Rio de Janiero

She Said . . .

Prelude

As we start this vacation, I have no idea if Blaise is going to write anything.  Really, up until we left, I was unsure if I would. We didn’t get but 3 inquiries about the blog and I wanted to just enjoy the time.  But I looked back at some of the prior blogs and realized what they really do is allow me to memorialize for the future what happens. I look back and read them and I am reminded of all the things I comletely forgot about.

I am not going to “make” Blaise blog.  If he wants to, he can. If not, I’m good.  This time I am doing this more for me than anyone else.

As I sit here on the balcony of our cabin before the ship leaves the port, somewhere someone is playing the Jaws music.  I can’t tell if it is coming from the boat or the pier where we checked in.

We did make it to the boat today, probably around 11:30/noonish.  After a rainy morning in Rio, it is a gorgeous afternoon!

So, here we go.  As always, I have titles so you can skip what you don’t care about.

Travel to Rio de Janiero - Sunday and Monday

Getting to Rio de Janiero took two flights:  One to Miami, then on to Rio. The Miami to Rio was included in the cost of our trip through Online Vacation Center but the trip from DFW to Miami was American Airlines Advantage miles.Why do you give a shit?  Normally no one would. Normally, I wouldn’t. The problem is going from a domestic flight where you get 40 pounds per checked bag to the 50 pounds for an international flight. Add a husband who will NOT pay extra for an overweight bag and a wife who would prefer to pack for any possible occaission and you have an issue.  We checked 1 bag and carried one on. When we got to Miami, we had to get our bags and then check into our flight to Rio since they were not the same PNR. A little weight redistribution was necessary at this point.

Both flights were 777’s.

In the Miami airport, since it was St. Patty’s Day, we shared fish and chips in an Irish pub.  It was crap.

We had a bit of an issue once we got on the flight to Rio because Blaise thought he had his cell phone in his pocket and it wasn’t there.  This was discovered as soon as the flight attendant told us to take our seats so they could close the door. Blaise is standing up frantically pulling a bag out of the overhead.  I am dialing and redialing his cell phone to see if we can hear it ring with everything in my lap spilling into my neighbors lap, including my neck pillow - all of which I did not realize until the phone was found in between our seats, when my neighbor kindly and rather pleasantly started handing me my crap. During the dialing phase of this extravaganza, I could hear the muffled ring but could not figure out where it was.  We were both kind of frantic thinking it fell out his pocket somewhere at the gate. We looked like buffoons who had never been on a plane.

The flight left at 11 PM and we arrived in Rio around 8:15 AM.  I got some sleep this time, after Tylenol PM and 3 mini bottles of Vodka, but only about 3-4 hours. We walked off the plane into a HUGE gate area with 2 sets of 4 seats each. That gate was about as big as a high school cafeteria.  Made no sense. After we walked about a mile and a half (no exageration), we arrived at baggage claim and had no wait whatsover at customs.

Monday - From Airport to Hotel

Olline Vacation Center provided our transfer to our hotel, the Windsor Leme Hotel on Copacabana Beach. We were transported with 5 other couples, all at least 10 years older than at least me, maybe Blaise too.  And the stupid questions began: How long to the hotel? Do kids have to go to school here? Do people here have electricity? What are we going to do until check in at the hotel? The list goes on - they were already on my nerves.  Since we were the last ones on the coach, Blaise and I did not get to sit together, but despite that, Blaise offered to move so the lady sitting next to him could sit with her husband. Her response was, “No that’s OK. You have more hair than him.”  Well alright then.

Our room wasn’t ready so we went up to the rooftop pool and bar and had a drink.  Mine was leaded. Blaise’s was coffee, a newly acquired taste since his surgery.

Monday in Rio

After a nap in our room and showers, we headed out for an early dinner.  We had found a place in one of our books that was recommended - Don Camilla.  It was pizza and Italian. Blaise figured it was about ¾ of a mile from our hotel, but that was not entirely accurrate.  It was much farther, but that was fine - I was just hungry. We shared caprese salad and a pizza with some sort of delicious sausage.  After dinner, we strolled barefoot down Copacabana beach back to our hotel as the surf lapped at our feet. Or at times, our ankles and knees, which would not have been a problem if I had shorts on - I had jeggings to my ankles.  I really didn’t care though - it felt wonderful! During our walk, the sun was setting. It was a perfect walk.

Copacabana beach is a lovely beach.  Lots of people but not so crowded you couldn’t enjoy it.  The beach is very wide. You have people playing in the surf.  Further back there were many people sitting on blankets/towels or just the sand enjoying the view or watching their kids playing in the surf. Even further back from the water, are sand volleyball courts. Next to the volleyball courts is the wide walking path peppered with concrete benches looking out toward the water and little open air huts serving drinks and food.  Each hut was like it’s own restaurant or bar with its own specialty food or drink. Then you have the bike path and next to it is a 4-lane road with a median in the middle which had a couple gas stations. Then a wide walkway next to hotels, condos, restaurants, and various office space (it appeared).

Later on, after resting in the room for a bit, we walked the neighborhood, found a couple grocery stores and drug stores, and even found a little spot for dessert and coffee. Blaise had coffee, I had a tasty vodka beverage with tangarine, and we shared a warm brownie and vanilla ice cream.  Delicious! A great ending to a day of travel and relaxation right before our whirlwind tour of Rio.

Let me say - I LOVE Rio.  If you haven’t been here, you really should consider coming.  It is amazingly beautiful. Historical bulidings mixed with modern structures and favellas, juxtaposed against the natural beauty of the beaches, ocean, mountains, and rainforest.  It really can’t be beat for beauty. It is so very lovely even if many of the people here do not have any modesty. Women really like to show their “boom boom” as our tour guide, Olivia, said. (More on Olivia later.)

They have those bikinis that ride your crack and show all the butt cheeks.  I think they are called tangas but Olivia said if you go to a store and ask for the dental floss, they will know what you are looking for.  I will not be looking for them. Ever.

For my first night in a hotel, I slept quite well despite the bed not being too comfortable.

Rambling

As I write the rest of this, it is Thursday morning, after our first night on the boat.  We are lounging outside on deck 5. The life boats hang above us, but for some reason it does not worry me that they will fall on me, killing me instantly.  If that happens, know that I died happy and have a big party for me with all my favorite music. Blaise just spent about 1 ½ - 2 hours writing his blog - I guess he chose to blog.  Not sure why. I guess he had things to say. I won’t read it until I finish mine, but only to proof it.

Tuesday in Rio

The next day (Tuesday, March 19, 2019) started early.  We had breakfast around 7 or 7:30 and after a trip to the grocery store, we met our private tour guide Olivia, in the lobby of the hotel.

This was not the original tour guide we booked.  We booked a guy named Gus we found on TripAdvisor.  He had great reviews. He was on his own and not with a tour company.  We picked him for not only his great reviews, but also because he says he has his guests safety in mind and will assure your safety at all times while doing his best to avoid busy times at sites so we can avoid long waits.

Unfortunately Gus must have had a bit too much fun at Carnivale because he e-mailed us late last week saying he got sick at Carnivale and could not take us.  He recommended Olivia and said she was available, we could use her and he would give her the deposit we paid him or he would refund the deposit and we could go elsewhere.  We chose Olivia and she was amazing!

You might be asking - how much does one pay for a private tour guide?  It was $150 per person and we had her from 8:30 - 4:30. To put this in perspective, we likely would have paid anywhere between $150 an $200 per person through the cruise ship for something like we got and we would have been on a bus with 30-40 other people.  Having the private tour guide allowed us to tailor the tour to what we wanted to do. We may or may not have paid less for a group tour. This was totally worth it!

Olivia did not look like what you would think a native Brazilian would look like.  Blond hair, blue eyes. But she was born and raised in a small town about 1 ½ hours outside of Rio.  We throroughly enjoyed our time with her.

The day before she What’s Apped Blaise and had him buy our tickets for the train to Christ The Redeemer for sometime between 11 and noon.  Blaise did. However, when we got in her car, she recommended we go there first to avoid the crowds because she knew someone there who would let us get on the train early.  She also gave us a choice - she could take us to Sugar Loaf Mountain or we could see even more of Rio if she dropped us off at Sugar Loaf at the end of our tour. We opted for the latter and it was the perfect choice.

Christ The Redeemer

We first went to Christ The Redeemer.  Very impressive! The have a lovely chapel right there in the base of the statue.  Lots of people but Olivia said it was not as crowded as it would be later in the day.  I didn’t really think I cared about the big guy until I was there. Love him! He was built by the City of Rio and the Catholic church.  He is actually a mosaic, which you can barely tell when you are right there and probably would have no idea unless someone had told you. The hands and face were made in France and transported to Rio.  They knew they wanted a statue on that mountain but had a contest to decide what the statue would be. One of the options was Christ holding the world on his back, like Atlas. There were other options I cannot recall and the other one was Christ with his arms out, welcoming the world - just as he is today.  You didn’t win anything in the contest other than to be the one who decided what the statue would be.

The two most common pictures taken were people laying down on the ground taking pictures looking up at Christ and a person standing in front of the statue with their arms spread out like the statue.  While I considered doing the latter myself I chose not to do what everyone else was doing and opted for the traditional standing in front of him and smiling.

The only down side to the visit to Christ The Redeemer was a very rude Asian man who said something to me very angrily in a foreign language and actually shoving me aside.  Apparently in all the crowd, I was the one obstructing his picture taking of The Big Guy. I still can’t believe the man actually pushed me on purpose. I don’t think that Jesus would have done that.

The Rest of Rio

Through the day, we got stuck in Rio traffic, saw an opulant monastary, a cathedral, an impressive library like I have never seen before, a famous coffee and lunch location built in the late 1800s, for which I am sure Blaise remembers the name but I do not, and the now famous stairs tiled by an artist who was a friend of our tour guide and murdered a few years ago.  While at the bottom of the steps, Olivia pointed out a young man, practically a kid, who was a big drug dealer. He was no problem to her and actually provided her protection, when necessary, even though they never talk.

During the day, while were stuck in traffic, Olivia gave us the low down on Sugar Loaf so when we got there, we would know what she would have told us if she had taken us there.  That came in quite handy because we likely would not have noticed on our own that the building behind the cathedral made a cross with its empty space in the middle.

Olivia, Tour Guide

Olivia was amazing!  She was a story in and of herself.  I think they could easily make a movie of her life.  Although during some of her story, I wondered if she was making it up or if she was telling the story of someone else, saying it was her.  I have no reason not to believe her so I will take it as true.

She moved to Rio to go to college.  She studied finance but when she got out of school she spent her time in creative pursuits - creating mosaics.  When she was looking for a place to live after college, or university, as they say in Brazil, she had found some lovely places around the city, including one in the Saint Teresa neighborhood which she showed us.  Another was in a favella. A favella is an extremely poor neighborhood in Rio with lots of crime. They are very dangerous and there are literally thousands in Rio. At some point in the past, there were developers who tried to spruce up the favellas with lovely condos and places to live.  They would build these taller buildings and sell apartments in them. The sprucing up didn’t work well so the beautiful apartments would sell for cheap prices. She initially rented out the apartment in the favella and ended up eventually buying it. This is where she would work on her mosaics and started out only staying there a couple days a week.

She would watch three boys ages 10-11 outside playing and messing around.  One day she saw them conducting a drug sale. She went out to talk to them and asked them why they did it.  To make money they said and because that is what you did in the favella. She invited them to come learn how to do what she was doing with the mosaics and they did.  So she started conducting classes with them. They would come into her apartment and she would teach them art. One day she came to her apartment (remember she would only stay there a couple days a week) and almost immediately there was a knock on her door.  It was a man holding a machine gun. He asked her what she was doing with the boys. She told him. He told her to stop because they were making him money. He was the drug dealer and ran the favella. So she did just that - stopped the classes.

She stayed away for many months before she came back because she was not real comfortable any more.  When she did come back, within minutes, again there was a knock on her door. It was the same man, asking her where she had been.  She told him, hey you told me to stop doing what I was doing, so I stopped coming by. He told her one of those kids was his son and his son missed her and he wanted her to start teaching the boys again.  So she did. There wasn’t an agreement between them but the drug dealer started protecting her. Pretty soon, parents in the favella were coming to her asking her to teach their kids. Eventually, the class grew to 26 kids.

When she started being a tour guide, people wanted tours of the favellas.  She told the drug dealer at some point what people were asking and he said “Sure, bring them here.  I’ll make sure they are safe.” So she provided tours of her favella for years.

After the Olympics, it became too dangerous for her to do the tours so she stopped.  When preparing for the Olympics, the government attempted to clean up the favellas and improve them economically with development.  It was successful in several favellas, but due to massive government corruption that was uncovered, they stopped that initiaive. The sudden stop, created an power imbalance in the favellas. New drug dealers/gangs are coming into various favellas trying to take over.  As a result, gun fights break out at all times of the day. They are obviously unpredictable and lots of innocent people have died in the cross fire.

I so much enjoyed hearing a local’s  take on life in Rio.

Sugar Loaf

As promised, Olivia dropped us off at the entrance of the funicular up to first, Urca (Orca to you and me) Mountain and then on up to Sugar Loaf.  There are actually 2 funiculars: One from the ground to Urca and then another up to Sugar Loaf. On Urca, there are various vantage points, a bar, and eateries. There is not as much up on Sugar Loaf, but the view is spectacular.

While our orginal plan was to spend sunset on Ipanema Beach like the locals.  Because we weren’t going to get there on time, we stayed on Sugar Loaf and Urca to watch the amazing sunset just beyond the mountains and Christ The Redeemer, where we started our day.  It was a special ending to an incredible day.

Tuesday Evening

After Sugar Loaf, we took a taxi back to the hotel. Blaise, quite the creature of habit, wanted to return for dinner, to the place we had the brownie and ice cream the night before.  Too tired to argue, we did just that. He had a grilled cheese sandwhich with potato salad and I had some shrimp and cheese thing (not my favorite) and cheese risoto with some delicious sausage.

Wednesday - Time to Get on the Boat

We started our day with packing, breakfast at the hotel, and a trip to the grocery store - water for me and a protein drink for Blaise.

Our instructions from Online Vacations said to leave our luggage outside our room with the cruise ship luggage tags on them.  Since we have never cruised Azamara, I could not figure out how to get them to mail the luggage tags to us online so all we had were the paper ones we printed with our cruise information.  Blaise, clever as he is, figured out a way to get them on our luggage without any scissors, tape, or staples.

We were both uncomfortable leaving our luggage unattended outside our room in the hotel.  So when it came time to meet the woman in charge of transporting us with the other 10 people, Blaise sat in a chair between our room/luggage and the elevator and I sat in the lobby. We originally talked about taking our bags down to the lobby with us but opted for covering both bases.

In the end, there was one couple who took their bags down with them and the rest were brought down by the porter.  Before we got in the van, I wondered how transport with this group was going to go. Will there be more dumb questions?  Will they annoy me? The answer to both is yes.

We were to leave at 10:30, but although the woman in charge (WIC) was there by 10, the transport van was not.  WIC paced nervously for over 30 minutes outside the hotel while on the phone. Thankfully the van arrived between 11 and 11:15.  One woman was fit to be tied sitting over there wondering if we were going to make it on the boat. The boat was leaving at 5:00 PM and the drive was 30-45 minutes to the pier.  Folks! Worst case scenario, you take a taxi. Yes that’s not what you paid for. Yes, it is extra money. But there is a viable solution.

The van was hooked up to a small enclosed trailer which carried our luggage.  When we get in the van, the same woman was asking - How long is the drive? Will we get there in time?  Oh no! It’s raining! It was a steady narrative of her concerns all the way to the boat. Thankfully we were in the back and could not hear half of it.  When we arrived at the pier and the van was stopped, it was raining. WIC told us to stay in the van while they got the luggage out of the trailer and gave it to the porter.  All the van was aflutter. What do we do? It’s raining? Where is our luggage going? Where do we go? The same Nervous Nelly was beside herself wondering where are we supposed to go?  Now I am pretty uptight, I get that. But when I am on vacation, I am ON VACATION. We will figure it out. We have 5 hours to figure it out. I have faith. We can do it. And if YOU can’t, oh well.  I know Blaise and I can.

We made it on the boat with no issues.  

The Ship - The Azamara Pursuit

While we normally cruise Celebrity, this time we are on Azamara, Celebrity’s sister cruise line.  The ship is much smaller - less than 800 guests. As a result, the ship is scaled smaller too. The stairs are narrower.  The elevators are smaller. The cabin is smaller. The bathrooms are smaller. It is quite lovely though. Azamara is known for their food.  It is delicious.

We ate a small lunch in their buffet dining area.  I had a small piece of Morrocan chicken with rice pilaf and Blaise had glazed Salmon. The crew served us.  We could not help ourselves to what we wanted. We found out later at muster, this is intentional until the doctor gives the all clear of disease in a couple days.  Their serving is to prevent the spread of disease on the boat in the event someone who just got on the boat brought something with them.

Also, according to the Captain, when he was talking at muster (the mandatory safety drill), they have the “famous” Azamara Fist Bump.  They do not shake hands on Azamara ships to reduce the spread of disease. This tidbit made Blaise feel better since he tried to shake a crew member’s hand earlier and he only received a fist bump in returned.  Explained.

We found the gym.  I have lost some weight in the past few weeks and while I do not plan to continue to lose weight on vacation, I do plan to maintain my current weight and get back on the program when I get back home.

Dinner didn’t help this plan but it was delicious.  I think Blaise told you what we had for dinner so I won’t readdress that. (He was just asking what I had for dinner.)

We can’t help but compare this experience to Celebrity so here are the differences at dinner:  There is no assigned dining time or table. You eat when you want from 6-9:30 and you sit at a different table every time.  We could sit at a table for two or choose a bigger table to meet people. We like each other so we sat at a table for two.

The other difference is the choices.  There were about double the choices for our main course than we see on Celebrity.  They also have a nightly chef’s special and a regional special based on the location of the ship and the ingredients the chef was able to procure while in port.

The attention to detail of the staff was impressive.  When the maitre’d pulled out my chair to sit, the waiter quickly grabbed the napkin sitting on the plate.  I was baffled. We sat down and I said to Blaise “The dude took my napkin!” I was slightly irritated. Until he came back with a black napkin.  He noticed my skirt was black and the white napkin would leave white lint on my skirt. So he exchanged napkins. THAT was impressive.

Current Status on the Boat

We are currently going 18.5 knots. We have some catching up to do since we had to leave the port later than scheduled  because the arrival of food and beverage for the boat was late.

We are still south of the equator.  More in a later blog about crossing the equator.  This will be our second time to cross the equator on a ship.  The first was our cruise in Australia when I broke my face.

It is 86 degrees right now, just before noon and the water is 84 degrees where we are right now.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is Friday, March 22.  We arrive at Salvador de Bahia at 3:00 PM and will be there until 10 PM the following day.

He Said . . .

Day 1

This year, or should I say trip 1 for the year, is from Rio to Lisbon on Azamara Cruises with stops in Salvador da Bahia, Recife, Cape Verde, Agadar, Cassablanca, and finally Lisbon; 17 days of solitude with just AJ and myself.  And 700 or so folks that I have some doubts about, that said Azamara understands their clientele and actually provides transfers to and from the hotel and the cruise ship just like Viking, smart folk I’d say based on my early observations.  But nonetheless here were thoughts looking back over the past few days leading up to our first day on the boat…

We had to swing by and have breakfast at our favorite local restaurant in Roanoke; some of you know it but I can’t tell you as it would become a Yogi Berra bit, “No one goes there anymore, it’s too busy.”, but I’m fairly certain most people know it QUITE well; great food, great people, and my favorite coffee!!  Can’t get any better.

So Brandon (our youngest, who is now going to be 32, geez I’m old) drove us over to the airport, as I’m driving we’re talking about the new spot that we’re trying to get built in Oklahoma and Ami makes the comment that because they cleared off so much of the mountain for the house that we’ll have space to plant some trees, maybe some fruit trees.  I unfortunately could NOT stop my mouth before the following came flying right back out in retort; “Yea, we should plant a peach orchard, THE BEARS will LOVE IT!!”. Yes, that’s right, they have BEARS, not little cuddly bears, big giant bears that look like they been filming Yukon Men in Oklahoma, these are 500 lb bears, I’ve seen them on trail cameras!!!  NO, we are not planting anything that would attract wildlife that would require the “toting” of more guns around the property, her response to my commentary was tried and true, you should be warned that if you ever receive this response you are not on her favorite person list and should just shut up, it is “Why do you always have to be so mean?”, yep, that was her response.  Brandon and I errupted in laughter, she, of course, thought that we were laughing at her and not about how attracted bears would be to anything free and sugary and gave us both the requisite eye roll. It came up two or three times during the drive over, it’s still funny now and I’m smiling while typing on the Chrome book.

The DFW to Mia leg of the trip went quite smoothly, we had 777 and happened to be seated the next to the last row on the plane and only has two seats on the right side of the wide body 777 due to the narrowing of the fuselage, just us, just the way we planned it.  We had about 3-4 hours to kill in Mia and we headed to an Irish Pub for dinner, who even knew it was St. Patty’s day, certainly not I until we sat down! We decided to split an order of fish and chips, WAY to salty on the fish and NO salt on the fries, oh well tummy girgling for the next two hours, mission accomplished.  By now we had started to wind down and get into vacation mode, no more work stress as there is nothing you can do about it now begins to invade Ami’s thoughts and I realize that whatever the General Contractor does in Oklahoma is out of my hands now, fingers crossed, Brandon will know what to do, he knows the vision.

The Mia to Rio was a bit more challenging, since she is vertically challenged, I am not,  “we” would prefer to sit on the bulkhead for the additional leg room, with that constraint as the driver we ended up in the two middle seats of the 4 seat section.  Ami’s neighbor was very amenable, but my neighbor was a bit on the odd side, he had shaved half his head, then grew his hair down to the shoulder, yes just the one side, and then combed the long side back over the shaved side.  The one showing ear had one two inch piercing rod through the ear at the top and the back side half way down. I’m sure he never saw the Dr. Pimple Popper episode that piercing your ears, other than through the lobes, can cause keloids and led to a beatiful young girl having “elf ears”, back to the neighbor.  To complete the look he had a gotee, but no mustache, very odd looking. Maybe I’m just out on the current hip styles… He wore a muscle shirt that had “hulk” emblazened across the entirety of the chest and a pair of shorts and flip flops, and btw, no recent trip to maintain his pedicure, gross!! But other than the look and his attempts to commandeer the entirety of the arm on occassion we managed to make the trip without a single word exchanged.  Finally, vacation has started for us!!!

The international arrivals have been relegated to a corner of the airport that requires about a mile walk (seriously a mile from the gate to the customs area, and I think I’m being kind).  Customs was a breeze but don’t forget the Visa docs, without that there doesn’t look like any possible way you’re going to get through customs quickly. Quick FYI, Brazil reduced their Visa cost from $160 to $40 dollars per person since tourism has been dropping ever since the 2016 Olympics, $80 seemed reasonable $320 would have not.  Anyway, we were on the beach at Copa by 11AM and wondering when our room would be ready, we went up to the 19th floor to enjoy the views, have a cafe and a drink and watch the dental floss, bikini clad women, in the infinity pool overlooking the Avenue Atlantica. If you’re looking for modesty on a beach you’ve come to the wrong place.  And body size DOES NOT MATTER, they all wear them, sometimes you have to turn away it’s just so ridiculous.

Day 2

We got into the room early and took a nap, AJ was up in an hour, I slept for 3 I think, and then it was off to walk the beach of Copa before we got our tour started in the morning.  We had dinner at a place called Don Camilla, great coffee and pizza. We sat and talked about how lucky we are to live in a time where you can travel 5,000 miles from home in the span of a day and be taking in the cultures of far away places for the prices we have in air travel these days, it’s amazing.

Then down the beach with the shoes off in the surf, It was fantastic, beautiful powder white sands, the softest sand I’ve ever walked on, down the surf while stopping to “neck” and people watch until the sun was all but gone.  We decided to have dessert around the corner from the hotel at a place called Biteco something or other, the important point is that we had the warmed brownie with ice cream and chocolate syrup, oh my, to die for…

Day 3

Our tour started at 8:30, we had breakfast and Olivia (de Havilend (sp?)) pinged me on WhatsApp to tell me she was ready at 8 and whenever we were ready she was, I told her we were in the lobby and the search was on, a quick look up from the phone to find my mirror and she was spotted.  To say Olivia has never met a stranger would be an understatement, it was though we had known her all our lives by the time we reached her car. She gave us options for where we could go, timings, traffic issues and we finally all agreed to the order of the events of the day, we would go to Christ the Redeemer first, mind you our tickets are for the 11:40 train, she says don’t worry I’ll get them changed, then it was head to the monestary, library, cathedral and old town and finally she would drop us off at the cable cars for the ride up to Sugarloaf to enjoy the sunset.  Unbelievable, we got to the Redeemer and sure enough she got our tickets changed to the next train and we were standing in front of Jesus de Christo before our conversations ever broke for a breath. She knows every bad street and never slowed down for a minute, she has been a guide in Rio for 20 years after having attended university, they don’t go to college, they all go to university, with a major in Accounting and hating every minute of the 14 hour days. She’s so different, she bought a home, the only one she could afford at the time, in a favella (yes, the places where even the police don’t like to go in Rio) and began her artwork and guiding.  Turns out she ran across 3 kids, between 8-10, selling drugs in front of her home and she couldn’t stand it, she approached them and asked them if they’d like to learn how to make ceramic tiles and get into something more substantative that selling drugs? They said sure, and her 3 person classes began, two months in and she receives a knock at her door one night, she opens it and there’s a very large man with a machine gun standing there yelling at her about why she’s teaching his drug sellers ceramics and she’s hurting his business!! She apologized profusely and said it would never happen again, fast forward two months, the drug kingping of her favella knocks on the door and asked why she isn’t teaching ceramics to the kids, she says because you told me it was huring your “business” so I promised not to do it, not to mention she thought he would kill her if she ever did it again.  He said no I want you to teach them, she said, no it’s fine, they argued and he told her that one of them was his son and that he wanted him to learn, it was important to him. She agreed, 20 years later she has 46 students in her favella ceramics class, she told me she never felt safer than when she’s at home in her favella. Better lucky than good! She had lots of insights into Rio and she took us to places and told us of places not to go even during the day, including Lapa, where the ceramic tile stairs are located, and Saint Teresa’s, beautiful million dollar views where people are moving away from because the drugs have made it too dangerous to stay. Off to the library, quite impressive, but in this day and age I always wonder when they will scan everything and the public libraries close forever, what a shame!! We had lunch at Conferteria Colombo, which started operations in 1894, their coffee is to die for, I thought Columbian coffee was great, but this Brazilian coffee puts it to shame; Ami had a chicken pot pie (single serving) and a cod croquette (single serving) most of which I ate.  I managed to get the bill and say thank you in Portugese before returning to Spanish, thank goodness they are close enough for them to understand. The catheral was monumentally impressive, as I’m sure the Catholic Church was aiming for when constructed; it is in the Brazilian architectural style, which I had never heard of, which was popularized in the 50’s by Oscar Neomeyer, no not Oscar Meyer, but yes that was my memory hook as well, I smiled every time she mentioned his name, she must have thought what is so funny about Oscar Neomeyer, nevermind I thought. She dropped us at Sugarloaf and we made our way to Urca’s (1st stop on the cable car ride) before heading up to Sugarloaf to watch the sunset. We decided to enjoy some drinks and watch the actual sunset from Urca’s as they have a bar and the very top is quite crowded. We took pictures of a phenomenal sunset, enjoyed reliving the days events and caught a cab back to the hotel with dinner around the corner at the Boteco something or other. I had the grilled cheese and AJ got the sausage risotto, both very good. We were done with the whirlwind tour of Rio, it is unbelievably beautiful, so diverse, so culturally different from what we see every day and yet so familiar from my days growing up in San Antonio.  

Day 4

The only thing we were supposed to do was get up, leave or bags outside our room and get to the bus, well breakfast was supposed to occur in there somewhere, and it did.  The bus was an hour late and I watched the tour guide lose her mind trying to get all the blue hairs wrangled while attempting to get the bus to us. We took it in stride and went to the grocery store one block over to grab some protein and water.  We got rained on coming back but not to worry nothing catastrophic, all in a days work in a rain forest area. Once on the bus it became interesting, the dumb questions started immediately, “How long will it take to get there”, who cares I thought, you’re not driving.  “Where do we go after we get off the bus”, once again, who cares, go where ever you want, I think I’ll follow the porter who’s got our bags, but feel free to go the other way if you’d like. One after another, well we quickly made it in and on the boat before seeing all of them still in line behind us after having gotten off the bus second to last.  Where’d they go I thought, I quickly answered my own question, who cares, get on the boat and quit asking innane question stupid…

I’ll let AJ regail you with the D-Bag at lunch who told the waiter and head of waiters that BOTH the wines that were provided with for lunch were “undrinkable” and he needed to speak with the head of the wait staff to gets this rectified as soon as possible, I thought geez, the nerve of some people, with a quick people suck tacked on for good measure!!

Dinner was scrumptous with a lot more options than Royal or Celebrity, who knew Azamara was the top tier of Royal, I thought it was the other way around, now I know, their service is very upscale with a attitude that I haven’t seen since leaving India 4 years ago, it’s impressive.  

Enough for now, our first sea day has begun and I’m typing, and retyping because Google Chrome books suck dog shit, where is CTRL - S when I need it, WordStar was better than this junk, at least CTRL -K d always saved your stuff, forgive the rant, no FAANG for me!!!  Until tomorrow caio!!