Road to Rio…

Queasy highways, rolling hills, thongs on beach, and on and on and on….

Today we met the woman who created the slogan: “I love NY” (I can’t figure out how to insert a “heart” symbol)…..&, oh yeah,…I saw my first Brazilian thong on Copacabana beach as we drove by!! Now that’s a full day in anyone’s book.

It wasn’t all that exciting to start with as we had to get here. That took about 6 hours with a couple of stops at roadside gas stations/cafes. The scenery in the countryside is really nice – rolling green hills with farms and lots of cows grazing in the meadows (I thought they looked strangely like Indian cows – with the same humps – and, sure enough, they’d been imported from there as those varieties were better suited than the European ones). Mel, once again, got to go First Class in the front seat because she gets car-sick in the back. Poor Lu is still suffering from her bad cold – so is not feeling her usual self (& has, therefore, been excused from Blog entries). It was a rather lurching ride so I was feeling a bit queasy myself – but getting to chat with Lu’s Mom’s friend, Kristina (who has worked in all sorts of interesting jobs and travelled extensively) took my mind off the journey.

We rolled into Rio and to Lu’s Uncle Marco’s place around mid-afternoon. Marco greeted us enthusiastically and showed us around the gorgeous apartment. His maid Monique had cooked up a fabulous coconut cake (the name of which escapes me a day later) which took the edge of a gnawing hunger. We then piled into Marco’s car for lunch at an Ipanema institution (Alvaro’s).

Some Palmito Pastels (different style from those in Sao Paulo – which I had during the car breaking down adventure) and a very tall, quite strong vodka drink and life was looking quite grand. Lu doesn’t seem to like her pigtails…I don’t know, they’re quite cute!

Mel managed to drink very little of her Vodka or her after-lunch coffee by strategically placing her napkin over both of them. Lu & I both noticed….! Marco then gave us a tour of the city. First past Ipanema Beach with the Sugarloaf in the background….

….then past the cable car you can take to the top….then through some beautiful neighbourhoods where we could get a view of the statue of Christ at the very top of the mountain (look carefully)

….then we stopped at the absolutely stunning Copacabana Palace Hotel (oddly enough located opposite Copacabana Beach) for a pool-side drink. Apparently the hotel was quite run down until about 10 years ago when a complete renovation was conducted.

…to get into the tropical feel, Mel & Lu decided to order Pina Coladas….complete with an umbrella each…

….and of course, Rio is famous for its hospitality…so we got the red carpet treatment….

We were a bit tired when we got back to the apartment….so Mel decided to have a brief nap – unaware of lurking paparazzi!

The evening ended with dinner at a pizzaria at around 11pm (they eat late here). The pizza & wine were marvelous and on top of all that Marco insisted on paying – as did we – he won when the restaurant wouldn’t take VISA. Sheesh….next time!