Friday the 13th! The day began with a round of unexpected 5:20 a.m. wakeup calls. (You could hear the calls work their way down the hall to each room. Thanks of thinking of us, Fernando.) Push time to Rio was designated as 6:00 a.m. The bus fired it up out behind the hotel and off we went. Pretty much everyone slept, unfortunately for a few the gal with the camera didn’t.
Departure ran very smoothly, and off we headed for our anticipated 8-hour trek. Once we made it through the Sao Paolo rush hour, the open road was beautiful. The ant hills were subject of much conversation. They populated every open field as far as you could see and were easily 10-feet tall.
About two hours in, we held up our record of adding a random Brazilian to our bus when we pulled over unexpectedly so a semi-truck could transfer his passenger to our coach. It was a police officer (in full regalia) just off duty and needing a ride home. Not sure how far “home” was, but he traveled/slept with us for another two hours. Bummer of a walk if you couldn’t find a ride after your shift.
Lunch was at a truck-stop diner owned by the tour bus company. Surprise! A flash of money grubbing American capitalism in Brazil. The bus companies have all installed their own pit-stops for passengers. It was another “pay by the pound” buffet, so everyone could find something they liked.
Once resupplied, we treacherously traversed the final mountain pass down off the plateau to the sea-level streets of Rio. Road to Hana, anyone?
Fernando switch into full travel-guide mode and gave us our first (honest) introduction to the suburbs of Rio. The favelas are as awful and wide-spread as you’ve heard, but wow. They are everywhere and massive. In between are beautiful historic buildings, tagged with endless graffiti. Fernando’s perspective was unique and personal as he was born and raised one block off of Copacabana Beach, and his knowledge of the history and lay-out of Rio is fantastic. We felt very lucky to visit the most visited city in the world with a true native.
Once we entered the beach district, all the distress was gone. We checked in to a nice hotel (Fernando is friends with the GM) and immediately checked out towel and bee-lined to the Copacabana Beach which was about a six block walk.
They boys were off and running to bodysurf, while Fernando the trained lifeguard stood on patrol in his swimsuit. For those who wonder, his surf patrol stance is the same as his sideline coaching stance. The parents enjoyed a few hours sitting on the beach in nice sunny weather watching the boys have a blast in the surf.
A fun fact? The soccer courts are permanently set up on Copacabana beach, so Suzi “negotiated” a fair price for a ball. The kids played against each other for at least an hour and were very bummed when Fernando made us clear the beach “before the sun goes down.” We had dinner at a Churrascaria and strolled home down the sidewalk past the historic Copacabana Palace hotel.
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