonal, therefore creating a scrapping pendulum if you fall.)

The next climb was cool. I had to set up a rapple and rapple down (by myself, obviously), and climb back up before switching with the other (thereby taking turns). It was totally cool!! I was nervous at first because if I couldn’t climb up I would be all alone at the bottom (well actually on the middle of the cliff, worse) and stuck. However, the other climbers assured me it was easy. -And it was!! But really fun! I tell you climbing in rough ass Ontario really prepared me for a lot of stuff. But of course there are way harder climbs in Rio - we just didn’t have the time to explore them.
So after climbing we decided to run down the mountain. -and I mean RUN!!! I ran down top speed (as safely as possible) down the trail. I love doing that, its so much fun!! The run lasted only 20 minutes, but when I was done I wouldn’t realize how much I had burned my legs until the next day!! Its crazy cause I haven’t been sore from exercise in probably 3 years and I felt really out of shape for being sore - but I guess the last month I didn’t do any mountain climbing... mostly tanning... 

Anyways, I said goodbye to Carlos and went back to spend the weekend at Fabio’s house. So later that same day I went with Pige, Fabio, Luiz, and other friends of theirs go-carting!! And holly crappers!! Executive decision: never doing that again. -It wasn’t my first time go-carting (obviously) but these carts were very fast, just as fast as the carts I drove with my good daredevil buddy Derek. However, the track was WAY less safe. It had a very slippery ramp/curve where everybody kept wiping out, which was really dangerous cause when you wiped out you risked the chance of getting hit. -and there was no protection from impact.

It was really fun and I was surprised at how I didn’t crash into anybody, going top speed, slidding everwhere, sooooo many close calls. But.... there was a major pile up accident in front of me and I stopped. About two seconds later I got re-ended to next tuesday!! (Maybe i made up that expression, but work with me here). Anyways, I felt my whole back and neck thrust forward and recoil back like a whip. I continued just fine but with the preoccupation of wondering what would happen later.
The next day my whole neck and back were sore (but I did yoga in the morning anyways to stretch and test things out- carefully and with no headstands). This was the same day my thighs were killing from running up and down a mountain yesterday. However, I felt I was still ok enough not to seek medical attention, so Fabio and Pige took me to tour Santa Teresa, the beautiful old part of Rio. It was fantastic!! Old beautiful buildings, charming cafes, musical bands everywhere, and gorgeous, gorgeous restaurants with tons of personality, and a gallery of ambiance to choose from. I didn’t have any money, but this is a place you want to go if you have money, to sip wine over a slow lunch with friends.... However the really amusing street car ride was free as long as I hung out the side standing up, which I did with pleasure, despite having most of my muscles scream with pain. But I had a fantastic time!!! Fantastic!!

On an interesting note, there were a lot of police in the area- to keep peace and order, and as we walked by I saw two cops with large machine guns frisking a guy who was just wearing a t-shirt and swim shorts. When the cop lifted the guy’s shirt I saw the guy had a really small gun holstered to his side, with a tiny strap made just for this purpose - like a beach style under-your-clothes kind of gun.... It was interesting, and it made Pige a little nervous, but I wasn’t. It was probably just a kid from the nearby favella packing a piece for protection, as there were often wars between the two favellas in the nearby area. Ok maybe I should have been a little nervous, but it really wasn’t a dangerous time to be there at all. However, the cop didn’t take the kids gun away, furthermore, he let him go. So I don’t know, maybe he sympathized with him, or maybe the kid paid him, or maybe the cop was on the take from the kid’s favella lord, who knows. But this was not the kind of place where we were going be robbed - at least not during the day with the cops and the people. It truly was a totally safe(ish) and really nice place. More people probably pack in the US, you just don’t get a chance to see it...

Moving on, that night we went to Pizza Rodizio!!! MY GOD!!! Pizza with EVERYTHING!! (Rodizio is a Brazilian style of restaurant where they serve food, as much as you want, by bringing different things to your table and asking if you want a small portion- fantastic but dangerous idea!!) Pizza with banana and cinnamon, chocolate pizza, white chocolate pizza, chocolate and strawberry pizza, chocolate and coconut pizza... the list goes on!!!!!!!!!! It was terrible!! Divinely terrible 

The next morning I needed to do something so for the first time in my life I went on a treadmill! I always hated running, having had poor cardio despite the multitude of sports I usually participated in. However, during all my trekking I guess something changed!! I cured myself of lack of energy and a lack of breath to run. I developed some strange ability to run, that when I started to go I wanted to go faster, and longer, and faster, and longer!! It was fun!! Strange... The only problem was that my legs were KILLING!! So I only ran 30 min, 4 km- not sure if that is really slow or fast. You see, I like to run in bursts, of going (according to the treadmill) 10-12 km/hr for a few minutes, and then walking a little, 6 km/hr, and then back to running, etc. I think I could have went longer and faster if I wasn’t so sore and out of shape, but oh well, it was really fun. Then I did some weights. And on a positive note my neck was doing better (but it along with my back was somewhat injured from the blasted go karts!! Lol). However, seriously, I think I am lucky to have a really strong back from rockclimbing, otherwise I could have been in worse shaped, I think I just injured the muscles and will take a few weeks to be 100 percent normal- but I’m ok, I’m good. (no more go karts!).

So this was my last day in Rio, treadmill in the morning, and in the afternoon I took the subway (all by my lonesome) to the city center. I walked the awesome streets and marvelled at the city’s intensity. Rio really is a world class super power city. It is big and beautiful! I adore nature, but I can’t hide the fact that I love the city too. Born and raised in Toronto, what can you expect? Anyways, I could definitely live in Rio for a period of time if need be. (However, home is where the heart is, and don’t worry Toronto, I love you and miss you- I’m coming home! -but not now!!)

Rio truly is a wonderful place, and so magical with all the black and white Portuguese stones decorating all the sidewalks and walkways in an array of fantastic designs. Beautiful!
So later that evening I came home to a wonderful dinner, the maid, Danny, had made me. Mmmmm... So good! Thanks Danny! I had a long wonderful talk with Fabio and said goodbye to his lovely grandmother and parents, as my flight to Caracus, Venezuela was early the next morning. Fabio’s family had been so kind and generous to me, I really truly appreciated everything they did, and how much at home they made me feel. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

---