Spending time in Rio

My time in Brasil is coming to an end and I am now gearing up for the long trek back to work in the desert. Melissa left Saturday night and I just received an email saying that she is safely home despite a few delayed flights. It has been another great trip that has left me with many memories and few regrets (the definition of a good trip). It was definately different than previous travels in that we stayed with friends the entire time. We've done the tourist side (Christ Statue, Sugar Loaf) and the carioca side (beaches, beer) of Rio. Cariocas are what people native to Rio are called. It is an incredible experience to get the local flavour of a place and I am very grateful for the cultural translation from our hosts. The language barrier is strong here as the native language is Portuguese (differs from Spanish more than you would expect) and there is very little English spoken. The only drawback is that we had things a little too good and we never made much of an effort to get out and explore on our own. This is a very small regret that was more than offset by the immense amount of relaxation time we got.

Upon returning to Rio about 10 days ago, we set out to do some of the must see places. First up was the amazing Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue situated perfectly atop Corcovado Mountain. Corcovado means hunchback and it is just that. The mountain rises slowly from the interior to a staggering height and then drops off dramatically at the base of Guanabara bay. At it's peak is this amazing statue watching over the city. I make it sound overly dramatic, but it really is. The last time that I was in Rio (almost 2 years ago), I was compelled by it. The thing about it is that it has an amazing presence. If you are anywhere in it's radius, you always catch glimpses of it from the beach or through the buildings. At night, it is lit up and has a surreal effect.

Anyways, we went on Saturday as it was the first nice day in a few. We decided to take the tourist train that winds its way from the base of the mountain through the Tijuca forest to the statue. This was a bad idea. Being a weekend in the middle of summer and after 2 days of rain, the place was nuts. We were in line for 1.5 hrs just to get on the train. Once at the top, the crowd (and the sun) was almost unbearable. It abruptly reminded me why I am not crazy about overly touristy attractions. However, we did muscle our way to the vantage point overlooking Guanabara bay. It really is an amazing place (despite the crowds) and I feel fortunate to have been there twice already.

A very interesting sidenote is that the statue was designed in the 1920s by Carlos Oswald. Mr. Oswald was the great grandfather of our host, Henrique.

The next day, we went to Rio's other big tourist attraction, Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain). We went expecting the same crowds as the day before, but it wasn't nearly as busy. To get to the top, we took two cable car rides. While it lacks the significance of the Corcovado, the view from Sugarloaf is amazing in its own right. It provides a great panorama of some of Rio's remarkable beaches.

With the tourist traps out of the way, we've spent the rest of our time eating in great restaurants, shopping, sitting on the beach, visiting and drinking plenty of Skol (Brasil's great beer- see the cool bottle it comes in). On Saturday, my friend Filipe and his new wife came from Sao Paulo to spend the weekend here in Rio. I haven't seen him in almost 2 years and so much has changed in our lives since then so we had a lot of catching up to do.

For those who don't know how I acquired my Brasilian connection, here's the deal. In June 2003, Filipe came to Calgary as part of a graduate exchange program. He came to work at the company I was working with and we became close friends. In September 2003, he introduced me to Henrique and Tatiana who had just moved to Canada for a 2 year work exchange program organized by the company Henrique works for. Filipe left Canada in November 2003, and I was fortunate to travel to Brasil in early 20 04 on business and we spent a few days together. When Filipe left, Melissa and I became good friends with Henrique and Tatiana, whom we have stayed with the last few weeks.

With my off-shift coming to an end, I now face the prospect of going back to work for a 6 week stretch. I did a 6 week shift in Sept-Oct and it went alright. The key is to just not think about it and keep busy. A long stretch like that lends itself to boredom from the monotony. However, I plan to develop this site some more as well as work on my ipod to clean and organize the immense amount of music I have on it. I also am planning on beginning to watch Season 2 of '24', which I have on DVD. If that is not enough, I can always pop in an old episode of Corner Gas for a chuckle.