Rio De Janeiro in the Summertime
We have again managed to avoid the crazy weather back home in the motherland. This heat in the summer in Rio is nothing to write home about though. The average highs are well into the mid-90's and the lows never go below 73 with humidity that makes the real temperature feel ten degrees hotter. We have spent many days at our condo complex pool and have enjoyed swimming laps and lounging reading books. The kids get tired of swimming so much, so many days we have vegged out inside of our little apartment. We are going crazy in here though and it has not made this leg of the journey as fun as we had hoped.
We have done many things touristy during the past three weeks here but have found ourselves somewhat disappointed in our choice to stay in Rio for a full month. It is not only the heat that doesn't feel so hot. We count our blessings that we get to experience the real culture here but find that we are out of sink due to the vibe that Carnival brought and the lack of being able to communicate easily as we don't know the language. We were warned that Carnival would not be family friendly and we hoped that surely there would be something family friendly to do to celebrate. Nope! We were unpleasantly surprised at how overtly sexual the entire city becomes. We are in culture shock, if ever there was. We have picked up basic Portuguese to order food and get and recieve directions, but it is a tough language to learn quickly. Being that Brazil is not connected at their border with an English speaking country, we find that unless you are in a tourist destination you will not find anyone who speaks English. We have found it easier to use our very weak Spanish with folks over using English. We have met wonderful people here though and feel that we don't get to fully appreciate knowing folks due to our language barrier.
Our fears are intense at times here because the city is very unorganized, and security presence everywhere sets your mind up for discomfort. We decided to get out and walk to a local shopping mall one afternoon and upon return the sky opened up and downpoured rain as we found ourselves stuck walking on a very busy street with a water channel on one side and dense forest on the other. We had no where to turn for respite and all of us fell apart. The kids were crying and freaking out, Erica and I were both nervous about getting hit in the dark night of rain. We found a small clearing off to one side where we stood hoping the rain would let up. Fire ants chomped at our sandal exposed feet. A man pulled over and in portuguese yelled something to us as he waived to get in. I made a snap decision to put my family into his vehicle and out of the rain so he could drive us to our condo about a mile down the road. What a risk to feel forced to make! I was very nervous but had to put my faith in humanity and trust him above my fears. He was very kind and gave me his business card and I gave him 20 dollars to say thank you. He again spoke zero English. I regretted after our decision to walk and swore off doing it again. Erica and I agreed to only use Uber from there on out and the kids made us promise them so. Uber is officially our driver now. We use it practically every day and have had five star experiences a every time. It kills me to sit in silence in the front seat though since maybe one of the two dozen drivers we have had knew any English at all. Our experience in Brazil would be amplified one hundred times if we could only communicate better.
We have enjoyed all the major tourist spots like Sugar Loaf Tram and the Christ the Redeemer monument. We really enjoyed the Museum of Tomorrow, with it's beautiful Architecture and exhibits around protecting our environment for future generations. We visited on free Tuesdays and then enjoyed the Rio Art Museum across the street for free as well. A real highlight is the walking the mosaic lined steps Escadaria Selaron in the artisan part of town known as Lapa. I have found a new appreciation for mosiac art and have made some purchases here of tiles to hopefully use in our future home in San Diego. We have also really enjoyed our outings to multiple street and artisan markets where we have acquired a few too many items of art. I am wondering how to get them back home but will figure it out even if I have to carry some onto the plane.
We still have over a week left to take in more of Brazil and find more to appreciate about this huge South American country. We are in search of the next great reason to return so we can reuse our ten year visa again one day. One thing is certain and I say it again, next time we will practice our Portuguese before we come.
