Braziiillll
Apr. 6th, 2009 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smittenbyuAfter living in Hawai'i, the word "exotic" kind of lost its luster. Yes, I got spoiled being surrounded by paradise for 20% of my life. There are beautiful places, there are exciting places, there are breathtaking places but the feeling of "exotic" doesn't hit me, until the idea of heading to Brazil came about. The excitement, the anticipation was too much really! Our trip took us to Rio de Janeiro (I am still getting tingles of excitement as I write it out!!)!
I can't believe that we were actually there! But we have a few hundred photos to prove our footprint there! We were warned many times by everyone to whom we mentioned of our trip, to be careful. Rio is a very dangerous place with a lot of muggings, and stuff. I actually left behind my earrings and dawned on some slippers for earrings (I found these small steel earrings in the shape of beach slippers with flower designs - appropriate no?)! I think what they failed to remember was this often is found in the favelas (shanty-towns) and we were not planning to be anywhere by it.
22 - 26 March 2009
We took a Delta-Northwest flight that would get us into Rio on Sunday morning. The flight was okay but the service sucked. The flight attendants were so robotic and so "fake". They treated everyone like they were school children or something. ah well, they weren't about to spoil our mood. On the flight, N and I got to watch Slumdog Millionaire. It was good cinematography and music but I didn't see what the big fuss was all about. After about an hour into the movie I got bored - will I be beaten up for saying that in public?? What did dampen our moods when we got to Rio was the gloomy cloudy weather. sigh. We stayed at a hotel right off the beach at Ipanema. And were greeted with Christ the Redeemer on our left (he's up there in the couds) and the beachfront on the right.
So, we headed on a walk down the beach and grabbed a caipirinha and wished for the sun to come up the next few days we were there!
and saw some sand sculptures..
23rd morning we awoke to bright sunlight permeated through the curtains. We were afraid that we had slept in. But it was only 6:20am!! The sun rises blazing hot!! And the city rises early too! We found so many joggers (on the pavement and on the beach) and walkers and bicyclists. By then the volleyball nets were already up. And people were having yoga lessons at the beach!! this looked like the "cheaper" class...
and this a slightly higher end (they got the sand all flattened out...hehehe..):
We had breakfast up on the terrace too with the beautiul views!
Monday, tuesday and wednesday I spent mostly on my own while hubby was at the conference. For lunches we went to a restaurant called Kilogram, a popular place locals go to eat where you pay bythe weight of your food. We heaped up on the salads and couscous. It was yummy. Evenings we headed out to the places out at the beaches and enjoyed veggie pizzas! yum. I imagine though it would be a tough place for a vegan. We did find one restaurant that served vegan food (where we ate one evening) - yummy stuff. On Wednesday after the conference got done, we both headed down to Corcovado railway station to take up the train to see Christ the Redeemer. I remember seeing this 27 years ago! It surely leaves an impression! The upgrade is that they have escalators going all the way up!!! that was amusing!
We came all the way up from where N is pointing (well, a bit to the right)! And yes, the weather really cleared up from Monday afternoon!
The ever famous Pão de Açúcar or Sugar Loaf Mountain
Downtown Rio - this is where N had to commute to every day. The metro is amazingly efficient and so convenient and safe. We both had gone there on Sunday, a day guides ask tourists to avoid but we couldn't avoid it as he had to register and all that. But it really was fine. I was deserte and somewhere off in the football field a tournament was going on.
It was quite hot and so we enjoyed a yummy mango juice - freshly squeezed! This was another we enjoyed in Rio. There's a juice corner every streetcorner. yum! and is cheap!!
Rio was much quieter than we expected. The beaches were not packed. Where we were, there were but a handful of people. I guess the city is recovering from carnaval and the tourists would also have left. We saw the quieter Rio.
I can't believe that we were actually there! But we have a few hundred photos to prove our footprint there! We were warned many times by everyone to whom we mentioned of our trip, to be careful. Rio is a very dangerous place with a lot of muggings, and stuff. I actually left behind my earrings and dawned on some slippers for earrings (I found these small steel earrings in the shape of beach slippers with flower designs - appropriate no?)! I think what they failed to remember was this often is found in the favelas (shanty-towns) and we were not planning to be anywhere by it.
22 - 26 March 2009
We took a Delta-Northwest flight that would get us into Rio on Sunday morning. The flight was okay but the service sucked. The flight attendants were so robotic and so "fake". They treated everyone like they were school children or something. ah well, they weren't about to spoil our mood. On the flight, N and I got to watch Slumdog Millionaire. It was good cinematography and music but I didn't see what the big fuss was all about. After about an hour into the movie I got bored - will I be beaten up for saying that in public?? What did dampen our moods when we got to Rio was the gloomy cloudy weather. sigh. We stayed at a hotel right off the beach at Ipanema. And were greeted with Christ the Redeemer on our left (he's up there in the couds) and the beachfront on the right.
So, we headed on a walk down the beach and grabbed a caipirinha and wished for the sun to come up the next few days we were there!
and saw some sand sculptures..
23rd morning we awoke to bright sunlight permeated through the curtains. We were afraid that we had slept in. But it was only 6:20am!! The sun rises blazing hot!! And the city rises early too! We found so many joggers (on the pavement and on the beach) and walkers and bicyclists. By then the volleyball nets were already up. And people were having yoga lessons at the beach!! this looked like the "cheaper" class...
and this a slightly higher end (they got the sand all flattened out...hehehe..):
We had breakfast up on the terrace too with the beautiul views!
Monday, tuesday and wednesday I spent mostly on my own while hubby was at the conference. For lunches we went to a restaurant called Kilogram, a popular place locals go to eat where you pay bythe weight of your food. We heaped up on the salads and couscous. It was yummy. Evenings we headed out to the places out at the beaches and enjoyed veggie pizzas! yum. I imagine though it would be a tough place for a vegan. We did find one restaurant that served vegan food (where we ate one evening) - yummy stuff. On Wednesday after the conference got done, we both headed down to Corcovado railway station to take up the train to see Christ the Redeemer. I remember seeing this 27 years ago! It surely leaves an impression! The upgrade is that they have escalators going all the way up!!! that was amusing!
We came all the way up from where N is pointing (well, a bit to the right)! And yes, the weather really cleared up from Monday afternoon!
The ever famous Pão de Açúcar or Sugar Loaf Mountain
Downtown Rio - this is where N had to commute to every day. The metro is amazingly efficient and so convenient and safe. We both had gone there on Sunday, a day guides ask tourists to avoid but we couldn't avoid it as he had to register and all that. But it really was fine. I was deserte and somewhere off in the football field a tournament was going on.
It was quite hot and so we enjoyed a yummy mango juice - freshly squeezed! This was another we enjoyed in Rio. There's a juice corner every streetcorner. yum! and is cheap!!
Rio was much quieter than we expected. The beaches were not packed. Where we were, there were but a handful of people. I guess the city is recovering from carnaval and the tourists would also have left. We saw the quieter Rio.
