Brazil day 9--En route back to USA

Rachel, Felicio, Ana and I woke up at 7am to make it to breakfast at the nearby hotel for continental breakfast by 730 AM. we had a variety of cheeses, breads and fresh fruits. After breakfast we walked the 7 blocks back to felicio's house, packed our bags and said our good byes to Felicio. He caught us a cab to the bus terminal where we found our executive coach bus which left at 1030AM to start the 5 hour ride back to Sao Paulo. Our executive coach bus came with pull downs for your legs to rest on, plus a water and snacks. A movie played the entire time and we stopped for the usual pit stop half way through.

Upon arriving to the Sao Paulo bus station, we found the Airport bus station, paid the 40R to get to the airport and found our terminal and made it just in the knick of time. We hopped the bus for our 30 minute ride to the airport. Uneventful. Got to the Airport 4 hours early, grabbed dinner at a Crepe stand and boarded our plane in zone 1. Oh! but this terminal was the craziest terminal ever. We had to wait at our terminal, and hop a bus to board our plane from the outside. we found our seats in the 'business class' section. With extra leg room and 4 extra inches of reclining. We were served dinner and breakfast at 5 am just before we landed in Atlanta. Making it through customs was quite challenging. We had 1.5 hours between landing and take off. it took us 1 hour to get through the first part of customs. "Welcome back to America, how long were you gone why were you gone?" we still had to go through security again. Got through security in 15 minutes (including our bags) hopped on the train from terminal c to get to terminal d.... which took 10 minutes. nearly running to our gate on the far end of terminal d, we made it, sweat and all to our flight back to msp. uneventful. were picked up by 930 am just in time for rachel to get to work.

brazil day 8

woke up at 8am today. weather forecast was for sun during the day and rain in the afternoon so we wanted to get a jump start on the christo. left the house by 9am. walked to the bus station to catch the 497 to the statue just as rachel had researched as she was waiting for me to wake up. but, come to find out the 497 we hopped on did not go through the town we needed. so we arrived back to the bus station and had to hop a different 497 and continue our loop. an hour and a half later we got off at th site for the christo. sweet, only slightly car sick. go up to buy our tickets up the tram to find out the non-refundable tickets we purchased were for the 7pm tram. 7 hours away. walking up takes 3 hours and costs 47R. so we decided to hop a bus towards copacabana get off by botafogo and hike up sugar loaf. we got to sugar loaf no problem. it is so much easier and nicer to walk when its not raining here. got to the parking lot of the tram up sugarloaf.... and the line was about 1.5 miles long. good thing we are rough and tough and planned to climb to the first peak.

started out on the nice paved path then got to a trailha—we are thinking it means trailhead in porteguese. indeed we found some people traveling down. they said it takes about an hour so we decided to do it. it was only 1pm. started the muddy, slippery hike up in our flip flops we just purchased. it was an up trail so andrea enjoyed it. rachel did a good job of keeping up as well. sure enough about a half hour later, we reached the top, complete with magnificent views of the city of rio. we walked around up top for about 20 minutes before seeing the line to go to the taller mountain—which you can only get to on gondola.... we passed on that and started our trek down the mountain. switchbacks and mud filled holes were what encompassed most of the way down. we got to the T and saw about 6 tiny monkeys super close to use. then without falling got to the bottom.

we needed to let felicio know that we plan to go up to christo at 7pm so he and ana are not waiting for us. we took the metro to central and walked to felicios. then we changed into our swimsuits and found out a cab from flamengo to the christo would be 10R so we decided to do that. walked back to central and exited at lga de machado to walk to flamengo beach—just to lay in the sun with a coconut. check and check. we laid in the un and drank out of a coconut. 3R. about 6pm we walked to the main road and grabbed a 12R cab to the christo. found a shot glass for DJ. i swear it was the only one we saw!! you owe me big deej. then i chnged out of my swimsuit and we stood in line for the 7pm tram. we enteed the tram an sat on the right side—per a trip advisor suggestion for a better view of rio. yup1 was quite the sights. then we got to the top just s the sun was about to set over the mountains in the distance. absolutely gorgeous, we then climbed up the 200 steps t0 thechristo and got our pic taken before heading back down. we watched the sunset in the distance it was qute gorgeous. then we climbed back down, and waited in line for the next ttram. as we were waiting we heard american english behind us. the older couple was from iowa and he was a molecular cell bioloby professor at the university of iowa going on six month sebaticle to australia. we talked with the couple the entire time waiting in line and the ride down. then we parted ways when we got to the bottom and hopped a bus labeled centralsince we knewhow tto get home from there eventhough felicio said it was bad at night we didnt want to get lost. after a long detour we got off at central and swiftly hiked back to our place. not too many sketchy people. then we dropped our stuff off and i needed to eat. all i had eaten was 2 luna bars, a coconut water and a sandwich with cheese. starvng. we attempted to contact felicio but he did not answer. just as we were about to head towards lapa out hopped felicio and ana from the elevator with motorcycle helmets in hand. hence why he did not respond. we went outt to a nearby restaurant. rachel had a caipasaki and i had a soda pop. we then ordered a large meat tray complete with fish, chicken, pork, calebrasa, and beef. then quickly before the waitor brought the check rachel and i split the tab as a way to say thankyou. being exhausted from the sunlight we bypassed the samba, packed our bags and passed out.

tomorrow we head back via bus to sao paulo, but first breakfast with felicio and ana. rest of the trip: bus to sao paulo bus to airport, fly out to atlanta tomorrow night then into msp thursday at 9am.

brazil day 7

yup, 8 am came and went rather quickly. apparently rachel woke up and it was raining so she didnt wake me up. i woke up before her at 945, hopped in the shower and got ready for the day. we canceled the christ visit hoping tomorrow is sunny. insead we hit up the three blocks of shops 2 blocks from felicios house. got the brazilian bikini. pictures of that is vIP only. do not ask to see it. also got a present for my girls since im skipping practice tomorrow night and some situpons. also got a pair of havianna flip flops for 22R. they are super cute. apparently people here do not have big feet. finding a USA 9-10 is quite difficult. but alas, we found the style i liked and it just happend to be in pink.

after shoping for like 3 hours, andrea was hungry so we went to this hole in the wall authentic brazilian place and she ordered a carne asada (not as good as the carne asada i had in tucson duy) and then asked for a gaiabo suco. th poor boy had to shell out the goaiba and make the smoothie. it was the best smoohie i have had yet. charged my bill and gave the kid 2R tip compliments of rachel for having to deal with my high maintenance.

we then set out for the WWII monument. oh have i mentioned its raining. like downpouring non stop. because it is downpouring nonstop. we started walking in the direction andrea thought would bring us tot he WWI i monument. nope.. incorrect. we passed felicios house, and andrea dropped off her bag. then continued going the wrong way for awhile befoore realizing we were walking in the exact opposite way we wanted to go. and it was a rather sketchy part of town. oh well. figured out what way we now needed to go and walked about 2 miles. then we were haulted by a busy road. but nope, we just walked right across the busy road. got yelled at by a passerby, is dangerous, so we walked to a foot bridge. and crossed the other half of the busy road. we had succesffully made it to flamengo parque where the WWII smemorial was located. read the map (and took a picture of it) and started the walk towads the memorial. yup. still raining. harder than before. we had to forge huge puddles and we got to the WWII monument but it was apparentlly closed (story of our trip) so we kept walking. next stop: sugar loaf mountain. we walked the length of flamengo beach and got to botafogo beach. kept walking quite far. found urca penninsula and ealized it was aleady 600. this morning whn we left we decided we do lunch at 7 with ana and felicio and possibly his dad who is in town for the day (and who we met this am).

with only a little time left andnot enough time to get up sugarloaf to enjoy it, plus the low cloud cover, we decided to turn back and find the metro to get back to felicios house. oh.--if i forgot to mention it, it is still raining quite hard. we wee splashed by oncoming cars a few times before we learned to walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk. and then we tried to find th e metro. our path got stopped numerous times due to busy roads and lots of traffic. but mountaineerr rachel was able to find the metro stop. after seraching for awhile. we boarded the orange metro going in the correct irection and 8 stops later we were at centro, we got off found the correct staicase and were headed to felicios house for dinner i was 705.

got to feliicios after forging some more giant puddles of standing water and changed out of our wet clothes and went to the pizza buffet. but, on our way down a couchsurfing ambassador bruno who also lives in the same building and hsi gf were just returning from new years elsewhere and were also eating in the same neighborhood as us and offered to drive us to the pizza buffet.

about 10 minutes later, we were on our way. the pizza buffet is like fogo de chao. the waitors walk around with ifferent types of pizza and you take what you want. you dont even have to leave your seat. oh and the drinks are free—soda pop of course. oh. this pizza place has 60 different types of pizza. they have 'salty pizza' and 'sweet pizza'.

felicio and andrea who boh like to eat alot were off and running. cheese, calebraza, veggie, ham and champoines, championes, shirmp, shrimp and garlic, cheeseburger, you name it—they had it. and you have to atlest try everything. one two liter of pop gone. rachel stuffed and we hadnt even gotten the dessert pizzas yet. oh. pictures of each type of pizza were taken. those will get updated soon.

time for sweet pizas-- lemon, chocolate spinkles, strawberry, m&m fruit salad, maracuja (my new favorite fruit, english its passion fruit) manga, coconut, icecream, chocolate ice cream, coconut an chocoloate,...and of course yo had to eat all of them. the food babies were giant and the food com was kicking in. we even snagged pictures of our waitor who would always bring us the best hing first. (its a benefit when you get seated right next to the kitchen_. then felicio decided to ask the waitor something. of course he spoke in porteguese so we coudlnt nderstand. i worked on being a member o the clean plate club..... and all of a sudden all of the waitors were standing behind me.... and they all stated singing and clapping in poegueses. appaently i is my birthday today.... i must have forgoteen and the ENTIRE restaurant stopped eating and stated clapping and signing happy birthday to me. OMG was my face RED! thanks felicio. haha and it wanst unil after they were done did i realize what they had done. sure enough.... apparently 4 other tables were also celebating brithdys because randomly people would bust out in bithday song and clapping. of course we had to clap too.

seventeen pieces of pizza later (and numerous shots of insulin from my panceas) we went to pay our bill. 27R.... thts like 13$ for the most differrent pieces of pizza i have ever had. it gelt good to be standing. stretch out the food baby. we then hopped a cab and dropped ana offf at her house and we all got rready for bed. apparently tomorrow it issupposed to be nice in the morning so rachel has to wake me up so we can go see christ and the city.

wow, i am still STUFFED. but we need to open up a pizza place like that in the states...... really good :-)

Brazil day 6

rachel was up at aboutt 9am. i woke up at 11. felicio and ana were still sleeping. i showered quick and rachel and i were going to set out to the lagoon, botanical gardens, fort of copacabana and maybe sugar loaf. we headed towards the nearby subway station centro only to find it was closed. well. two options. lay around the house or try the bus. we attempted the bus. unsure of what number to take—andrea had the idea that if it says copacabana on it –it must head there. to double check we crossed to the other direction of traffic to see if any of them said copa—and to make sure the subway was really closed. yup—that side of the bus stop definitely smelled of foul urine and unbathed people. without being pickpocketed we crossed back to the original side and after waiting about 5 minutes hopped on a bus that said copacabana. trying to remember what the area looks like—we passed botafugo, and flamengo beach and then waited until the second stop of copacabana before getting off the bus. safe. in copacabana.

next we headed towards the beach. everything makes so much sense direcionally when there is a giant ocean on one side of the town.

we then decided to walk copacabana and stop at the fort. it is still raining –the annoying drizzle. yup. amazingly all the beer cans from the night before had been picked up from the beach by the less fortunate population trying to earn money from the aluminum. there were still flowers along the shoreline and some of the offerings within the sand were still there. the broken glass was mostly picked up and there were not as many people there.

made it to the fort. closed. took a picture of the locked gate. onto the blue lagoon. i remember the map (didn't want to pull it out and look like total tourist)--mind you everytime we walk pass brazilian men they hoot and hollar “ i love you! hello!” or some other broken english. regardless—i remember from the map there is a river that splits piers 10 and 11 from ipanema beach which leads straight to the lagoon. continued walking—found the river... followed it and found the lagoon. very pretty. good view of the christ statue too. saw the giant christmas tree too. then, headed towards the botanical gardens. we had to get on the other side of the horse racing track. we continued walking—in the rain. then it started raining a little harder than previous and we ducked underneath a tree for some protection. out popped a local younger gentleman that asked if we wanted to share a taxi. no. we are going to the botanical garden. then he continued talking. he knew english fairly well. then came a hobo—with a giant garbage bag on his head. only spoke in porteguese. the young guy just told us to ignore the dude. which we did well. eventually the hobo left. the young dude kept walking with us for a litlle bit. he will be studying at stanford in july. then he invited us to his house for some beers with his friends, we greatfully declined and continued towards the botanical gardens.

we got to the busysteet lined with the botanical gardens and it was quite... ghetto. all of the 12 foot high wall had grafitti all over it. and there werent many pedestrians either. oh well. got to the enterance gate--- closed. hoping there was another way in. nope. nothing. closed shut. took some pictures of the pretty palm trees through the gate and decided to head back to the lagoon and the beaches before heading home for the day. we had been walking for 3 hours. found the lagoon and took a different way back to the beach. passed by a shopping mall. duh—when its raining go shopping! went up the two escalators, and found a bathroom for free. we both had to go quite bad. then started wallking around the floor—only to find everything closed. did some window shopping.

finished the small area of unblocked stores at the mall before heading back outside to the beach. decided with the continued rain—it would just be best to try and find ou way home. so we wwent t he fis busystees with traffic going in th correct direcion and look for bus station 2. we found it and then knew we wanted bus 333, 334, 464. waved down a 334 paid our R2.50 and got off after the lapa arches. walked the five blocks to felicio and started our relaxing evening.

New Years Eve at Copacabana beach

we all got ready and headed towards the bus stop about 830pm. the metro is not an option because tickets are much more expensive and people are sardined into the subway. and our stop is about halfway to copacabana so there is no way we would get a seat. so off to the crazy buses we went. the firs stop we went to had a bunch of people waiting, all in white. the first few buses started pulling up completely full of people, also sardined on. so, we decided to head in the rain mind you to a previous stop to try and get on a bus. sure enough we fit onto a bus and squeezed our way to the back where there was a little more room then elsewhere.

we got on an airconditioned bus. thank goodness. the drive to copa took about 1 hour and 30 minutes. yes, we arrived to copa at 1040 pm. then we had to walk through the people and in th rain to pier 7 where the couchsurfing gang was impatiently waiting. they had a spot on the beach and most everyone was quite tipsy. awaiting patiently in the bay were about 7 cruiseships to watch the fireworks display from the water side. we did not drink because we knew going to the bathroom would be an issue. we met some of the same people we met the night before at the sunset, but there were many more people here this time. We met daria and rahan both of which agreed to show us the city. well see if that works out. it continued to rain.... nonstop, it was an annoying drizzle like most rainshowers in juneau, ak. just enough rain to get you drenched and cold. oh well. felicio then told us the story: dating back, the government used to pay a religious leader an absurdly large amount of money to do an anti-rain dance and keep the rains away on 12/31. last year, after paying out the large amount of money it rained for about 10 minutes and people thought the antirain dances were balogne. therefore, this year the government of rio did NOT pay for the anti-rain dance, therefore, it was raining.

then with 15 minutes to midnight, we crept closer to the shoreline so we had a front row view of the fireworks. felicio opened the champaigne and passed it around. other people were bringing their offerings of flowers to the sea and another religion has people bury holes and place a lit candle, a flute of champaigne and flowers. then at 10 seconds to midnight-- we started counting in porteguese: dez, nove, oito, sete, seis, cinco, quatro, três, dois, un! feliz ano novo!!!! immediately after that the fireworks started in the harbor. there were two barges that were lighting off the same firework at the same time. the show lasted for a good 20-30 minutes. there were more fireworks than the fourth of july back home. especially because it was a central location and two locations that were lighting off the fireworks. amazing! after the fireworks were done, rachel and i and ana kicked off our shoes to go jump over 7 waves for good luck. they didnt need to be large waves, just waves. and seven of them.

the rest of the night was filled with people watching. everyone else was quite intoxicated. andrea got a new years kiss. then we headed with the large group of couchsurfers towards the concert—where david guetta was to be performing at 140am. we did not get there until 150. at about 230 we decided to head back towards lapa on a bus. but there were still alot of people around so we ducked into copapolis for some food. rachel got a coke, andrea ordered cheese and bread as did ana and felicio got cheese ham and bread. then a table opened up and we took it. which was the first time we had sat since 1040pm. we enjoyed the food and stayed around for about a half hour trying to clear up some of the buses.

no way jose! we went to the bus stop near the restaurant and all the buses were still completely full. so then we decided to head towards earlier stops. sure enough, a nearly empty bus pulled up. we all got on, grabbed seats and sure enough within two more stops, people were sardined on the bus. rachel and andrea were head bobbing throughout the hour long ride home. ana had the bus stop not at a bus stop but right around the corner from their house. it was perfect---and 5am. we got home washed our feet in the shower and passed out. what a great new years :-)