Brazil day 3
11-21-15
This morning we had grand plans of waking up early and going to the beach for sunrise… and then it rained. It rained a LOT! So we slept in instead.
At 8:30 (if you can call that sleeping in) there was a knock at the door that woke me up. It was our breakfast being delivered, which was nice because as far as I understood this hostel did not include breakfast. We had sandwiches, juice, apples and coffee. Mom and I don’t drink coffee, so we used the hot milk to make hot chocolate! Yes, I was a little confused as to why my mom brought a can of hot coco mix with her, I thought it was kind of a silly thing to pack- but this morning I was glad that she did!
We got ready for the day and packed our things to go. At around 11 am we loaded up the car. I wanted to go see the beach again before we headed out. It was not crowded at all- cause the weather was still a little drizzly and it was very cloudy.
Mom wanted to get a coconut – they took a large nail-ish tool and hammer to punch a hole in the coconut and then served it with a straw.
“Yum! Fresh coconut milk” –mom
The coconut was only 75 cents. This exact thing on a beach in America would have been 5$... at least.
There was also a man selling breakfast items out of a small Styrofoam cooler. I communicated with him through broken Spanish and we got a few things to try! Breakfast #2!
We took some photos and went along our way. When we drove out of the town one of the first things that we saw were some pretty magnificent waterfalls! I was looking online last night about reviews of waterfalls in the area and hikes etc. I found and read a bunch of reviews – but there was no location attached to them. I didn’t realize that they were so close! I would have liked to see them up closer - but our view from the car sufficed. We knew it would take us about 2 hours to drive to Rio today and we told our Hosts that we would be there between 1 and 2 o’clock.
We hit a little bit of traffic once we got into Rio, but really not too bad. There are beautiful hills in Rio and many of them are covered in houses! When I first saw them I thought to myself, “I really hope that I don’t have to drive up those streets in a manual car.” (foreshadowing much?) It’s like a cruel trick of the universe that said, “oh what is it that you DON’T want to do!? Ok! We shall see about that – and maybe you should brace yourself for the opposite of what you “want”!
We were following my moms GPS to the address which our host gave us.* I glanced at it and thought, “Dear Lord please don’t let those windy roads be on hills.” I kept driving.
And up…Up…UP those hills we went! (praying the whole way)
Now I want to make a connection for my family so at least they can understand a little bit about this feat that I conquered today! I want you to think of the hills of Berkeley California. These were worse! Steep wise pretty equal, but much much smaller! AND all cobblestone! So it was a bumpy ride too! (not bumpy like the Indiana Jones ride-street from yesterday, but still… cobble stone bumpy)
AND ON TOP OF IT ALL just to add a little Extra fun** the streets were very wet! Cause it had been raining all day.
Note:
Steep hill + windy road + cobblestone + rain + manual car = a challenge!
At one point a car was coming down the same tiny road that I was ½ way up and so I had to reverse back down. Once I was out of his way he stopped and talked to me for a minute. All in Portuguese of course, so we nodded and smiled.
I couldn’t understand the WORDS that he was saying, but I understood WHAT he meant, “This road is so steep and I can not see down as I come around that corner, so there is no way for me to know that you were coming up! Thank you for backing out for me!” I think he also offered me some advice as well and maybe even blessed me – at least Karma*** blessed me (I hope). He went on his happy little way, and I made my way back up the hill again.
After more hills and switchbacks the GPS said that our destination was on the right -so I drove up the rest of the way to the top of the hill where there was a VERY tiny parking space with lots of cars. I backed into a spot and called our host.
“We are here, I think. We are parked at the top of the hill.” Juliana sounded confused. I told her. We are going to try to find your door and I will call you again.
I didn’t have a good feeling about it.
I pulled out my phone and typed in the address.
The CORRECT address.
I looked over at mom and said, you know that hospital that we passed at the bottom of this mountain we just drove up… yeah their house is right next to that!
Yep- we took that little driving tour through the steep and crazy hills of Rio de Janeiro just for fun**!
Mom says it was an Adventure!**** we would not have gone up that road and seen the great view if we had not used the wrong address! It is all part of the experience!”
I will admit that the view from up there was pretty fantastic!
We drove back down the mountain. (PS: going down is easier than going up)***** And we found our way to Lucio and Juliana’s house!
It’s a cute little apartment and in a good location. I parked the car. With the crazy city traffic, and lack of parking I am happy to leave the car where it is and use public transportation for a few days! It’s a lot like NYC here – except for EVERYONE is a crazy pants taxi driver! Good times, good times!
Note from mom: with the addition of LOTS of motorcycles that are lane splitting! You don’t have that in NYC. I think they have a death wish- they are crazy!
We settled in to our Rio home and Lucio and Julianna looked at a map with us to give us suggestions of things to do and places to see, etc.
I am really hoping that the weather is nice to us! It is supposed to be cloudy and rainy for pretty much all of this week according to Google. But weather predictions are always subject to change! So I am hoping for that!
Lucio and Julianna gave us the run down on the public transportation system and then showed us where the bus stop is. On the way there they pointed out a street vendor and said, “If you want real, authentic, GOOD Brazilian food- you must get it from her!” I said, “ok! Lets do it!” they said, “oh! Right now?!” I was hungry so it was perfect timing!
We had the most delicious… um… ok this food is so hard to describe. They called it Tapioca (no. not like the pudding) I will post a photo later – but you can look up Brazilian Tapioca and you will see the images. It is kind of like a glorified quesadilla. But I mean GLORIFIED! IT was SO SO GOOD!
I got a hold of my friend Marylis and she invited us to Family Home Evening (FHE) tonight at the mission presidents home.
The mission home is next to a big lake that mom and I walked around for a while. The rain was holding off but there was still a LOT of clouds in the sky and covering the tops of the hills and mountains. Including the top ½ of Corcovado Mountain. Which is where the Christ Redeemer Statue resides.
We couldn’t see it AT ALL. At one point the wind picked up enough to blow away a spot of clouds so we could get a peek of it for just a minute. We are hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can go up and see it and the views of Rio!
Common Brazil! Give us some sun!
FHE was lovely, there were 8 of us there in total, all women. We had a great lesson/discussion about how we all are talented and have gifts and that we need to see those gifts within us and use them to benefit other people. We also should look for the talents and good in other people. There was also a theme of service in testimonies that were shared.
Mom: “Plus no matter who we are we are all children of our Heavenly Father”
After we had refreshments and saw the beautiful view from their apartment deck mom and I headed back home.
We are Happy to be in Rio de Janeiro and see and experience what this city has to offer!
*note to self – always double check the address!
***sooooo….let’s be honest- is Karma real!? Cause I feel like I have a lot of the good kind saved up. Isn’t it like brownie points that you can cash in so bad things don’t happen to you? Can other people steal your brownie points without you knowing? Is someone eating my brownies without me?! I mean… common! If you just ask I will SHARE! I am a good sharer!
**yeah… fun… that’s what we are calling it.
**** Adventure is a word that positive people use for a hellish experience.
I totally agree with this! Not always – but sometimes/ some days it is VERY true!
Ps- it is also one of my favorite words!
***** There are so many gospel lessons, analogies, and parallels that I can draw here! From the whole experience! #GospelTeacherBrain
This morning we had grand plans of waking up early and going to the beach for sunrise… and then it rained. It rained a LOT! So we slept in instead.
At 8:30 (if you can call that sleeping in) there was a knock at the door that woke me up. It was our breakfast being delivered, which was nice because as far as I understood this hostel did not include breakfast. We had sandwiches, juice, apples and coffee. Mom and I don’t drink coffee, so we used the hot milk to make hot chocolate! Yes, I was a little confused as to why my mom brought a can of hot coco mix with her, I thought it was kind of a silly thing to pack- but this morning I was glad that she did!
We got ready for the day and packed our things to go. At around 11 am we loaded up the car. I wanted to go see the beach again before we headed out. It was not crowded at all- cause the weather was still a little drizzly and it was very cloudy.
Mom wanted to get a coconut – they took a large nail-ish tool and hammer to punch a hole in the coconut and then served it with a straw.
“Yum! Fresh coconut milk” –mom
The coconut was only 75 cents. This exact thing on a beach in America would have been 5$... at least.
There was also a man selling breakfast items out of a small Styrofoam cooler. I communicated with him through broken Spanish and we got a few things to try! Breakfast #2!
We took some photos and went along our way. When we drove out of the town one of the first things that we saw were some pretty magnificent waterfalls! I was looking online last night about reviews of waterfalls in the area and hikes etc. I found and read a bunch of reviews – but there was no location attached to them. I didn’t realize that they were so close! I would have liked to see them up closer - but our view from the car sufficed. We knew it would take us about 2 hours to drive to Rio today and we told our Hosts that we would be there between 1 and 2 o’clock.
We hit a little bit of traffic once we got into Rio, but really not too bad. There are beautiful hills in Rio and many of them are covered in houses! When I first saw them I thought to myself, “I really hope that I don’t have to drive up those streets in a manual car.” (foreshadowing much?) It’s like a cruel trick of the universe that said, “oh what is it that you DON’T want to do!? Ok! We shall see about that – and maybe you should brace yourself for the opposite of what you “want”!
We were following my moms GPS to the address which our host gave us.* I glanced at it and thought, “Dear Lord please don’t let those windy roads be on hills.” I kept driving.
And up…Up…UP those hills we went! (praying the whole way)
Now I want to make a connection for my family so at least they can understand a little bit about this feat that I conquered today! I want you to think of the hills of Berkeley California. These were worse! Steep wise pretty equal, but much much smaller! AND all cobblestone! So it was a bumpy ride too! (not bumpy like the Indiana Jones ride-street from yesterday, but still… cobble stone bumpy)
AND ON TOP OF IT ALL just to add a little Extra fun** the streets were very wet! Cause it had been raining all day.
Note:
Steep hill + windy road + cobblestone + rain + manual car = a challenge!
At one point a car was coming down the same tiny road that I was ½ way up and so I had to reverse back down. Once I was out of his way he stopped and talked to me for a minute. All in Portuguese of course, so we nodded and smiled.
I couldn’t understand the WORDS that he was saying, but I understood WHAT he meant, “This road is so steep and I can not see down as I come around that corner, so there is no way for me to know that you were coming up! Thank you for backing out for me!” I think he also offered me some advice as well and maybe even blessed me – at least Karma*** blessed me (I hope). He went on his happy little way, and I made my way back up the hill again.
After more hills and switchbacks the GPS said that our destination was on the right -so I drove up the rest of the way to the top of the hill where there was a VERY tiny parking space with lots of cars. I backed into a spot and called our host.
“We are here, I think. We are parked at the top of the hill.” Juliana sounded confused. I told her. We are going to try to find your door and I will call you again.
I didn’t have a good feeling about it.
I pulled out my phone and typed in the address.
The CORRECT address.
I looked over at mom and said, you know that hospital that we passed at the bottom of this mountain we just drove up… yeah their house is right next to that!
Yep- we took that little driving tour through the steep and crazy hills of Rio de Janeiro just for fun**!
Mom says it was an Adventure!**** we would not have gone up that road and seen the great view if we had not used the wrong address! It is all part of the experience!”
I will admit that the view from up there was pretty fantastic!
We drove back down the mountain. (PS: going down is easier than going up)***** And we found our way to Lucio and Juliana’s house!
It’s a cute little apartment and in a good location. I parked the car. With the crazy city traffic, and lack of parking I am happy to leave the car where it is and use public transportation for a few days! It’s a lot like NYC here – except for EVERYONE is a crazy pants taxi driver! Good times, good times!
Note from mom: with the addition of LOTS of motorcycles that are lane splitting! You don’t have that in NYC. I think they have a death wish- they are crazy!
We settled in to our Rio home and Lucio and Julianna looked at a map with us to give us suggestions of things to do and places to see, etc.
I am really hoping that the weather is nice to us! It is supposed to be cloudy and rainy for pretty much all of this week according to Google. But weather predictions are always subject to change! So I am hoping for that!
Lucio and Julianna gave us the run down on the public transportation system and then showed us where the bus stop is. On the way there they pointed out a street vendor and said, “If you want real, authentic, GOOD Brazilian food- you must get it from her!” I said, “ok! Lets do it!” they said, “oh! Right now?!” I was hungry so it was perfect timing!
We had the most delicious… um… ok this food is so hard to describe. They called it Tapioca (no. not like the pudding) I will post a photo later – but you can look up Brazilian Tapioca and you will see the images. It is kind of like a glorified quesadilla. But I mean GLORIFIED! IT was SO SO GOOD!
I got a hold of my friend Marylis and she invited us to Family Home Evening (FHE) tonight at the mission presidents home.
The mission home is next to a big lake that mom and I walked around for a while. The rain was holding off but there was still a LOT of clouds in the sky and covering the tops of the hills and mountains. Including the top ½ of Corcovado Mountain. Which is where the Christ Redeemer Statue resides.
We couldn’t see it AT ALL. At one point the wind picked up enough to blow away a spot of clouds so we could get a peek of it for just a minute. We are hoping for a nice day tomorrow so we can go up and see it and the views of Rio!
Common Brazil! Give us some sun!
FHE was lovely, there were 8 of us there in total, all women. We had a great lesson/discussion about how we all are talented and have gifts and that we need to see those gifts within us and use them to benefit other people. We also should look for the talents and good in other people. There was also a theme of service in testimonies that were shared.
Mom: “Plus no matter who we are we are all children of our Heavenly Father”
After we had refreshments and saw the beautiful view from their apartment deck mom and I headed back home.
We are Happy to be in Rio de Janeiro and see and experience what this city has to offer!
*note to self – always double check the address!
***sooooo….let’s be honest- is Karma real!? Cause I feel like I have a lot of the good kind saved up. Isn’t it like brownie points that you can cash in so bad things don’t happen to you? Can other people steal your brownie points without you knowing? Is someone eating my brownies without me?! I mean… common! If you just ask I will SHARE! I am a good sharer!
**yeah… fun… that’s what we are calling it.
**** Adventure is a word that positive people use for a hellish experience.
I totally agree with this! Not always – but sometimes/ some days it is VERY true!
Ps- it is also one of my favorite words!
***** There are so many gospel lessons, analogies, and parallels that I can draw here! From the whole experience! #GospelTeacherBrain
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