Rio de Janeiro One More Time
16 June 2005 (Thursday) – Rio de Janeiro
Upon arriving at Rio de Janeiro‘s rodoviaria, I searched for an internet place to check if anyone had responded to my plea. Well, Carol did, which was wonderful, so I gave her a call on her cellphone. She already has 2 other guests but she said she would find room for me, so welcome!
Wow, that was wonderful of her. She gave me directions on how to go to her apartment and estimated it would take me about half an hour by bus. As she was leaving for work, she would inform the 2 guests to wait for me.
I left the rodoviaria at 10:30am and nearly melted under the sun. What? A few days ago in Buenos Aires, I was decked out in a jacket and swathed in my lovely scarf. Now, I am just dying of thirst. Amazing… Rio’s weather must be sunny forever.
I smiled at random strangers and asked for directions to grab the bus for Cosme Velho. So many nice people helped me. One skinny little guy practically hurled himself onto the street to flag down a bus, but it then turned out to be the wrong one and he sheepishly explained, “Parecido” (It looks like). OK, at least he did not die in vain. Gosh, Rio’s traffic is mad! They drive crazily and everyone just cross blindly.
I hate the turn-stiles on Rio’s buses. It is OK if you are not carrying anything big, but I had my entire house with me, including the kitchen sink. I just could not get through. I lifted my daypack over and a friendly army officer helped take it. Then, my heavy backpack was passed over and several hands reached out to move it out of the way. Sweet. A guy even helped hold on to my backpack for the rest of his trip, just to make sure it did not fall over. Oh, people in Rio are so nice.
But asking for directions is something else. They will still help even if they do not know, it seemed. Carol lived near the train station for Corcovado, where the Christ the Redeemer is. Yet at first, I just could not figure out the street. I showed people the address I had from Carol and people kept pointing me up and up the hill. I marched up the hill, totally breathless, totally dehydrated. Then, someone suggested it was way downhill. And there I went again.
Finally, I found it… after 1.5 hours in total, after walking up a very, very steep hill. Totally totally exhausted.
Melanie, from Germany, was one of the guests and she introduced me to the house. I couldn’t even respond to her, as I was just panting and panting away. But wow, it is a great house… so big, so airy, with so much light streaming into the house. And what a great view up in the hill!! I love it here already!
As I had no plans, Melanie and I headed out of the house to meet her friend, Catherine from Canada, crashing at another apartment of a Hospitality Club member, Allan. As it turned out, Allan was one of those I spammed earlier. Hahaa… what a laugh! I must have spammed the entire Rio de Janeiro’s Hospitality Club population. But it is great to meet these people, coz they are like instant friends here in this city for me.
The 3 of us went to Mercado Popular Uruguaina near the Uruguaina metro. It is a huge market that sold everything. Yes, another market that sold crappy things, you know exactly what sort. I guess I am getting used to such markets here in Brazil. I had not been to the centre part of Rio before, so it was great for me to check out this area a little.
You can buy really cheap soccer jerseys here, if you like, instead of the touristy or posh shops near the beaches. There were many TV sets on amongst the stall-holders and everyone’s eyes were glued to watching a soccer match, but of course. When we heard a ‘ggggooooaaaallllll!!!’, everyone really stopped in their tracks and stared at the TV, opened-jaw.
We returned to Allan’s apartment and he helped Melanie and I cut some CDs with Brazilian music. Wow, cool…
Finally, back home, I met up with Carol and Nando, my hosts. Carol claimed that she had read up some of the travelogues from my previous Round-The-World trip during the day today and said that she felt as if she already knows me. Indeed, throughout our conversations later, she kept mentioning this incident and that from that trip, some of which, I myself had forgotten.
Tags: 02) And God Created Brazilian Women, Rio de Janeiro
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