The Talk To Me Tattoo

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The “Talk to Me” Tattoo 

It happened last year in Germany when I must have had the "talk to me in German" tattoo on my forehead. Well, what a surprise! It now reads, "talk to me in Portuguese". Yep, the same thing happened--a woman beside me on a bench starts conversing with me in Portuguese. I used one of the few Portuguese expressions that I know to tell her that I don't speak Portuguese and that I couldn't understand her. So what does she do? The same thing as her German counterpart. She just spoke slower and louder!

And ok, I confess, I did get up and learn the Samba last night, but only because my son made me. We all tremendously enjoyed the Samba club and have some good pictures of the Caldows cutting loose.

Today we did the bucket list of things to do in Rio, by going up to the base of the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovada, then taking the cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf. Rio is just as beautiful in person as it is in the photos.

We finished the day with Brazilian pizza, which is excellent. Well, I can't say that the day was quite finished after dinner, because we ended up playing cards til 1 am. This is significant only in that Brian's usually sound asleep by 9:45! He is really adapting to the Carioca lifestyle of sleeping in, getting a late start on the day, eating lunch in the middle of the afternoon, dinner at 8 or later, then some activity until the wee hours. We have also found that Rio time can be rather fluid.

But one last thing I need to mention. The taxis are very plentiful, but they are all wild and crazy drivers. Even the public buses race down the streets. We feel like we are on Mr. Toad's wild ride every time we go anywhere. What is truly amazing is that there aren't more crashes. And lastly, what's with all the taxi's showing empty on their gas gauge. That just fascinates us.