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Published: August 8th 2007
Home for a week...
Copacabana from the 30th floor of the OthonOK, so before we get going with Brazil, we thought some of you might like to know our itinerary from here...
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Lima, Peru
Cusco/Machu Picchu, Peru
All over England
Paris, and south of France somewhere...
Italy, all over, TBC
Egypt
Uganda
Rwanda
Mozambique
South Africa
Then back to Oz!
And the blog...
One last NYC subway ride, our first NYC bus ride, all the while pushing buttons on our Electronic Yahtzee furiously to try and beat Kit´s high score, and we were at LaGuardia Airport. We were doing an overnight American Airlines hop from NYC to Miami to Rio de Janeiro. After having seen the chaos that can be associated with American flights (mainly domestic to be fair) with up to 50 standby passengers and majorly delayed flights, we were a little hesitant about the thought of having only 40 minutes to change planes in Miami.
Miracle of miracles! We made it to Rio pretty much on time, and even managed some sleep on the way. As we passed through immigration Kev thanked Saulo (Brazilian mate and son of Brazilian consulate in Sydney staff...) who met us at Sydney Airport moments before we checked
The Peixotos
Julia (left), Raquel (back), Lidia (front) in for our first flight to hand me his passport with complete with Brazilian visa. Down to baggage claim, and there was a fella in the corner with a saxophone and a backing track playing nothing other than "The Girl from Ipanema" - the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic supposedly written in a bar in... well, Ipanema. Even a greater miracle, our bags also survived the quick transfer in Miami... so here we were, our first time in South America.
We were picked up by Julia and Lidia Peixoto, Rio natives who stayed with the Fergussons while they were in Sydney, and Wesley (which the Rio people - cariocas - pronounce Weshzley...), a fine gent and one of the volunteers from their church. Out of the airport, with Julia behind the wheel, and while in my opinion she is a better driver than Jade Leong (who doesn´t seem to watch the road quite as often... see LA-Newport blog), Rio traffic was by far the craziest we´d experienced on this trip so far (Cairo still to come, by the way...) Lane markings are truly only suggestions, and most drivers seem quite content to straddle the white lines on the road. Overtaking
Sand art
Some of these are maintained for years... seems to be pretty arbitrary, with the only requirement seeming to be that you mustn´t hit the car you´re overtaking, but get wickedly close. Elle was doing a good job of using the back seat brakes. Apparently in Brazil the first test you need to do when applying for a license is to ensure you are mentally sound, followed by a theory and practical exam. Well, cariocas drive like they´re insane, and you wonder what they actually test in the exam. Oh well, as Elle said, as long as everyone drives crazily we seem to stay safe.
After 45 minutes or so of that wonderful feeling of being in the back of a car, with no idea where you are going, only that you will end up at the right place, all of a sudden we turned right and we were on the Avenida Atlantica, the busy four-laner that hugs the beautiful Copacabana Beach. Copacabana! The only thing I really knew about Copacabana was that song (and even then that was the only word I knew of it...), but here we were, in the flesh (and there was plenty of that on show around here... read below). We were
Artist´s market at night
Median strip of the Avenida Atlantica, Copacabana staying at the Rio Othon Hotel, and as our car doors were opened for us by the porter, the front doors opened automatically (would you believe) and we saw the stylish gold and granite lobby, we knew that to call ourselves backpackers at that point was a great joke.
It was a fantastic place. The lifts, halls, and rooms were decorated in 1960s (?) style floor to ceiling wooden panelling. In awe we walked through our bedroom to a sunroom with 180 degree views of Copacabana. My first thought was "Thank you God!!!" and my second was "I feel like James Bond!" We were stunned, and completely thankful. Blessed indeed!
After stretching out on the King size bed, the Continental Hostel of NYC now but a distant memory, we went out to stroll along Copacabana (which I´ll call CC... the way these South Americans set out their computer keyboards can make things difficult... ) CC is in the part of Rio (pronounced Hio in Portuguese) called Zona Sul (south zone) which is the area south of the City Centre (Centro) and is home to all the lovely beaches and main tourist attractions. I wasn´t sure what to expect
No stress...
The laid back life, Copacabana of Brazilian beaches, except that my father in law warned us that most people would be wearing very little, men and women included.
Well, before we talk about beach dress, the beach itself really is a stunning place. The weather was magnificent, with just the right amount of clouds in the sky to make a perfect picture. The sand is fine and perfect for sculpting. In fact, there are people who seem to make a living out of sculpting sand. Walking along the beach, every few minutes you come across an impressive sculpture (from castles, to cities, to dragons, to bottoms) with a jar in front of it to drop in a Real (Brazilian currency) to take a picture. Apparently their owners pretty much live next to it 24/7. The water is cool and cleaner than expected, and to the east the mountainous coastline looked like islands rising out of the ocean. All of Rio, in fact, is pretty mountainous, in a glorious lush green way. We often wondered how this would have looked before everything was built up, and many of the inland waters connected to the sea were reclaimed... it must have been something special. It´s a
stunning setting for a city.
The beach, as you expect, is lined along the back with volleyball nets, soccer goals, and chin up bars (speedoes required...) and between this and the water the sand is covered with umbrellas and beach chairs. Hawkers walk around disturbing the peace selling everything from ice cream to prawn kebabs to little bags of rice to sunglasses to Brazilian soccer jerseys to marijuana... you get the picture!
So about Brazilian beach wear... it´s true people don´t wear much, but it seems to be very much cultural and less an expression of image as it might be in a place like Sydney. People of all shapes, sizes, and ages walk unashamedly around in budgie smugglers (speedoes) and G-string bikinis. Even several blocks from the beach front your dad could be walking around in his Rios and no one would blink an eye...
Two highlights from our first wander of CC... we turned a corner looking for a feed, the only Portuguese we knew being "obrigado" (if you´re a guy... girls say "obrigada"). We had the six page language section of our Rough Guide with us, but that was it! Thankfully we bumped into highlight number 1, a 60 yr old lady called Sylvia who noticed our confused faces as we were standing on the street trying to make sense of menu outside a cafe. Thankfully she spoke English (kind of) and called us in (she had stopped there for a beer) and translated the menu for us, and told us what was good. She was overwhelmingly lovely, and even offered us her motorcycle for a few minutes to have a ride around the block. With neither of us ever having been on a motorbike, and knowing Rio traffic, we decided against it, although it was tempting... We walked out of that cafe thinking "Brazilian people are the best!" (even though she was from Italy originally...)
Highlight number 2: suco de maracuja. For non-Portuguese speakers, passionfruit juice. They take passionfruit, blend it with sugar and ice, and the result is delicious... Elle´s favourite culinary treat in Brazil by far. And it´s as much fun to say as it is to drink. Rio has a juice place on every corner with some places offering up to 50 different juice varieties. You can even get the equivalent of an avocado milkshake. On the topic of drinks, my personal favourite was guarana, a soft drink which should be imported to Australia. Yum... also fun to say (emphasis on the last "a")
That night the lovely Peixotos (including the youngest, Raquel) took us out to dinner in a shopping centre which had, amongst other restaurants, the Outback restaurant with the slogan "Come and eat in Australia"... but apparently they don´t even serve kangaroo!
That night at dinner we began working on our Portuguese with our very own tutors. In turn, we obliged by teaching them some Australian. We were starting from scratch, but over the course of our Rio stay we managed to learn some basic phrases, order a few drinks, count to ten reliably, and how to say "Jesus loves you". I also learnt "my princess, I love you", which worked wonders on Elle. To our surprise and delight, we found the girls loved the Australian accent and tried imitating us constantly. Raquel in particular began hounding us for Aussie phrases and we taught her what we knew... by our last few days we´d be driving along and hear her pipe up from the back "G´day mate.... throw another shrimp on the barbie... she´ll be right." She asked us what the shrimp on the barbie was a metaphor for, but as far as we knew, the only place to use it was at a BBQ when you wanted some more prawns... Anyway, during our time in Rio, Elle found her English progressively worsening, after having spent a week communicating with single words and sign language.
Well, that was the first day... (we´ll need another two to cover Brazil...)
Til then, ciao!
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