Brazil - Rio de Janeiro

Getting there ...

Wednesday, October 11'th

This story does not, as one would think, begin in Brazil. No, it starts off in the otherwise very

fine airport of Copenhagen, where we who were to go to Brazil should meet 2 hours before takeoff.

Panoramic view of the Yacht district in Rio and the Sugar Loaf
When everybody had arrived and we were ready to check in, Marianne noticed that our flight was flagged as delayed. She thougt she'd better check if we could make the transfer flight from Frankfurt to Rio - and guess what: we could not !!.
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHH

The people at our airline company, Lufthansa, could book us to another flight leaving in 45 minutes - if we were very quick. For those of

us who had not checked in our luggage, no problems. For the poor Martin, who already had checked in, things vere more hairy; they expedited a man off to haul his luggage off the plane to Frankfurt and transfer it to the direct flight to Rio.

He spend most of the flight in tense expectation to see how much of his luggage was actually going to arrive in Rio. That is, when he did not eat or sleep. I guess he spend 5 minutes worrying.

Got there!

Thursday, October 12'th

Well, we all arrived in Rio only a few hours later that planned. To our surprice, and Martin's delight, all of Martins luggage was with us. The first thing we did was to look for our transport from the airport to the hotel - but: no transport. What we did not think of was that nobody had notified the hotel that we were coming in on another flight; so they had waited for the first plane, noted that we were not present among the passengers and left again.

Our first lesson in Brazil took thus place; how to catch a bus to where you want to go. English is not the foreign language by choice for Brazilians. However, we managed to find the bus going into town and along the Hotels at Copacobana.

Now, as we walked down along Copacobana looking for our hotel (Debret), two things could happen: we would find it, or we would not. What we had not expected was someone suddenly shouting at us - in Danish!. And they were not sounding very friendly; they sounded rather like people who had been waiting very long for somebody they had almost given up on. It was the rest of the wedding party, and they had not found out that we were on a later plane either. So after all the "where the hell have you guys been ?", it was made (very) clear to us, that everyone else were ready to go 'Rafting'.
In five minutes flat we managed to check in, spread all our luggage in (read: all over) our hotelroom, change into shorts and T-Shirts, and head for the rented bus.

River Rafting
After a two hour busride, we arrived at the resturant where the 'Rafting' trip begin and ends. After some breakfast, it is almost noon now, we drove 30 minutes upstream to where the rubber-rafting-boats were waiting. The guys running the place had expected about 50 persons that day, 'cause it was holiday; Childrens day, but I guess we were the only ones who showed up that day.

The groups got through the Rafting with only minor scratches

It was not until this point it began to really dawn on us, that we were in Brazil. Imagine the scene: sun from a clear sky, temperature around 30 degrees celcius, and all there was to do was to relax in the boats between the falls on "Rio Paraíba do Sul". On a distance of the river there was some current, but no rocks. So we went overboard in our safety wests, just floating along taking in the scenery and generally enjoying life. (For those, who know Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy, I would say: This could be 42). It was not white water rafting that day. The level of water in the Paraíba

was low but there were five or six rapids we have to pass and that was great fun.

Well back to the restaurent we had our first sample of the Brazilian kitchen. Fruit is more used than in Europe, and generally we all found the food in Brazil quite good.

Back from rafting we were next to dead, and turned in early. We just noticed that the hotel seemed very nice, and that there was lots of hot water in the shower. (Which is not something to be taken for granted in Brazil).

How (not) to get money on a MasterCard

Friday, October 13'th

First thing to do when in a foreign country: find out the name of the local currency, and the approx. rate of exchange. I had, provident as ever, not brought any Rials. I would do as always and draw some on my MasterCard.

You may start laughing here, I can't hear you anyway !

It is possible to pay with MasterCard in most of the restaurents and shops in Rio, but drawing cash ..... Forget it !!.
To make a very long story short - eventually we found out where we could actually find a bank where we could get some money. Light at heart, we went there and went through the routines we were grown quite accustomed with at the time. (Go to counter one, get a number, wait for counter two, get a slip, go to counter three, get told that it's the wrong counter please go to the third floor, ....).
We actually got to hand over all out credit cards, and a woman was doing a lot of talking on the phone, checking the cards and getting some codes used for the transaction. When we got the drawing slips to sign, Marianne found out that the amount on her slip was wrong,

and asked if they could change it to the correct amount. Before we even thought of saying "I-wanna-get-out-of-here", the woman looked at Marianne, took her slip and tore it up. While we were standing looking like fish just taken from the water, it dawned on us that she had to get a new transaction code if the amount were to change. So we just waited "happily" for the whole process to start all over.
This little incident had a cost; Marianne had to give Steen a large, cold beer before the were on friendly talking terms again. Until then, they just communicated.
I may bring Rials with me next time. I would recommend others to do so, or perhaps get a second credit-card.

Advice:
When going to Brazil, bring a Visa card. They are much more common, and you can draw money in most banks without trouble. This is not so for MasterCards. Trust me.

New information (fall '97) from Kimmo Jakoola. CityBank is accepting MasterCard and it should be really fast and easy there.

Cristo Redentor on Corcovado

After the banking experience we decided to go for the top of mountain Corcovado where the 100 feet high statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the redeemer) is facing the central Rio and is a landmark of the city. From a distance it doesn't look much but it is on top Corcovado (hunchback) 2100 feet high. Close by it is a herculean structure weighing about 1000 Tonnes.

Statue of "Cristo Redentor" above Rio, just before a thunderstorm

The cog train leave from Rua Cosme Velho 513 and the drive up the Corcovado take 15 minutes and cost about 8 Rials for a round ticket. The statue was supposed to be a monument of the Brazilian independence from Portugal in 1822 and was to be finished in 1922 (100 years later) but it wasn't completed until 1933 by the French architect, Paul Landowski.

We stayed up there for a few hours, enjoying the immense view of down-town Rio. You can see all the way from the airport to Ipanema beach.

The sun was going down, the spotlights went on and I got this amazing picture with the clouds in the background.

We stayed on the Corcovado until dark at a small bar up there. This was our first taste of Brazilian beer, ahh - nice and cool. When the rain started we rushed to get down again. Rasmus didn't have time to go to the bathroom, it was some painful 15 minutes decend before he could take a leak. We departed and went back to Copacobana and our hotel.


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