Visit to Rio De Janeiro
Prologue:
I am sitting at the Miami International airport at 5.30AM on a Saturday morning trying to kill the time until my flight home takes off at 8 AM. I have a Cinnabon on one hand and a Café Latte from Starbucks on the other and am thinking… huh!!! What am I doing across the continent on a Saturday morning waiting to get back home? Thanks to my wonderful brother, I was able to kill time by watching “Kate and Leopold” that he had downloaded eons back. I had promised my wife that I would call her as soon as I got to Miami. But I just do not have the heart to wake her up from her weekend slumber. I will call her just as the flight is about to take off.
Introduction:
I was returning from a short business trip to the beautiful Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The beautiful beaches of Rio were the first things that came to my mind when I was asked to travel to Rio. I was immediately tempted to plan a second honeymoon there but alas, my beloved could not take off from work. So I had to go on this trip alone.
The Flight:
It was an arduous 24-hour flight journey to Rio. I had to connect at JFK and a brief stopover at Sao Paolo before I could get to Rio. Luckily I did not loose much time since Rio was just 4 hours ahead of my home time zone. I was relieved when the flight journey was finally over and I was picking up my baggage from the carousel.
Currency:
I cleared my immigration and walkout out of customs and the taxi guys trying to get me to a hotel in their taxi immediately surrounded me. I had to first get some Brazilian Reals. I looked around for some currency exchange counter and I could not find any. So I inquired at the Hertz car rental about it. She summoned a guy in shorts who had a stack of US dollar bills in one hand and Brazilian Reals in the other. He said, he would give me 2.8 reals for a dollar and no commission. I realized only after exchanging the currency that he does not give a receipt. But it was par market value. I was just surprised on how these people were allowed to do business at the airport.
Hotel:
I still did not have the name of the hotel that I had to check in to. So I had to call around frantically to my office personnel so that they could give me the hotel information. I was told that I was booked at the Ipanema plaza hotel at Ipanema. Before I started my trip I did a brief research on Rio and found out that Ipanema, Copacabana and Leblon are 3 of the well-known beaches in Rio. So I was glad that I get to stay in one of the nice places in Rio. To my surprise Ipanema plaza was right across the beach and I could actually see the beach from my window. It was around 1.30Pm on a Monday when I reached the hotel. I was supposed to report to work at 9AM on Monday. So I had to rush to work as soon as I got to the hotel.
Taxi:
I found out that getting from my hotel to my place of work was not a problem at all. Plenty of taxis available just outside the hotel. Hail one of them and show them the address and they got you there. Very reasonably priced also. But language was indeed a problem. None of the taxi drivers spoke English and I had to use sign language a lot of times to communicate with them. But they were very honest and did not “take me for a ride” even once.
Beaches:
I had planned to walk the beach that evening. But I never got a chance to go to the beach till the last day. I was all exhausted and jet lagged by the time I came back from work and just crashed after having a light dinner that I had packed from home. But when I did get a chance to visit the beach the day before I was scheduled to leave town, I realized what I had missed the past few days of my stay in Rio. It was the longest beach in the world. Nearly 4 miles long of pristine sand lined with beautiful art of sand sculptures. People had carved some amazing sculptured out of sand and had it on display by the beach walk. I wish I had taken pictures of a few of them. It was one of the cleanest beaches I had ever visited. It was lined with beach volleyball and soccer courts and groups of people having fun. Many people were jogging, running, roller-blading, bicycling and strolling. There were a few people splashing around in the waves. A few were sunbathing sipping margaritas and pink lemonades. The site was just stunning and one cannot stop awing at the beauty of it.
The beaches were lined with small bunker like shops that sold tender coconut water. I was told that the Ipanema beach was much safer than Copacabana during the nights. I so much wished that I could walk the length of the beach hand-in-hand with my sweetheart. I missed her so much especially when I strolled on this beach.
Work life:
The office that I was visiting in Brazil was a call center of a leading wireless service provider in Brazil. The majority of the workforce seemed like they were fresh out of college and was bubbling with a lot of energy. The women dressed impeccably that make men turn around and glance at them when they walk past. They were surely a sight for sore eyes. The median age of the workforce seemed to be in the late 20s to early 30s. I was lucky to be there in the office the Friday before Halloween. The call center folks had a Halloween dress-up party and everyone did take it very seriously. I never imagined adults could take Halloween this seriously. Everybody was dressed to scare people around him or her. It was fun to see so many varieties of Halloween dresses in a single place. Very few could understand and speak English. People who spoke English were also thickly accented which made it harder to understand them. People come in to work around 9AM and leave my 6.30 PM.
Food:
Being a vegetarian in Brazil is not an easy way of life. I did have a hard time finding non-meat food to eat. They had a lot of buffet type restaurants than contained a variety of salads and cooked vegetables. One can go around the table pick the food that they like and have it weighed at the end. The cost is based on the weight. One can have a filling lunch for 10 to 15 Reals. But vegetarian selection was very minimal. I managed to find a pasta restaurant where you get to make your own pasta. You can select the type of pasta you want, then you select 8 different varieties of vegetables/meat/fish that you want mixed in your sauce and then select the type of sauce. They then cook everything together in 3 minutes and give you steaming hot pasta with your own selection of sauce and toppings. It was an interesting concept to order pasta. If I remember the name correctly I think this pasta place was called “Spoleto”. I was told it was a big chain in Brazil. I also had an opportunity to go to an “all you can eat” type Brazilian barbeque restaurant. I spent 40 reals and eat a tiny salad and few baked potatoes. It was an outright meat eaters place. You go in, pick the salads and a few other items that you want from the buffet table. You finish them and you turn around a card in your table that says “Yes I am ready for barbeque now”. Then the waiters come around with some 20 different types of mean just taken out of the barbeque oven dripping with sauce and seasonings and they slice it right on to your plate. And “ITS ALL YOU CAN EAT”. They keep coming over and over again until you are completely stuffed with it and you can take it no more. Then there is another guy who comes around with a trolley with all sorts of desserts that you can pick from. I was told that those desserts were not included in the “all you can eat” deal. I thought it was a great bargain for a meat eater. One should not miss this place when they visit Brazil. Even if they do not eat meat, it is fun watching all these people running around with hot sizzling barbeque meat. It was a “feast for eyes” to see others feast themselves with the barbeque.
Streets of Rio:
As I had to travel at least 20-30 mins each way to work everyday, I had an opportunity to witness the day-to-day traffic and happenings in the streets of Rio. Almost every one has a car. Saw lots of American and European cars in the road. There were very few Japanese cars. As I ride the taxi to work, I could see people taking rowing lessons in the backwaters of Rio and a few other people practicing it. There were a lot of folks bicycling and jogging. The climate was so humid that many people were half naked to keep the heat out. It was spring time in Rio. So I got to witness some spring showers, and some windy nights while I was there. The peak hour traffic was haphazard. Cars merged in from all directions and were speeding dangerously. I did not witness a single cop writing out a ticket for speeding. But I did see cops checking out people on two-wheelers. There were quite a few two-wheelers on the road.
I was told that many parts of Rio were not safe to travel by bus during the night. I never did get a chance to travel by bus but I did see a lot of buses on the road. They were dangerously cruising past little cars and motorbikes on the road. I got to travel the famous tunnel beneath the mountain where the Christ has his arms open to greet the people. It’s a long tunnel about 3-5 Kms long. I also got to see the palace of the Brazilian king as we drove past it. I witnessed a lot of slum dwellings on my way into the city from the airport as well as on my way to work. Brazil still seems to be a developing country, much like India in a lot of ways. But in a lot of ways, they do resemble a developed country. I was told that they have a state of the art subway system now in Rio. The streets of Rio are filled with cars of all kinds big and small, old and new. I noticed a lot of bridges within the city that has helped them streamline the traffic quite a bit. The speed limit was 90 to 100 Kmph, which was very fast for those roads filled with potholes.
Epilogue:
One thing that I did not do in this trip is to go sightseeing. I did not have the time to go sightseeing nor did I have the interest. I wanted to come back with my wife and visit places around Rio. Hopefully I can do it one of these days. Rio is a very beautiful city and should be visited during spring season. The weather was spectacular except for some few isolated showers. The tourist season was not in full swing and so the beaches were less crowded. I was told a lot about Brazilian coffee. So I made sure to buy some at the airport on my way back. It was a very nice experience overall.
I am sitting at the Miami International airport at 5.30AM on a Saturday morning trying to kill the time until my flight home takes off at 8 AM. I have a Cinnabon on one hand and a Café Latte from Starbucks on the other and am thinking… huh!!! What am I doing across the continent on a Saturday morning waiting to get back home? Thanks to my wonderful brother, I was able to kill time by watching “Kate and Leopold” that he had downloaded eons back. I had promised my wife that I would call her as soon as I got to Miami. But I just do not have the heart to wake her up from her weekend slumber. I will call her just as the flight is about to take off.
Introduction:
I was returning from a short business trip to the beautiful Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The beautiful beaches of Rio were the first things that came to my mind when I was asked to travel to Rio. I was immediately tempted to plan a second honeymoon there but alas, my beloved could not take off from work. So I had to go on this trip alone.
The Flight:
It was an arduous 24-hour flight journey to Rio. I had to connect at JFK and a brief stopover at Sao Paolo before I could get to Rio. Luckily I did not loose much time since Rio was just 4 hours ahead of my home time zone. I was relieved when the flight journey was finally over and I was picking up my baggage from the carousel.
Currency:
I cleared my immigration and walkout out of customs and the taxi guys trying to get me to a hotel in their taxi immediately surrounded me. I had to first get some Brazilian Reals. I looked around for some currency exchange counter and I could not find any. So I inquired at the Hertz car rental about it. She summoned a guy in shorts who had a stack of US dollar bills in one hand and Brazilian Reals in the other. He said, he would give me 2.8 reals for a dollar and no commission. I realized only after exchanging the currency that he does not give a receipt. But it was par market value. I was just surprised on how these people were allowed to do business at the airport.
Hotel:
I still did not have the name of the hotel that I had to check in to. So I had to call around frantically to my office personnel so that they could give me the hotel information. I was told that I was booked at the Ipanema plaza hotel at Ipanema. Before I started my trip I did a brief research on Rio and found out that Ipanema, Copacabana and Leblon are 3 of the well-known beaches in Rio. So I was glad that I get to stay in one of the nice places in Rio. To my surprise Ipanema plaza was right across the beach and I could actually see the beach from my window. It was around 1.30Pm on a Monday when I reached the hotel. I was supposed to report to work at 9AM on Monday. So I had to rush to work as soon as I got to the hotel.
Taxi:
I found out that getting from my hotel to my place of work was not a problem at all. Plenty of taxis available just outside the hotel. Hail one of them and show them the address and they got you there. Very reasonably priced also. But language was indeed a problem. None of the taxi drivers spoke English and I had to use sign language a lot of times to communicate with them. But they were very honest and did not “take me for a ride” even once.
Beaches:
I had planned to walk the beach that evening. But I never got a chance to go to the beach till the last day. I was all exhausted and jet lagged by the time I came back from work and just crashed after having a light dinner that I had packed from home. But when I did get a chance to visit the beach the day before I was scheduled to leave town, I realized what I had missed the past few days of my stay in Rio. It was the longest beach in the world. Nearly 4 miles long of pristine sand lined with beautiful art of sand sculptures. People had carved some amazing sculptured out of sand and had it on display by the beach walk. I wish I had taken pictures of a few of them. It was one of the cleanest beaches I had ever visited. It was lined with beach volleyball and soccer courts and groups of people having fun. Many people were jogging, running, roller-blading, bicycling and strolling. There were a few people splashing around in the waves. A few were sunbathing sipping margaritas and pink lemonades. The site was just stunning and one cannot stop awing at the beauty of it.
The beaches were lined with small bunker like shops that sold tender coconut water. I was told that the Ipanema beach was much safer than Copacabana during the nights. I so much wished that I could walk the length of the beach hand-in-hand with my sweetheart. I missed her so much especially when I strolled on this beach.
Work life:
The office that I was visiting in Brazil was a call center of a leading wireless service provider in Brazil. The majority of the workforce seemed like they were fresh out of college and was bubbling with a lot of energy. The women dressed impeccably that make men turn around and glance at them when they walk past. They were surely a sight for sore eyes. The median age of the workforce seemed to be in the late 20s to early 30s. I was lucky to be there in the office the Friday before Halloween. The call center folks had a Halloween dress-up party and everyone did take it very seriously. I never imagined adults could take Halloween this seriously. Everybody was dressed to scare people around him or her. It was fun to see so many varieties of Halloween dresses in a single place. Very few could understand and speak English. People who spoke English were also thickly accented which made it harder to understand them. People come in to work around 9AM and leave my 6.30 PM.
Food:
Being a vegetarian in Brazil is not an easy way of life. I did have a hard time finding non-meat food to eat. They had a lot of buffet type restaurants than contained a variety of salads and cooked vegetables. One can go around the table pick the food that they like and have it weighed at the end. The cost is based on the weight. One can have a filling lunch for 10 to 15 Reals. But vegetarian selection was very minimal. I managed to find a pasta restaurant where you get to make your own pasta. You can select the type of pasta you want, then you select 8 different varieties of vegetables/meat/fish that you want mixed in your sauce and then select the type of sauce. They then cook everything together in 3 minutes and give you steaming hot pasta with your own selection of sauce and toppings. It was an interesting concept to order pasta. If I remember the name correctly I think this pasta place was called “Spoleto”. I was told it was a big chain in Brazil. I also had an opportunity to go to an “all you can eat” type Brazilian barbeque restaurant. I spent 40 reals and eat a tiny salad and few baked potatoes. It was an outright meat eaters place. You go in, pick the salads and a few other items that you want from the buffet table. You finish them and you turn around a card in your table that says “Yes I am ready for barbeque now”. Then the waiters come around with some 20 different types of mean just taken out of the barbeque oven dripping with sauce and seasonings and they slice it right on to your plate. And “ITS ALL YOU CAN EAT”. They keep coming over and over again until you are completely stuffed with it and you can take it no more. Then there is another guy who comes around with a trolley with all sorts of desserts that you can pick from. I was told that those desserts were not included in the “all you can eat” deal. I thought it was a great bargain for a meat eater. One should not miss this place when they visit Brazil. Even if they do not eat meat, it is fun watching all these people running around with hot sizzling barbeque meat. It was a “feast for eyes” to see others feast themselves with the barbeque.
Streets of Rio:
As I had to travel at least 20-30 mins each way to work everyday, I had an opportunity to witness the day-to-day traffic and happenings in the streets of Rio. Almost every one has a car. Saw lots of American and European cars in the road. There were very few Japanese cars. As I ride the taxi to work, I could see people taking rowing lessons in the backwaters of Rio and a few other people practicing it. There were a lot of folks bicycling and jogging. The climate was so humid that many people were half naked to keep the heat out. It was spring time in Rio. So I got to witness some spring showers, and some windy nights while I was there. The peak hour traffic was haphazard. Cars merged in from all directions and were speeding dangerously. I did not witness a single cop writing out a ticket for speeding. But I did see cops checking out people on two-wheelers. There were quite a few two-wheelers on the road.
I was told that many parts of Rio were not safe to travel by bus during the night. I never did get a chance to travel by bus but I did see a lot of buses on the road. They were dangerously cruising past little cars and motorbikes on the road. I got to travel the famous tunnel beneath the mountain where the Christ has his arms open to greet the people. It’s a long tunnel about 3-5 Kms long. I also got to see the palace of the Brazilian king as we drove past it. I witnessed a lot of slum dwellings on my way into the city from the airport as well as on my way to work. Brazil still seems to be a developing country, much like India in a lot of ways. But in a lot of ways, they do resemble a developed country. I was told that they have a state of the art subway system now in Rio. The streets of Rio are filled with cars of all kinds big and small, old and new. I noticed a lot of bridges within the city that has helped them streamline the traffic quite a bit. The speed limit was 90 to 100 Kmph, which was very fast for those roads filled with potholes.
Epilogue:
One thing that I did not do in this trip is to go sightseeing. I did not have the time to go sightseeing nor did I have the interest. I wanted to come back with my wife and visit places around Rio. Hopefully I can do it one of these days. Rio is a very beautiful city and should be visited during spring season. The weather was spectacular except for some few isolated showers. The tourist season was not in full swing and so the beaches were less crowded. I was told a lot about Brazilian coffee. So I made sure to buy some at the airport on my way back. It was a very nice experience overall.
posted by Siva Balan @ Sunday, October 31, 2004
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