Rio

Sunday, January 30, 2011
After our amazing Amazon experience it was on to Rio de Janeiro which is 2 hours ahead of Manaus time. It was a 3 ½ hour plane ride and we arrived in Rio about 5:30 AM which would have been 3:30 AM the time we were accustomed to. A guide picked us up at the airport and said he would be taking us to Cococapanna Beach to a kiosk for breakfast. I’m thinking this can’t be true. We had slept in a hammock the night before and didn’t get any sleep last night, where is the hotel and bed? But to the beach we went and we all sat red eyed eating our breakfast. Next our dilapidated bikes arrived and we all rode more than 2 hours and more than 10 miles along Cococapanna Beach, Flamingo Park, Impanema Beach and around a bay to the botanical gardens. The beaches are so wide and long and are filled with lots of good people watching. Most men in any shape, size or form wear Speedos and the women don’t wear much more. They don’t care if they are walking around in that attire if they are in town or on the beach. We learned that the beaches are reclaimed land and that they were made in 1959 or 1960. The gears on my bike didn’t work. They were permanently set at the easiest level but that meant that I could never coast and had to constantly pump the pedals. It was about 90 degrees and humid and I was exhausted by the time we reached the gardens. We were told the temperature gets down to about 75 degrees in the winter and everyone freezes. Winter sounded pretty good to me about this time. Didn’t have energy left to walk around the gardens by the time we arrived. We rested and had lunch for about 2 hours. Then some good sized jeeps arrived to take us through the forest up to see the Corcovado or Christ the Redeemer. I heard one of the students talking to her mother on the phone and she said, “Mom, I have to go, we are leaving to see the big Jesus”. Our driver was wild and crazy speeding up the narrow and winding road following the smelly jeep in front of us. At one point our tour guide spotted a sloth with its baby in a tree. We stopped for pictures, but I’m not sure we got a good one. We stopped at several view points along the way and I have to say Rio is probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen with forests, islands, Sugar Loaf Mountain, beaches and Christ the Redeemer standing tall over the city. After spending time up at Christ the Redeemer we finally headed for our hotel. A shower never felt so good and then we headed out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. I was almost too tired to eat. Got to bed by 8:00 PM and slept until 7:00 AM.

We had the next morning off and Dave and John and I walked around town a bit looking for an ATM.
Dave had a tough time getting money to come out of a machine until a student came along and helped. The students all are so nice and helpful. Carol wasn’t feeling well so she stayed in the room. John wanted to swim in the Atlantic along Cocacapana Beach but he forgot to bring his bathing suit. I tried talking him into buying a Speedo but didn’t have any luck. We did walk down to the ocean and put our feet in and the water was pretty cold.

At 2:00 PM that day we were picked up to go on a canopy walk and zip lining in a park near Rio. I didn’t find out until we got there that we were doing an obstacle course about 75’ off the ground. It was so scary but fun. We had to wear hard hats and get into a harness then climb up a ladder and cross over wires, logs, steps, ropes and other contraptions going from one station to the next. And then to finish everything off, we zip lined back down the hill to the bottom of the mountain. I’m now ready to be in the high wire act at the Gravin circus along with Turner on the unicycle and Eva on stilts. If I’d know what I was in for, I probably wouldn’t have gone on this excursion but now I’m so glad I went.

Had great pizza for dinner this night and then to bed as we had to get up at 3:00 AM for a 3:30 breakfast and then to the airport for a 6:05 AM flight that didn’t actually leave until 8:30 AM. We had a connecting flight in Sao Paulo where they held the plane for us because there were about 60 of us from SAS on the flight. We needed to get back to Manaus to our ship as we were leaving Manaus this day.

So here we are on the ship crossing the Atlantic on our way to Ghana. Dave is off playing cards and I’m here finishing my journal so I can get it up on the blog tomorrow. It is tough getting on the internet but morning seems to work pretty well when the students are still in bed. Next I’m going to write a letter to my new pen pal, Hassan who is 11 years old and in 5th grade. He is from Somalia and is one of Becky’s ESL students. Five of her students are pen pals with us and we got letters from them in Manaus. So fun!