Rio: land of the islands and clouds

I just spent a long weekend in Rio de Janeiro and got to know a very nice city that is unlike any other I have ever experienced. I have to thank Juliano (from the lab), his brother (Marcos) and mom for the entire weekend. They treated me so well: Juliano for accompanying me just about everywhere, his brother for being an awesome guide, his mom for delicious cooking, and all of them for the PRIME location to stay. And almost all of this was completely free! I don't know how much they saved me, but it had to have been pretty substantial.

We actually left earlier than expected; Marcos drove us (Juliano, his mom, and I) down Wednesday at 5, getting us into Rio around 10 and to their apartment RIGHT on Copacabana beach shortly thereafter. Yes, I was staying in the middle of Copacabana, overlooking the main strip, 10 stories up, in a beautiful apartment...for free! It's good to know people!

Thursday morning, the nicest weather I would see the entire time, was spent going to the US consulate to get my paperwork. After $30, everything went very well and we were done quickly. We looked around the city center a little bit before heading back to the apartment for an awesome meal by Joselena. She was always cooking, and cooking some HEAVY meals, but damn they were good!

That afternoon Marcos drove us up to Corcovado (the mountain of Christ the Redeemer). The clouds were still around and so it was a bit hazy, but wow still some amazing views! Actually the best views might have been from a viewpoint below Christ the Redeemer because you could still see most of the city, but you could also look back and see the statue. One nice thing about the haze was the gorgeous sunset (see my pictures...the link is below).

Friday morning was pretty crummy weather so Juliano and I headed to the city center to see ´Old Rio´. That ended up maybe being my favorite part. The churches, two in particular: Candelária Church and Igreja de São Francisco da Penitência, were absolutely amazing. The first one for its stunning ceiling and all around architecture, the second for it`s amazing gold leaf interior (it literally glowed). All in all I was very impressed with the city center.

After another delicious, and coma inducing, meal we didn´t end up doing much. I wanted to go see things, but I was waiting around for my guides and it just didn´t work out. It did give me some time to walk the beach though, which was pretty cool. There were a couple times during the trip where I had to just pause and realize that "wow! I´m walking in Rio!". It always made my mood a lot better! Oh Friday night I saw the bar scene of Lapa. Wow! For a slow, random Friday night that was pretty impressive. All kinds of music, food and people all spilling out of the clubs into the street!

This is getting long so I´ll just wrap it up...Sunday I got to go to Sugar Loaf. I was the only tourist up there as I was on the first tram! The view of the city was great, and cable car ride was fun, but compared to the price of other things...not something I would do again. Of course the clouds didn´t help things (and of course that afternoon the clouds cleared out...after I was back). Sunday was also spent at the botanical gardens which were very nice; not the best I´ve seen, but impressive and worth a visit. Oh yeah Saturday we drove to Barra. It was good to see some other parts of the city, some of which were a little less touristy (always preferred by me!).

All in all Rio is a great city, with stunning natural beauty (I was struck by how sheer and vertical the mountains are) for such a huge metropolitan area, but I think it´s one of those places that is great just to visit. I´ve seen it, checked it off the list, no real desire to go back...except for maybe Carnival or New Years

Sunday night was spent riding a bus back to BH, and Monday morning spent finishing up the BS with the registering here. All you need to know is that the minimum time for getting the identity card is 6 months and my visa is good for 3 months. If you figure out the logic, let me know!

Now I´ve moved on to dealing with the application for the Indo visa. That´s getting close, and I´m getting excited! Kind of a weird feeling to be here in Brazil and already be thinking about my next international travel. What a tough life I live!

Speaking of a tough life...time to go to my first Samba bar; this could be embarrassing!

Oh here are the pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070185&id=15804233&l=6c2145c82f

Tchau

Brasil rite of passage = bureaucracy

So I'll start with the good news: I'm going to Rio this weekend! I leave Wednesday night giving me three full days (Fri-Sun) plus part of Thursday. I only get part of Thursday because of the bad news: the reason that I'm going to Rio.
The story starts with my application for a visa to Brasil. When I got my passport back there was a piece of paper that I was to use to register with the Federal Police within 30 days. On this paper there was an error though (my parents' names were switched) and I, without even thinking twice fixed it. I'll keep the story short, but just keep in my mind that throughout this I've had to take a friend from the lab with me because they all speak Portuguese so fast and with such accents that I'm in completely over my head without a translator. To cut to the end I now need to go to the nearest US consulate (Rio) to get a piece of paper proving what my parents' names are so that I can register and pay $R200 for an identity card that I probably won't get until I'm ready to leave. In between there was taking buses all over the city for one afternoon, and a separate morning, going to a different office and being sent back to the initial one, trying to schedule an appointment with the US consulate only to find out that they were booked until this Wednesday, and oh yeah I'm being fined $R8 a day starting today until I get registered and this piece of paper costs $30. Sigh! And the really aggravating part is that if I hadn't fixed the error no one ever would have known or thought about it. I'm rationalizing all of this by saying that when I said I wanted to travel the world and experience new things I was committing to things like this so I can't complain too much...it at least makes me feel a little better!

So other than this less than fun intro to Brasilian bureaucracy, things are going pretty well. Still meeting incredibly nice people and enjoying it down here. It seems like I've been here for a long time, but it's only been a month, and now the end is already in sight. I've been emailing back and forth with some former Fulbrighter's and starting to read up on Indo...crazy to think that in two months I'll be there! Until then I've still got plenty of traveling to do here! After this weekend Ouro Preto is still on tap within one of the 2 following weekends. And now I'm beginning to plan my week or so of travel right before I leave. That should be a real adventure since I'll be solo. This trip to Rio is with Juliano from the lab that has been serving as my translator and who has a (free) place to stay in Rio.

Ok that's enough for now.

Ate mais,
Aaron