One Thing After Another
April 26 2013
Because of the safety concerns in Rio, we had decided that extensive sight-seeing on our own would not be a good idea. Therefore, we planned to take some organized tours instead. Barbara found some good options online, and we booked a walking tour of downtown for this morning.
It was a bit of a challenge to get up and out the door in time, since we had been used to late starts so far (due to being up late with the music from the bars). But we managed to get to the meeting point in front of the Opera House on time.
We got some drinks from a street vendor nearby, while the rest of the group assembled. I checked out the camera while we waited.
I got pretty mad when I discovered that I had forgotten the memory card back at the apartment! I had left it in the tablet last night, since I had been trying to upload photos to the blog. In our rush to get out the door this morning, I had forgotten to move the memory card back into the camera.
This meant I could only use the tiny internal memory in the camera to store photos; there would be room for about a dozen. I suddenly felt like I had gone back in time two decades and had a film camera with limited exposures. At least I could preview the shots on the screen and keep only the best ones.
The tour guide greeted us all and started by explaining some of the history of Brazil. We saw the important cultural and government buildings downtown. For much of Brazil’s history, Rio had been the capital so it had many notable places to visit.
We saw the Mahatma Gandhi Square and fountain. Although Gandhi never visited Brazil, apparently the non-violent struggle for Indian independence was an inspiration to Brazilians, who managed to end years of military dictatorship, and to adopt a democratic government, all without a bloody revolution.
We also saw the first public park constructed in Rio, still in active use today. It has a fence all around it, and an ornate black metal gate. The trees inside are tall and old, casting shadows from high above.
We left the area where we had started the tour, with its wide streets and vistas of buildings and plazas and monuments, and headed into the narrow streets of the old downtown commercial district.
On the way, we stopped at the Selarón Steps, a magnificent public art installation, developed over many years by one man, Jorge Selarón.
He hand mounted ceramic tiles along the entire length and surface of a public staircase between two parts of downtown Rio. People sent him tiles from all over the world, and he worked them into the design. We immediately noticed some tiles showing distinctive native art from the Pacific west coast of North America. We were pleased to explain to our guide where those particular tiles came from.
We stopped for a snack at Confeitaria Colombo, a wonderful pastry shop that looks like a page out of a history book. Soft golden lights illuminate the brass lined mirrors on the walls. A second floor balcony with an ornate metal railing overlooks the main sitting area. We just had a brief snack, but it tasted great and the sandwiches looked worth a return trip for lunch one day (though we would in fact never get back to it).
We also saw the home of 1940s movie star Carmen Miranda. She lived and performed in Rio before going to the United States.
We also saw many, many churches. We finished the tour at the old Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro, which is quite stunning. I saved one last photo for inside.
When the tour was done, we asked the tour guide for some suggestions of where to go that afternoon. She suggested a certain shopping mall south of downtown, on the subway line. She was heading that way too so we accompanied her to the station. The subway stations in downtown Rio are spacious and completely unlike the lifeless utilitarian basements you find in Toronto. They felt more like some of the larger Montreal stations to me.
We got off the train at Botafogo station, and headed one block north to the mall. It took a small leap of faith to find it. Outside of the historic district where we started our day and the tour, the idea of public space does not seem to exist in Rio in quite the same way that it does in most of North America. In Rio, roads are mostly a means of getting from point A to point B, and the buildings that line the roads are simply a way of claiming space, so you can put something inside. Integrating buildings with their surroundings is just a nice idea, and not often practiced. The shopping mall looked more like an enclosed parking garage from outside. A small entrance in the middle of the building was all that marked it as anything different from any other brick and concrete box on any other block.
Inside, however, it was just like any other shopping mall. We browsed a bit, and were surprised to find it had at least eight stories of shops and restaurants. Building up, not out, is much more common outside North America. During the course of the trip, we developed a new found appreciation of the luxurious use of space that we take for granted in Canada.
There was a place called Fran’s Cafe on the 2nd floor, near an escalator. We took a break for something to eat, before heading further up stairs. On the top floor there was a balcony off a food court, that provided a gorgeous view of a marina on the other side of the main street, and the famous Sugar Loaf mountain behind it.
On our way out, we picked up some subs from a Subway restaurant for dinner. The girls especially were eager for something familiar. I tried to order by reading the Portuguese off the menu board, but the staff person spoke English, and he was probably grateful that he did, so he didn’t have to listen to me blunder through his native tongue.
That evening after dinner, Barbara and I reviewed our Australian plans again. Barbara had researched some places and activities that would be worthwhile in the Cairns area of northern Queensland. So with a more definite travel plan in mind, I turned on the tablet and went looking for appropriate flights along the lines of the ones I had found a week earlier before we left Cusco.
There were no flights. The affordable ones were now all on different dates, and, for the dates we wanted to book, everything was at least $100 more expensive per person, per flight! I did not keep my displeasure to myself.
In fact, it was a lot more than displeasure. It was being limited to one dozen photos this morning when we should have had the flexibility to take dozens and dozens. It was the internet connections and mobile software proving completely incapable of managing our photos and videos and blog updates. It was dealing with the uncertainty of not hearing from our hosts in Rio until after we were standing with our luggage at the door to the apartment. It was being unable to make the most of our time at Iguassu to see the falls again on our last day. It was not knowing how long the camera would hold out before the cracked screen became totally unusable. It was dealing with a month of foreign foods — especially no fresh milk, and no recognizable cheese, and food poisoning in Peru beyond anything I had ever experienced — to the point that Subway sandwiches were now the top choice for dinner. It was having to perform the equivalent of electronic brain surgery on a locked iPod when I should have been enjoying all that Cusco had to offer. It was not being able to relax now when we wanted to, because the damned music from the Rio night clubs was blaring through the damned windows again!
It was one thing after another, and it seemed like it had been that way since the moment we had left. It was facing four more months of being away, with only a lot more struggles in sight.
I told Barbara that it had all been a mistake, that we shouldn’t have come, that it was only going to get worse, that it would be better if I went home.
My wonderful wife listened. Marriage is a powerful institution. One of the great things about a strong union, is the privilege of facing challenges together, and seeing them from more than your own point of view. Barbara knew that what I was complaining about was true, it was all true. But she also knew that it wasn’t all bad. We talked about what had been hard, and what had been great, and what would come next, and what we were looking forward to.
She pledged that if I was frustrated about the flights, then she would find the right ones and book them all for us. I shouldn’t have to struggle with things that would make me so unhappy.
I was grateful for her support, and handed her the tablet. I took one of the girls iPods to play some games and lay down on the sofabed beside Barbara, while she tapped away trying to narrow down our flight choices.
She eventually found a flight from Sydney to Cairns that could work as part of an adjusted Australian itinerary. After some fighting with the Tiger Airways website, she at least had that leg sorted out.
But then she realized she had not adjusted our baggage allowances before booking the ticket, and we had paid for an extra 60 kilograms of luggage that we wouldn’t be taking! Nothing is ever simple. It would take several phone calls and e-mails but eventually that snafu would be sorted out weeks later, with a credit to our credit card.
Locations
Rio de Janeiro
Transportation
Subway
Spending
$92.50 for the tour and a tip for the guide
$16.50 for pastries
$15.00 for subway tickets
$52.50 lunch at Fran’s cafe
$13.00 subs from Subway for dinner
