So here I am in the Admirals Club at JFK terminal 8. Trip down using Orbeīs Taxi (845) 278-7200 was as it should be, uneventful. Left home at 1230 got here around 2pm. It took a while to check me in, apparently my travel agent had messed up the points upgrade to business class. The agent sorted it and then had me put my bag through one of those new $1000000 scanning machines. In the end they didnīt need to open it so locking it was OK. Though there were plenty of other bags there, that they had broken open. Crazy system, crazy times!
Not too impressed with Admirals club, vast space, very little to do. Nice bar, but the only food was preztels & apples. Only two internet terminals in the whole place. That said the wireless internet on t-mobile worked fine. I just didnīt fancy paying them 10c per minute to use it.
Flight from JFK was good, dinner salmon was really nice. It got quite bumpy over northern Florida, but we got there safe and sound. 1/35th of the journey complete. Miami always has three things, HEAT Iīm already sweating in US air con. Tourists who look like they are all having a good time and lawlessness - security is definitely more lax here. No shoe inspection, no opening my carry on packed with electronics. I guess itīs also getting late in the day. Letīs hope everything is OK tonight and Monica makes it to the airport on time tomorrow.
So here I am at the Marriott in Rio - Hooray! Flight was very smooth. Rio is quite cool at the moment only 31C (I guess about 85F). Monica met me at the airport after a quick trip through immigration and customs. She must have lost half her weight since I saw her last. We took the car into Rio and she dropped me at the hotel. As usual there is some chaos here 30000 troops have been deployed. Itīs funny, looks like NYC. Also neither of my phones work. AT&T are so hopeless it is beyond belief. Room is nice just had a bath and am writing this. Lovely view of the beach. Now 1245 going to take a nap.
Went out for a stroll earlier, saw this great street vendor selling acrylic Christs and Penises side by side. Also got on the internet and sent a message to AT&T hope they get back to me promptly. The streets in Rio have this wonderful fruity smell - yummy! Still got to practice walking much more slowly quite humid here.
Had dinner with Monica in Ipanema, nice restaurant called Pax R$104 = $40 amazing value. Explained that Brazilians donīt like America, because of debt issue. Interest rates go up with war, screwing Brazil even more.
Sunrise pictures, it never ceases to amaze me how fast the sun rises here or how beautiful it is.
Iīm finally starting to realise just what a slacker Iīm being. Nine weeks is an unimagineably long time to stop working! Today I actually got moving around 8:30am. Included breakfast courtesy of my executive card (thanks to Zurich & KPMG) then up to the rooftop terrace for some serious slowing down. Over a couple of Sprites, I sat and contemplated the abridged NY times sent here by Fax and then the Smithsonian magazine.
By 11am I was thinking of all those people rushing to work in NYC on the subway, who wouldnīt trade that life for this. Then I remembered that Mr Marriott was raking in $10 per hour just from me sitting here. That said a few years ago when day trading was all the rage, Rio (which is two hours ahead of NY) might have been the perfect spot for day trading to get the jump on the US Markets, while hanging out at the beach. If those wonderful days of the late nineties return, with much cheaper and global wireless internet access, it could still be great, of course at the moment the Brazilian economy is as screwed as everyone elses.
Got back to room just now, Iīd called at 10am and told them I wanted the room made up by noon and itīs perfect. Marriottīs abroad are so much better than the USA. It seems the threat of a visit from JW carries even more weight here. Or perhaps the locals are just more grateful for a job?
Just took the second shower of the day (cold - or as cold as it gets here) Also realised I can blow dry my polo-shirt. A useful technique or I would need three or four shirts a day.
Iīve just been to Carnival and what a fantastic show it was. Monica and I had the very best seats in the Sambadrome. Transport, food, security, air-con and as much as you could drink included.
There are six processions or schools each night. We stayed for the first four, starting about 9pm and finishing at about 3am. I am watching procession number five on the TV here as I write. Hey - Monicaīs mum saw us on Brazilian TV - cool!
Each procession has about seven huge floats (as big as houses) and around 2500 performers, in the middle there is a very loud percussion section and a singer. The floats and costumes are magnificent, they take all year to make are used once and that is it. Next year a completely new show.
Each procession has a theme examples are "The ten commandments" or "Brazilian soccer". Anyway Iīll write more when I have the pictures - Goodnight :-)
Awoke at 1030 this morning, very slight hangover. Rushed to breakfast which finishes here at 11am. Surprised to find the hotel had been invaded by Brits. :-( Why is it always so easy to spot Brits. on holiday? I guess it is those damn tied hankies they wear on their heads, or that pasty white skin. Some Brits. like me, never look like we are on holiday. A polo shirt, long pants, socks, sneakers is as casual as we get. Itīs those Brits. that try to affect a "latin cool" that amuse me, they just canīt do it :-) Itīs a bit sad really.
Went to the Botanical Gardens this afternoon, they have a beautiful tropical plant collection, including a wonderful selection of orchids. Then we tried to find a restaurant, but everywhere was either closed or like the Hard Rock Cafe having a private carnival party.
We ended up at a Chuchascaria, which was pretty good and a really great price, less than $40. The Real is really depressed at the moment.
Tonight I have a sore throat and my temperature is 38.2C (100.76F), which is not so terrible. Took two asprin to try and get it down. Agreed to have a rest day tomorrow. More siteseeing on Thursday, probably visit a Mall. Weīll have to see.
Itīs great to be back in a country that takes itīs soccer seriously :-)
Well Iīm still wide awake :-( Just took two Benadyrl and a throat tablet. Hopefully I will finally get to sleep now.
This morning I went to the Internet Cafe and updated the web site. Then in the afternoon, I found a free bus to Rio Sul, a big and as it turned out very ugly, shopping Mall. Yes, Monica did tell me before, but I thought I would go anyway.
The shops are OK, all 370 of them, on at least five levels. Unfortunately the A/C didnīt seem to be working. It was hotter inside than outside :-( The ceilings were really low with no windows. I did see one funny thing in an amusement arcade. A video dance machine, two kids were dancing side by side, following the video, the system tracked how well they were doing - they were getting a good workout. Could be the future of aerobics in the USA.
Pricing here is wacky. Things are either American price, when they come from China or have a US world brand. Or local price for stuff from Brazil or services. So Blockbuster charges about $1 US to rent a movie. But it will cost $199 US to get the x-box to play it on. Given the average wage here is at most 1/3rd that of the USA, you can see how that would annoy the average Brazilian, never mind a poor one.
Anyway, taking advantage of cheap labor :-) I had a massage tonight for 30 minutes, it was pretty good, though I have had better.
Another wacky thing is TV. Tonight we had Drew Carey, Everybody loves Raymond and Law and Order, all great Brazilian shows - NOT! They were in English (thankfully) with Portugese subtitles. No wonder everyone on the planet felt so much for 9/11. Their TV is our backyard.
My temperature is a healthy 36.79C tonight. If I can get a good nights sleep Iīll be fine tomorrow. Two other thoughts I think my problem may have been lack of water. I found out today from two different sources that in a tropical climate you should consume 3 liters of water a day. Five liters if you are doing any serious work. Thatīs a hell of a lot! Also I donīt think my baseball cap is helping much. Holding all that wet sweat against my head canīt be a good thing. Oh well, you live and learn. Speaking of health, no more tap water on my toothbrush either - welcome to the third world. Finally got to sleep around 1am. Got up around 8:30am, first decent nights sleep in a while.
Today Monica took me to the Barra district. First to the shopping Mall and then to a beautiful furniture design center, just filled with stuff that only those with a second or third home in Rio could afford.
In the evening we crossed the ībay bridgeīto Niteroi at my request. This was one of the best bits of my last trip to Rio. Driving alongside the beach and stopping at one of the little roadside shacks for fresh coconut juice straight from the fruit, in the setting sun, with a warm tropical breeze just twitching the leaves of the trees. If I was stuck in a particular place at a particular time of day, sitting under a tree, on the beach in Niteroi, jawing with a good old friend, drinking coconut juice would be hard to beat.
Another thing Niteroi has is great views of Rio, kind of like Brooklyn to Manhattan I guess :-)
Three other cool things I saw today:
Spoke to Stephanie this morning which was a lovely start to another long day of wonderful siteseeing. In the morning, we went up Corcovado mountain, which is where the famous Christ statue is. We saw the beautiful views, the waterfalls and my first four legged wildlife, an Armadillo :-)
Then we checked out the modern art museum which was pretty awful. They had a Picasso there, that looked like it had been drawn by a five year old sitting at a table in McDonalds with crayons - Ugh! Fortunately, things picked up, after a late lunch. We headed over to the main museum in Rio the īMusee de Beaux Artīsī kind of like the Metropolitan in New York. The art here was a lot better. One floor was foreign, the other floor was Brazilian, some of which was really good. Especially a sculpture of Cabral (who discovered Brasil).
The best was yet to come. Hidden behind darkened doors was a wonderful exhibition of early maps, model ships, globes and navigation equipment.
The best part was the maps, many of which were from the sixteenth century. It was incredible to see how over only a hundred years, map making knowledge had gone from a flat earth centered around the Mediterrean to the round globe we know today. Even though the shape of the new world was far from accurate, by the 1600īs every settlement on the coast from Quebec to Argentina had been documented. The interior remained "Terra Incognita" until, in the case of Brazil, very recently.
This morning we went down to the navy yard around 8:15am. We were supposed to be getting a ride across to an island on which stands a beautiful old palace. After waiting in the sun for 90 minutes, we found out that the navy had no space on it's ship till 3pm! Instead all we could do was have a quick look at a Brazilian navy sub and a warship then we were done. As Douglas Adams would say, my assessment of the Brazilian armed forces, mostly harmless :-)
As a consolation, we took a ride along the coast and passed through several picturesque beach villages, very like highway 1 in California. We got back to the hotel around 2pm. Getting photos developed and the internet cafe took up the rest of the day.
Tonight as a 'thank you' to Monica and because it seems like a fitting end to my visit we are having dinner at the Copacobana Palace Hotel.
To say Cipriani at the Copacabana Palace is fantastic is an understatement. The food and service are world class, the price for us Americans - did I really just say that? very reasonable (actually $195 inc. a good bottle of champagne, after dinner port and a 20% tip). It saddens me to report that the entree, 'pheasant stuffed with cabbage' was better than almost any I have had in New York.
Of course the company helped a lot as well. Monica is every bit as gorgeous and sophisticated as the day I met her on Hampstead Heath, a decade ago. Like a fine wine, she has mellowed beautifully with the passing of the years. Though one can never tell, I think she felt the same about me - maybe?
This morning I am packing my bags and leaving Latin America. As John Grisham said in "The Testament" - "He was a pleasant man, happy with life, as most Brazilians tend to be" - This sums up the people's temperment so well. Even among those with so little, there are still lots of smiles. Even in the searing heat, revolting humidity and polluted air there is still Carneval, long may it remain so!
Monica dropped me at the airport and I went to check out the Exec. lounge. The Varig one in Rio is actually quite nice. Then we had a quick one hour flight to Sao Paulo. From the air it is absolutely huge, kind of like Los Angeles only bigger, there are clearly some really bad areas and some beautiful ones. It is also a lot flatter than Rio. Same heat and stickyness though even in the airport. Still 20 million people must have something they like.
So now I am waiting for the overnight flight to Africa. My first impression of the South Africans here is that they are a sort of cross between Germans and Australians, they also happen to be almost universally white at least here in the business class departure lounge, which strangely enough is smaller and more crowded than Rio's. Africa here I come....
Click here to read on...
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