Carol’s Brasil: part 111

Finally the promised final segment.

I don’t have a clear memory of when I first began to talk to Carolina, but it must have been in early 2009.  She stopped by ‘flowers’ and left a comment, adding her memories of Brasil as it tied into my post. Then I went by her blog (click link above) and began to enjoy her posts about experiencing Brasil as a peace corps volunteer in the late 60s.  It didn’t take long and we had exchanged personal information and began to email about her hopes of returning here for a visit.   She made plans, they were canceled.  She made more plans and once again they were canceled.  Until she contacted me back in May of this year with her final plan, I didn’t really believe she would ever come.  And, unlike her first couple of plans, this time she would include a stop in Rio.   I offered her a sofa to sleep on and she accepted – finally my first blog related friend was coming to visit. 

Back and forth, back and forth the emails flew.  She was listing all the things she wanted to do.  I was trying to give her input without encouraging or discouraging activities on her list.  I did think from the beginning that the list was way too long but it was her trip and her energy; her four days here would be packed.  She mentioned right from the beginning that she wanted to hang-glide.  And I considered joining her, but visions of actually running across a mountain top and jumping into clear blue skies put that notion right out of my mind.  She wanted to do it, had wanted to for years, and I thought she should give it a try.   

Starting early on Saturday morning Carol began making contact with different ‘hang-glide captains”.  What do you call these guys that take you up and down anyway?   She narrowed the list to 2 possible, asking questions like how much, when, how long, do they provide a video, and do they pick up and deliver?   Then once the priority plans were made we decided on our weekend activities and that she would call them on Sunday night for a Monday  fly time.  On Sunday it was, ‘call tomorrow at 9:00’.  On Monday at 9:00 it was, ‘the wind is blowing the wrong direction, call at 3’.  At 3 it was ‘call at 9’ on Tuesday, and on Tuesday it was a repeat of Monday.  And then she was out of time. 

Learned a couple of things;  there is a wrong direction for the wind to be blowing, and that if the wind was right on Saturday or Sunday we should have made the hang-gliding a priority – course we only knew about number one after Saturday and Sunday were over...... So I guess we only learned one thing – that is to ask about wind direction.  

I think, no I hope that Carol enjoyed her days in Rio – If going by my photos of the weekend are any gage, even leaving out the lost hang-gliding, and the museum workers’ strike, and that the Parque da Catacumba is closed on Mondays, we still managed Niteroi, a walk through the Hippy Square on Sunday, bought vegies at the fruit/vegetable street market on Monday, walked partially around the Lagoa at sunset, she walked the beach once while I napped, she shopped in and out of the Ipanema gallerias while I napped (yes I nap routinely), we went to one nice restaurant for dinner, and last but not least, we had a great stroll through the botanical gardens.  And with all of this said I just have to add, “I can’t wait until she returns so we can finish off her list.”

 

 

Carol’s Brasil: part 11

I know that everyone of you has experienced some disruption of plans during a vacation.  We travel often, and over the years have sat on the tarmac during an air traffic controllers’ strike, a massive snow storm in Paris kept us in Paris 13 hours with the requisite lost luggage, a thunderstorm in Dallas that got us rerouted to Oklahoma city and who wants to go to Oklahoma city, a church in Tuscany that was closed for maintenance and the exterior was shrouded in orange mesh, and these are just a few examples spread out of a twenty year history.   But when on vacation what can you do?  You adjust and enjoy. 

I often wake, here in Rio, and immediately look out the window, glimpsing a very small patch of mountain right behind the Christ.  How this mountain looks tells me what to expect of the weather that day; clear crisp line between mountain and blue sky says good weather all day, cloud sitting on the ridge between sky and mountain say, “oops rain today and soon.”   My mind goes to the poor tourist that held back on the drive up to the Christ and today is their last day in Rio.  Even if they go up, they wont see anything, neither the Christ nor the spectacular 360* view of the city.   Unexpected things just happen.

Now our plan with Carol looked good on Friday when setting it in motion but by Sunday morning we knew we would have to ‘adjust and enjoy’.   Just to remind you her plan was –

“Our short list: she wanted to jump off the mountain in Sao Conrado () – attached to a hang glider of course, see the Niemeyer Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi, see Santa Teresa, and if possible visit the botanical gardens. We decided to start with Niteroi on Saturday and Santa Teresa on Sunday so Camillo could join us, these would include trips on the subway, a Barco. lunch in a fish place and any side-shows we might run across. She would hang glide on Monday and Tuesday we would stay closer to Ipanema so she wouldn’t be totally worn out to travel back to the USA. The plan was good.”

The plan for seeing Santa Teresa included going to Lapa and taking the tram (bondinho) to this charming little bit of Rio history, visiting the Museu da Chácara do Céu, which is one of our favorite places to take visitors and we would lunch in one of the many small family owned restaurants overlooking Centro Rio.  On Sunday, we woke to bright, clear skies and the news of the tram accident on Saturday.  The tram had turned over on its trip back down to Lapa – not yet knowing how bad the accident was we decided to adjust the plan bypassing Lapa and go to Santa Teresa by taxi.  The ‘motorista’ was full of information – the main street into Santa Teresa was still closed for the investigation, six locals and tourist had died, 54 were injured.  A sobering moment, how close we had come to being in the middle of this accident, the difference between choosing Niteroi or Santa Teresa on Saturday. 

And also per the taxi driver....  all the Museum workers were on strike – museums were closed for the day all over the city but he was willing to try and get us up to the museum, the grounds should be open if not the museum itself.    They weren’t.  Now what?  Camillo and the taxi driver decided on the Naval yards..... okay if you have young boys this is option is great – there is an old helicopter, a submarine, an old frigate and the boat of the king from the 1700s.  For us, we were all hungry. Lets go back to Ipanema for lunch.

Later the final story.

Carolina’s Brasil, Past and Present

This past weekend Camillo and I had the honor of hosting Carolina during the last leg of her ‘return to Brasil’ trip.  Carol spent two years in the Peace Corp in a small village in Northeast Brasil forty some odd years ago, and after a long time in the planning, retuned this last month to visit that town, and to reacquaint herself with her fellow Peace Corp volunteers and her former students.   I wont go into the details of her visit, that is her story to tell, but will say that she was delightful.  She told us stories of the people of the town, both from 40 years ago and of their successes through today.  There were stories of her experiences with the Peace Corp of the 60s, of Brasil during those years and of how Brasil seemed to her now.   The changes are beyond belief – including the prices.

She arrived in Brasil / Rio with a list of thing she would like to see and do, and we narrowed it down to fit into the four days that she would be here.  Our short list: she wanted to jump off the mountain in Sao Conrado () – attached to a hang glider of course, see the Niemeyer Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi, see Santa Teresa, and if possible visit the botanical gardens.   We decided to start with Niteroi on Saturday and Santa Teresa on Sunday so Camillo could join us, these would include trips on the subway, a Barco. lunch in a fish place and any side-shows we might run across.   She would hang glide on Monday and Tuesday we would stay closer to Ipanema so she wouldn’t be totally worn out to travel back to the USA.  The plan was good.

Niteroi: Saturday dawned cloudy with a light mist – we decided to stick with the plan.  This was a good choice, by the time we arrived at the Museum the weather had cleared with a pleasantly warm wind blowing.  Photos are best at this point.

   

  

   this was my second visit to this museum and once again the beauty is about Niemeyer’s design, its blending with the surroundings – this is not about a wonderful exhibition inside..... that took about 5 minutes.   On display was the work of an Italian artist, very interesting but seemed to be digital works..... yes interesting is the right word. 

Lunch..... we walked down to the base of the hill where the museum sits, and caught a bus to Jurujuba for fresh seafood.  We ended up eating shrimp stroganoff – good but pretty standard. 

 

to be continued.......