Hey all,
Well this part of the blog is the day after the food
poisoning recovery day. Other than the
blog, I did a whole lot of nothing but lying around and darting to the bathroom
as needed.
I had pretty bad stomach cramps early yesterday
morning. Thought they were just acid
action and took a zantac. That did not
help. After the Farmicia opened up, I
went in and straight back to the counter…rubbed my belly and the guy gave a
little chuckle and grabbed a box that was only 10 pesos (about $2) for 10 tablets
of awesomeness. It did nothing for the
big D, but took the cramps and made them its bitch. You know if the box says “antispasmodico” you
are getting some good stuff! How can you
be against antispasmodico?
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| Mmmm Antispasmadico |
I ate very little yesterday (some cheese and crackers…and
some oj (naranja for those of you wanting to pick up Spanish a word at a
time). That was about it beyond
water. I really wanted to go out and get
McDonalds last night cause it’s a known entity, you know? I know what a quarter pounder w/cheese is
going to be and that sounded like it might be a good thing. But the nearest one was about 10 blocks away
and I didn’t feel up to walking. Yes, I
know…McD’s? But the comforts of home do
provide comfort when you feel like crap.
Got a taxi ride to the airport (aeropuerto) with a master of
the horn. One beep for “hey buddy, you
are sort of in my lane and I am coming through”. Two beeps for “I am about to change into your
lane…make room”. Three beeps for “what the
hell are you doing?!?!” He applied these
liberally throughout the drive. It was
awesome. I will say he lost a few points
because I was super impressed that he didn’t just lay on his horn at all. Just quick taps as needed for the given
situation. Once we hit the airport
dropoff area, however, there was a logjam and he leaned against the horn for a
while. He was doing so well!
We are at the airport a little early because Marci’s flight
was going to leave at 12:45 with a stopover in Sao Paulo. Mine is a direct flight to Rio leaving at 3. She was able to switch so we are on the same
flight...the direct one, of course. This
did give me time to get a hamburguesa (you should be able to figure that one
out). It was freaking $20 with the water
since we are behind the security control…but it hit the spot. I am feeling much better. Now if ye’ old D will stop, all will be well!
I think I will wait to send this out until tomorrow or the
next day, but wanted to capture the details of the horn master. Super nice guy…talked in rapid fire Spanish the
whole way to the airport with gestures to sort of help us understand. That is one funny thing here, if you tell
them you don’t speak Spanish, they continue on speaking even faster! It’s like, I didn’t understand what you were
saying before and doing it at the speed of light isn’t helping! Now, of course, we are flying into a country
that speaks Portuguese so we are really screwed.
Okay…been in Rio for a couple of days now and am trying to
catch this thing up so I can send it out and entertain you…are you
entertained?!?!
The flight to Rio was not bad. 3 hours.
Watched Here Comes the Boom (yeah, I know… but it was actually pretty
funny…give it a shot for mindless entertainment).
Booked a taxi at an overpriced stand at the airport and the
driver was immediately flummoxed cause we are staying down in Centro near the
Sambadome and many of the streets are blocked off for traffic. He made a big deal about it, but he didn’t
speak English and we don’t speak Portuguese so it was a long moment of staring
at each other before he started to drive.
Turns out you CAN get into the blocked off areas if you are a taxi but
he didn’t know where the street was. We
drove all over the place (and I am pretty sure in circles) before I gave him
our contacts phone number so he could call and ask directions to the
place. We backed up down a one way
street (we were facing the correct direction, at least) and then he pulled into
a side street and voila! There the
building was.
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| Street near the apartment. You may now all call me "el jefe" or "General" |
The apartment is small.
Like 2 rooms and a bathroom small and a little dingy, but I thought it
was okay. Marci not so much. The “sofa bed” is really a 2 inch foam mat on
a board so isn’t all that comfy for sleeping.
We are also a hop (no need to skip OR jump) from the sambadome and
things get started there around 9PM and last until 6-ish in the AM. Earplugs anyone? The place does have a kitchenette and air
conditioning so it has some redeeming qualities.
BTW, Rio = sauna.
Humid…hot…wow. I am a walking sweat
ball pretty much all day. I realized why
the Brazilians move so slowly – they sweat less…saunter along and try to keep
in the shade.
Yesterday we took the metro (subway) to go get out Sambadome
tickets (Monday evening for that one) and then on down to Impanima to see if we
could see a girl from there (song reference for the terminally unhip). The metro costs about $1.50 each way, but we
got a pre-paid card that had some undefined (turns out to be 5) number of trips
on it. That would be 5 people trips one
way. The line was long, but people are
friendly and the metro cars themselves are air conditioned (yay!)
Now would be a good time to side detour and talk about all
the costumes that are out here. People
are dressed up in all kinds of crazy stuff.
Most women go for bride or my favorite of wig with bikini top and the
always popular Minny Mouse outfit…and usually their boyfriends do too. Dudes, in general, dress in women’s clothing
be it a dress or pink what nots or even a French maid’s outfit. It is insane to see all the different people
dressed up. Plus there are groups of people who all dress thematically. Super cool people watching
(and there are literally millions of people here for Carnival so there is
plenty to watch).
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| Some Alice in wonderland people mixing it up with some geriatric people...rumble! |
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| Blackface isn't frowned on here....at least during Carnival |
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| Froggy went a-courtin' |
Metro….we get on and head to the hotel where we are to pick
up our tickets. Neither of us has eaten
yet and Marci didn’t get much or any sleep.
She crashed hard about the time we were at the hotel. I got her some mango juice and we found a
nearby restaurant to get something to eat, but it was a near thing. We then hopped back on the metro to go to
Ipanema.
Ipanema was pretty cool.
Super crowded, but tons of umbrellas and chairs (we sat on the beach for
a couple of hours). People walking up
and down the beach selling beer, water, etc.
Just a nice time. About the time
we were leaving, a ton of people were coming into the beach. We had to fight to get back down to the metro
and I swiped the card to let Marci go first and, if you have been counting
along with me, that was “trip” number 5.
When I swiped it to let me through…big red X. If You See Kay!!!!!
I turned around knowing it was going to suck to get a ticket
for me and missed the nice lady that told Marci she would let me through. Instead, I stood in a line for about an hour
to get a ticket while Marci hung out in the metro (getting “compliments” from
the guys passing by…apparently trying to stick your tongue down a strangers
throat is the way they say “hi, beautiful” here…and most dudes are shirtless,
ladies….yeah…sweaty shirtless Brazilians!
Try not to swoon. On the flip side, the women...wow...hubba hubba. Eye candy for everyone!). Anyway, I
finally get the ticket and go down and meet up with Marci and was told that I
need to listen to her better…which perhaps I should…but I think she whispers a
lot or at least that is my story.
Made it back to near where our apartment is to find a city
block just covered in trash with a crew cleaning up. Apparently while we were relaxing on Ipanema,
there were around 4 million (a cab driver said 4 thousand million, but 4
billion is too much, I think…so we will stick with 4 million which seems maybe
true cause it was a lot of carnage) people partying down the street from our
place.
Speaking of trash, it’s almost like Anchorman here. If you haven’t seen it, it’s set in the 70’s
and they just throw stuff on the ground as they are done with it. Totally happens here. One of our cabbies was eating an ice cream on
a stick and when he was done, tossed if out the window. It’s like that everywhere and it’s
glorious!!! I say that not having to live
here and mostly following suit when we are where the party is (knowing there
will be a clean-up crew along after the party is done…I am just giving their
life meaning…don’t judge). Oh and with
the dropping of trash everywhere…wear shoes you don’t mind getting splashed
with unknown stuff cause it’s going to happen at Carnival. There are small pools of I don’t want to know
on the streets so keep an eye out where you step. People are wearing flip flops around and I
sort of shudder when I see them.
Last night we were going to go see a jazz show, but they
required ID and we didn’t have ours on us.
We headed back to the apartment to get them but by the time we got back
the line was so long we said screw it and went across the street to see a live
Samba band. Really cool and
energetic. If you don’t know how to
Samba, basically run in place to the beat and you have it nailed. There are more advanced steps, but that will
get you started. Marci danced with a
native of Rio who told her “hi, beautiful”.
She also was introduced to the local drink: Caipirinha. Take some lime, more scoops of sugar than you
think should maybe go into a drink and then add vodka for maybe a 20
count? Shake and serve. Yes, they make
them STRONG here. They are pretty good
too.
Today I decided however many days of diarrhea in a row is plenty
so I jumped on the Cipro bandwagon to try to finally kill whatever has been
bothering me. Luckily, even though it’s
a Sunday, a pharmacy was open. Wellness
is right around the corner!
We decided to go see Christ the Redeemer today. That’s the giant statue of Christ with his
arms wide open that you always see in an establishing shot in a movie set in
Rio. You see that and you know where you
are. To get there, all you need to do is
head to Lapa (a barrio), catch the 497 bus and it’s like maybe a 15 minute
ride. We didn’t do that.
Instead we took the word of a bus driver and got on a bus
that seemed to say it was heading that way.
After a while we passed some land marks that indicated we were not going
that way. We ended up way the hell out
in the middle of “oh crap…this neighborhood does not look safe”. Luckily, there was a taxi stand nearby so we
grabbed one. The taxi decided going
through Ipanema would be a great idea…which it is not since its crowded and some
of the roads are blocked off. The taxi ride was a good 45 minutes to an hour. That plus the bus ride has us at around 2 to 2.5 hours rather than the quick 15 minutes bus 497 would have done. While it was scenic, I do recommend the 497 route.
We finally were dropped off where the train will take you up
to the Christ, but it was so booked we would have had to wait 3 hours for an
available train. But there are other
taxis that will take you up there (that’s all they do) for a small fee. It was actually only 5 Real ($2.50US) more than the train so it wasn't a total gouge. They brought us up to where you then catch a
shuttle bus run by the park to the actual Christ itself. I am telling you, we only missed getting a
ride on a boat from making the trip a doozy.
You have to climb a few stairs to get to the Christ, but
they lead you up from the back. As we
were climbing up, we looked up and Marci (parish council member & president
of her home owners association not that that makes a difference when parish
council member is brought into play) says “wow, the first thing you see is his
ass”.
I will say it is one impressive thing. We were up there with a ton of people, many of
whom were laying on their backs trying to get photos of their friends with the
whole statue in frame (30 meters tall).
You know how people will sort of wait for others to take pictures and
not get in their frame? Yeah, that doesn’t
really happen here so much. Of course,
there were so many people up there, you really couldn’t afford to wait like
that anyway. Still, the statue is pretty
awesome and the view from up there of Rio is equally awesome.
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| Everyone else was doing the arms out thing. I , of course, had to be different. |
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| Biker Jesus taking a left (credit to Marci on that one) |
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| They asked for a group photo..... |
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| View of Impenema from up at CtR |
We made it back down through the shuttle and then the taxi
and then we got on the correct bus and made it back to our neck of the woods in
time to run into a couple of awesome street parades. Tons of people dancing down the street to
samba music being blared by trucks. Oh
and since I am on Cipro, I got a street dog in Brazil. That’s right…chicken lips and pig butts or
whatever they are made out of. I also
drank some water with ice cubes in it!
Take THAT bacteria!
Tonight we hit an outdoor concert venue for a free show of
this brass band that reminded me of a Brazilian
Tower of Power although without the singing. Really awesome energetic songs that make you
move a bit. While standing in the crowd,
a couple of guys passed us and one of them eyeballed Marci like he had never
seen a girl before. One of them spoke English
and asked if we were boyfriend/girlfriend cause his friend liked her
looks. I told him no, we were just
friends at which point the other tried to say “hi, beautiful” as only a
Brazilian can. In the meantime, the
other dude played the perfect wingman and chatted with me about Brazilian women
and their signals (which sort of made him MY wingman in a weird way…he was
multitalented). A really nice couple of
dudes just having a good time during Carnival.
Oh and we both had Caipirinhas tonight and they were even stronger than
last nights….and while last nights were something crazy like $9US since we were
in a club, tonight’s were $2.50US bought off the street. Good times.
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| Pimp my Caipirinha!! |
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| Shot of the show tonight. For the last song, 10 more people came out on the stage to add to the horn section. Awesome! |
After the show, we wandered around a bit, had a bite to eat,
found another parade with an Indian motif with feathered headdresses and all
that, and came back to the apartment.
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| I like their Indian motif. How, baby! |
Whew....I am caught up. Tomorrow is the sambadome all night action and maybe a trip to Copacabana to relax on the beach.
I hope everyone is doing well!
Our time, the people's time!
Jim
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