Rambles round Rio

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Planning a career break has during recent months has in itself proved to be a sizable commitment I’ve already learnt a lot of new skills, the most recent specifically related to new technologies. This week alone I learnt how to persuade 24 CD’s onto my recently purchased MP3 player and now I am setting up a “blog.” From these statements you will have gathered that my husband and I have earned the term “Greypackers”, being a reflection of the fact that we can recall a time when the same musical selection would have required a suitcase full of vinyls and a substantial music centre….. also there would have be no chance of me taking a picture with my phone even if it could be persuaded to work outside the house.

So first… a little about our plans: Malcolm and I have persuaded our employers to allow us to take a break of four months. It won’t therefore surprise those of you who know me that we are off, almost literally, to the four corners of the world. However, despite friends regarding me as “a restless soul” or maybe “having itchy feet,” this is my longest single period of time outside the UK.

For Malcolm’s part our journey is also quite a challenge. Malcolm has type 1 diabetes. This requires regular (mealtime) injections of insulin and great care in managing of blood sugar levels. This is more complex when variables such as food and exercise are less predicable. More about this later…

We are leaving in just a day’s time and travelling to Rio, we hope to spend a little time in the capital before visiting the Pantanal and from there, south through Argentina to the Land of Fire and then back North to the Chilean lake district for Christmas.... and then…. but I can tell you more about our itinerary as we travel, sufficient to say it encompasses temperature changes from +30 degrees to minus 30.

The past few weeks have been hectic with activity..not all of it planned. In the last few days my father was admitted to hospital (now I’m very pleased to say fully recovered), my car broke down beyond being worthy of repair, although in its defence has served me faithfully, and the PC refused to link to t’internet!!! In addition to applying ourselves to these difficulties all our friends and relations visited …a bit like all Rabbit’s, the demands of our various jobs increased as colleagues struggled to work out what we did and who should do it in our absence and we spent whatever spare time there was grappling with the process of Chinese and Indian visa applications, the latter involving three visits and numerous calls to the long suffering Chinese Embassy in Edinburgh

In reality we have only survived the last two weeks without divorce because of the arrival of Francisca our house sitter. We met Francisca on the internet, to the consternation of those same friends and relatives. Malcolm and our family are cautious people, possibly with good reason. They feared that our home, it’s contents and our identity would be stolen (my son David has since offered to go halves with Francisca over our id). We were therefore somewhat bemused to find that when Francisca arrived from Holland it was her credit cards which had been stolen in London. This has meant that she has been staying with us for some time, and will be returning to Amsterdam shortly, to collect a new card (Alarm bells...). I have christened her Mrs. Doubtfire/Poppins because I do not think the ending will be like that in the Mrs Doubtfire film and might be more like Mary’s. Fransica has cleaned our home and cooked tea (for 6.30pm), generally organised us and adopted our family..not least our delightful six month old granddaughter.

And so finally rucksacks almost packed (well almost, almost) and we have said most of our good byes. It is clear that although there is much to look forward to and learn, our journey is not without its losses to…….

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14th - We´ve arrived OK in Rio de Janeiro, if a little tired, after an 11 hour flight, several repeats of ´The Bridges of Madison County´, and got to the Casa Aurea hostel by means of their free pickup from the airport. Hostel is very comfortable, and feels secure, as the gates are locked each evening. (but we have a key). Settle in and sleep well. It´s raining outside.


15th - After a delicious coffee, mango and melon fruit breakfast with toast, we got on the tram, and rode down into town, in search of a bank. Find a branch of the HSBC... Heather is OK, and withdraws some cash, but my card is not accepted, and the ATM reports ´System Error´. Try a different ATM - same result. Decide that the bank system may have crashed for some reason, and go for a coffee. But after two hours, same result again. Start to worry at the prospect of four months with no money... Eventually, the truth dawns. We told the bank we were travelling, and to accept withdrawals with H´s card, and assumed, because it is a joint account, that this info would automatically be applied to mine. It´s not! Our bank has seen unusual activity with my card, and disabled the card. Full marks to them for implementing this safeguard.
Rio HSBC staff are very helpful, and set up phone calls and translation to allow a phonecall to our branch which soon has the problem resolved, and the card is reenabled within an hour.

Moral 1: Advise your bank of ALL cards you will be using while away. Also, give them an itinerary.

Late afternoon/Evening - climb (well -take the cable car to the top of) Sugar Loaf mountain, to watch the sun set and the city lights come on. Fantastic views over this city. Then we walk back to the hostel through the warm dusk. No hassles at all. In fact everyone is most helpful, directing us to the correct bus stop etc.

English is a rare language, and we communicate in pidgin Portuguese.

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