Bom Dia from Brasilia!
We have made our acclimation to another new and beautiful country. It took a little longer to relax our anxious minds since we are staying in such a high population area and we did not know a single word of Portuguese before we stepped off the plane. We should have practiced but now we have a full month emersed in the culture to learn it.
The language barrier is very overwhelming at times and we lucked out to have our Airbnb host and hostess, Manoel and Ilse, pick us up at the airport complimentary and bring us to their rental home just outside of Rio de Janeiro in Jaqarepagua (our condo was built right before the 2016 Olympics and is located across the street from Olympic Park). They both speak very little English but know enough English and Spanish to communicate the basics with us. We have relied on Google translate since we arrived. Most people here do not speak or understand English and we realize that it is because the country has no neighboring English-speaking countries to motivate people to learn it. Many know Spanish and French since both languages are similar to Portuguese and there are so many people who visit from countries whose primary language are such.
We are staying in a fifteenth floor condo in a very secure community because of the low cost ($1450 per month) relative to a hotel. The benefit of this is getting to watch and learn how the local people live day to day here. We love Airbnb for this reason alone regardless of the cost savings. The kids made friends at the community pool even though they could not communicate at all. I met a couple who could speak some English and he bought me my first caipirinha, a local cocktail made from a brazilian sugarcane liqueur called cachaca (it tastes similar to tequila). It's very simple to make, just cachaca, lime and sugar which goes perfect on my sweet tooth. I loved it and bought cachaca, limes and sugar at the market to make my own.
Despite the extra expense that we had in Miami to get visas (approximately $1000 total for all four of us to get a 10 year visa), once we made it here, we are really enjoying the financial benefit of our dollar. The exchange is $1 USD to €3.75 Real. As long as we buy local Brazilian goods we are saving a lot of money. We are buying tons of bananas for example because a bunch of eight large bananas costs less than $1 USD. Blythe is part monkey and has consumed the majority of them.
We did not rent a car. First because we are tired of paying so much for rentals and second because we wanted to force ourselves into using public transportation since it is available in all forms here. We did hire Manoel to take a day to haul us around the hot spots of Rio so that we could get an idea of where everything is. We will probably use him a few more times unless we find that Uber is more convenient and is less expensive. After our day with Manoel, we feel we made a good choice to not rent a car since the traffic in Rio is very confusing and chaotic. We also have free bus passes that came with our condo rental that will take us in limited areas.
It is summer here and the rain comes almost daily to cool down the 90°degree days but makes it humid like a Houston summer day. We are grateful to have all the resorts amenities here for our use as we choose. We have a full gym, game room, full spa and of course the biggest pool I have ever been in. Carnival is kicking off this weekend and will last throughout next week so we anticipate crowds for this period of time. This week we have had the entire pool to ourselves though!
On Wednesday, we had the luxury of driving by all the famous beaches and stopping at a few beautiful spots along the coast to explore and get pictures. The beaches were Barra de Tijuca, Leblon, Ipanema and of course the world famous Cocacabana beach. We then made our way to downtown, after a quick stop to eat lunch with Manoel and Ilsa, to ride the famous cable cars up to Pao de Acucar, or Sugarloaf Mountain as it is also called here. It was cloudy, so our view of the Christ The Redeemer statue was limited but we were still awe'd by the beauty of the granite wonder jutting straight up out of the sea. So much to see here still and we are excited to be able to relax and plan some more activities. Chao!
Peace and Love