Carnival!!!!!!

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?

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. 

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).

Some Alice in wonderland people mixing it up with some geriatric people...rumble!

Blackface isn't frowned on here....at least during Carnival

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.

Everyone else was doing the arms out thing.  I , of course, had to be different. 

Biker Jesus taking a left (credit to Marci on that one)

They asked for a group photo.....

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.

Pimp my Caipirinha!!

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.

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