Sailing the South Atlantic
We found paradise in Brazil and it involved the ocean. Okay, the title is a bit indulgent but it feels so good to have something exciting to express about our time here. The water calls to me in much the same way the mountains do Erica and all four of us agree that we haven't spent enough time here in the water. We have spent many days at the pool, but I really miss the natural open water. Erica booked a sailing day for us to charter a boat to go out around the Rio bay and into the open water.
We nearly missed the eleven o'clock appointment due to an Uber navigation issue. Once again the snafu was caused by our misunderstanding of the Portuguese language. Turns out the word "iate" is not a brand of unique club in Rio, it is "yacht" and we navigated to the first iate club we saw pop up in our uber app. This took us to Niteroy across the huge bay bridge and a good 30 minutes out of our way. On the way the sky's opened up and downpoured rain. We thought the day was going to end right then and so we prepared the kids for the worst case scenario of having to turn around and Uber back to the condo, another hour in the car.
We arrived at the "iate" club at 11:10 and thankfully our guides held the boat. We were so grateful to have a crew who was fluent in English. The other three guests were also fluent which made for a comfortable beginning. We spent approximately three hours out on the water and the weather cooperated perfectly, the rain stopped and the clouds shielded the sun a bit to lower the temperature on the water to a comfortable temperature. Erica booked our experience on Airbnb and we have found that our experience using this site is world class so far. The kids were extremely confident navigating their way around the boat and the guides Cassio and his son Daniel, made the trip fun for all of us. We asked to stop for a while and jump into the wayer for a quick swim. All of us made it in the water despite Boyd's insistence that Megalodon's still exist per scientist research being done off the coast of Brazil. Blythe was hesitant and after much encouragement took the dip and then quickly got back into the boat.
The following day, on Sunday, we finally got to experience the Hippie Market at Ipanema. It is the local artisan street market that occurs every Sunday. We purchased some very cool original pieces of art that we hope to display in our future home. We really long to be settled soon, so making these types of purchases help to give us a feeling of what our future nest might look and feel like.
We spent a day going crazy at the condo and then decided to head back to Copacabana to meet our friend Manoel for a tour of Fort Copacabana, a military fort on the point of the beach. We ate lunch there at the site. We found this experience to be really unique and up our alley. We love history and this time we learned about the history of Brazil. Their independence from Portugal, their founding date and the founding fathers of their country all resemble the same story of the United States right down to stealing their native's land. It is eye opening to see that they have historical Brazilian heros who have been given credit for inventing things that we thought were invented by US inventors...things like human flight, television, telephones and electricity. I guess pride of ownership in all these areas rests in the people who are telling the stories and the country they come from.
We leave Brazil very soon but have been very happy with our last week here.
Peace and Love