Extreme Activities Rio Style

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Ok, so maybe I didn't do any of them, but Brian, Jason, and most of all, Brenda did, and I got to watch. Yesterday we started out with what everyone thought was a standard zip line canopy tour. Turns out, the zip line was the least of it. Mostly it was a very challenging aerial obstacle course. Jason inadvertently missed some of the obstacles, but Brenda sailed through them. Brian did fine until the last one. At that point he was so physically exhausted that the guide had to come out and help him. I'm really proud of all of them, because I could tell from how sweaty they all were, how much effort that they had put into it.

 After everyone caught their breath, we went on a tour of the Tijuca Rain Forest -- very beautiful! At that point we bade farewell to our driver and adjourned to the Cachaca Academy for drinks and food. Cachaca is a liquor derived from the sugar cane, and is the basis of all the Caipirinhas that we have been enjoying. 

The extreme activities continued today when we took Brenda hang gliding. This was our "thank you" to her for all the translating and guide services that she has been giving us. We thought for a long time that the clouds would not break up enough for her to take off, but eventually, those of us waiting on the beach looked up to the mountain to see the beautiful sight of the multiple wings soaring through the sky.

We will be finishing today with an evening at a Samba Club. And no, I will not be doing any of the Sambaing!

A Carioca Sunday

Sunday, July 17, 2011

I'm told that we just spent a typical Carioca Sunday. If that is true, they really know how to live! We all slept in, then Brian and Brenda made the daily jaunt to the bakery down the street for a variety of great pastries. When we finished brunching, Brenda hit the beach and the rest of us went to the Hippie Fair. This takes place every Sunday and fills up a park. There are all sorts of vendors selling wonderful things at great prices and in the center are all sorts of lovely art works for sale. 

After Brian and I had seen all we wanted to, we sat on a bench and watched the locals enjoying the beautiful day, while Jason haggled over a painting. He has been haggling with the artist for a whole month, and still thinks he can get a better deal.

 We then strolled over to the Ipanema Beach and found a spot to sit, drink caiparinhas, and watch the crowds on the beach. We decided that we should mosey along if we were going to get a table somewhere to watch the Brazil/Paraguay soccer game. Jason took us to a place he knows and ran into some friends. These friends told him that they had just seen Brenda looking for us, so we waited while he went back to the Hippie Fair and found Brenda.

 There was a very small town feeling to the whole business. We then took a really wild taxi ride to the Leblon area, found a restaurant for a Brazilian meal and watched the first half of the game. At that point we hopped in a cab, came back to Copacabana and went to a cafe for more caiparinhas and the rest of the game. And that is how the Carioca's spend Sundays!

A Glorious Day in Rio

Saturday, July 16, 2011

So maybe yesterday was just an aberration. Today was a splendid day and we got to interact with some real Brazilians, thanks to Jason's Brazilian law school buddy, Brenda who goes to law school at SMU. She moved in with us for a few days and is our tour guide. Jason is doing remarkably well with the language. He can get around, communicate in restaurants and shops, and really knows his way around the city. But Brenda's fluency has allowed us to have some interesting conversations with locals. We started the afternoon at a huge market that was clearly not for tourists. We prowled around there, stopped for a refreshing caiparinha, and then found a cab that drove us all over the city. He stopped to let us take pictures, and, when we decided to have another "drink" break, he joined us in the cafe and shared stories about his life. After an enjoyable time getting to know him, we came back to the apartment  for a break, before going to a real Brazilian churascaria, where we fed on great chunks of meat. Altogether a charming day! 

Welcome to Rio Sucker!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Ok, so I was warned that bicyclists swoop down upon you and snatch things right from your hand. Warned, but maybe not believing! We had no trouble on the flight (10 hours, but who is counting), had a driver waiting for us with our name on a sign, and safely made it to the apartment which is right on Copacabana beach. The driver didn't speak English, but we were prepared. We had printed up a note for him on Google translate, and succeeded in making our plans for pick up, sightseeing, and the trip back to the airport next week. We even successfully got ourselves fed at lunch. But after a brief nap, we ventured out to the beach. And that is where I got hit. A bicyclist came swooping at me, stuck out his hand and went for my throat. He tore my shirt open and before I could even react, was long gone down the boardwalk. It took me a minute to realize that my gold necklace was gone. This necklace isn't really all that valuable. It is just the one with the pendant filled with gold that I panned in Fairbanks. On the whole I'm glad that it wasn't my purse! So the warnings are absolutely true and I just put the rest of my costume jewelry and my credit cards in the apartment safe. Now we are waiting for Jason to get here and we will see what is on tonight's agenda. 

Rio de Janeiro

Monday July 11, 2012

Now we are getting ready to venture off to Rio de Janeiro to meet up with our law school attending son. He has been there for the last few weeks doing a summer semester abroad conducted through the Tulane Law School. He attends class in a Brazilian law school and will finish the semester the day that we arrive. He seems fairly excited about having the chance to introduce us to Rio, and we are excited about both spending time alone with him and about seeing all the things that he has been discovering during his stay. 

Home Again

Wednesday, September 16, 2010

When we started this adventure we were both a little worried that three weeks would turn out to be too long. It definitely wasn't too long, but by the time we left, we were ready to end it. We were very tired and had done almost everything that we planned to do. We didn't get to see Noah's Ark in the Netherlands, but that was ok. We also didn't go into Paris for dinner on our last night. We were just too darned tired to face the effort of getting the train in. Other than those two things we did everything that we planned and more. One of the most amazing things to us was that everywhere we went we heard American music and it wasn't current music, it was oldies. I don't understand why that is. We also found that in all the countries they show a lot of very old American TV programs dubbed into German, or Dutch, or French. We had a hard time finding any thing to watch on TV. Periodically we could find the BBC news in English, CNN world news, and even in several places we found a Russian News station broadcasting from Moscow in English. There are also McDonald's and Burger Kings everywhere. Wish I owned stock. The one thing that I couldn't find anywhere was a Dr. Pepper and that is really a shame! 

The Griswolds Do Europe

Remember when I told you about our problems at the airport in Amsterdam? You would think that we would have learned something from that, but once again, life's little lessons failed to sink in. The morning that we departed Paris, we set out for the airport with all confidence that we had it planned. The night before we had spent quite a bit of time searching for a gas station so that we could return the car with a full tank. As it turns out, the little town where DeGaulle airport is located doesn't have a single gas station. We finally located one on the entrance road to the airport so we were all set--we thought. We headed out with plenty of time to spare, gassed up and started looking for the place to return the rental car. This airport has three terminals and we were headed for Terminal 2. There was no problem finding it, but it so happens that Terminal 2 isn't just one building. There are four Terminal 2 buildings--2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D. We knew that we were leaving from 2A, so that is where we headed. To our great relief we spotted a car rental return sign and got in the lane for it. However we never saw another direction sign and pretty soon we had made a loop and were right back where we started. We were looping a circle that included 2A and 2 B. We went round again, with the same results, then round again several more times. What's the definition of insanity? By the time we had looped it five or six times I decided that we were one level up and needed to be on the ground level. I could see lots of cars parked in the center of the loop so that must be the place, right? We spotted a ramp leading down and, with a big sigh of relief, down we went. Of course, it turned out to be another parking lot and once we were in, we had to pay to get out--just like in Amsterdam. So back we went to our familiar loop. Finally Brian noticed that above the one sign that indicated the car rental return, there were some letters such as Pa, Pb, Pe, or something like that. On the next circle we spotted another off ramp with one of the P letters on it. We took it, but when we didn't see any direction signs, we finally pulled over and asked an airport employee. Naturally he didn't speak any English and we couldn't think of how to ask directions in French. He finally got what we were asking and answered us with gestures and more French. I caught the word for left, so we thanked him and headed out. Sure enough, by keeping to the left we eventually found the entrance to the car return. It turned out to be on the bottom level of the loop that circled 2C and 2D. Of course there were no signs saying that, so who knew? Sadly, by that time I was so rattled that I left my prescription sunglasses in the car. I think that we have just enough knowledge to be dangerous.