Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Ernie!

Ernie came to work to wish us all a Merry Christmas!

I'm heading to NYC today and I won't be back until the 29th. I have so much to load on this blog! I promise to get busy when I get back!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Rio

After getting up at the ass crack, we arrived in Rio around 11:30.

Our guide, Luciano, was there to greet us. He was very nice. He escorted us out to the van. Upon exiting the airport, I noticed men in army fatigues with machine guns. Oh boy. We would later find out that Vladimir Putin was arriving around the same time we were.

We were taken to the hotel. We went in and Luciano got us settled. We made arrangements for him to come to the hotel tomorrow morning for our city tour. We had the rest of the day to ourselves. Unfortunately, it was raining.

We walked a block to beach anyway. We were on Copacabana beach.

We were hungry so we order a slice of pizza. Only it wasn't a slice. It was a cone! Delicious!

Here is the boardwalk that is usually full of people. Sadly, it was mostly empty.

After having a drink on the beach, we caught a cab to the hippie fair. We were out of money and had to walk many blocks to finally find some money. The line to the ATM was very long and by the time I got up there, I got $600 in tens. Great.

After the bout with the ATM, all Weenie and I wanted was beer! We saw an Irish pub and made a beeline. Mooey went off to the fair to buy more dreck.

We went out on the balcony to people watch. The waitress spoke English which was nice.

After the fair, we taxied over to the famous Copacabana Palace. This place was impressive.

We made our way to the bar area where we had caipirinhas.

We had 3 drinks apiece and the tab was $90!!! It was totally worth it though. This place was magical. We speculated about all the celebrities that had stayed there in the 50's and 60's.

After we left the Copacabana, we headed further down the beach to a restaurant Luciano had picked for us. It was like a BBQ where it's endless meat, but this time it was seafood. It had a cheesy pirate theme.

This was from the buffet area. I thought it was awesome.

They came around with giant plates of lobster tails, shrimp, eel, calamari, octopus, and fish. Martha made me eat some grilled octopus and it was awesome. After I took a bite, she showed me what she had cut off before I put it in my mouth. It was the suckers. EWWWWW!

Once we got back to the hotel, Weenie decided she wanted to try some coconut water. As you can see, Mooey hated it. Weenie didn't like it either but finished it. It's supposed to be great for you.

The next morning we were up early and ate free breakfast at the hotel. Luciano picked us up and we were off to Sugarloaf Mountain. Once again, our guide got our tickets and we passed everyone in line.

Here's the cable car we rode up in . The floor was glass and it made the ride up a little unsettling for me.

Here we are on top of Sugarloaf. That's Copacabana Beach behind us.

This is the view of Corcovado from Sugarloaf. See Jesus in the distance?

Our guide, Luciano.

Mooey wanted to see monkeys. She asked Luciano if we would see any and he said he knew where one was. Weenie and I rolled our eyes as they walked away. Mooey came back with this picture. Furious! This one was in a tree down the mountain a little. He has seen it before and remembered the area and it just so happened to be there that day.

After leaving Sugarloaf, we drove over to Corcovado.

We rode a train to the top. I think it's 2.5 miles if you hike it.

The train took us up the mountain through the Tijuca Forest. It was wild to be in a forest in the middle of Rio!

Once at the top, Jesus was covered in clouds. They parted for a brief moment and we saw his face.

Here is a picture of a favela perched precariously on a hill. Favela means shanty town and they are everywhere in Rio.

A band played on the train on the way back. Many of the passengers got up and danced in the aisle.

Since it was still raining, Luciano decided to take us to the soccer field. Here is a picture of where the Carnival parade ends. Those are seats like a football field. There are 5 of them in a row.


Before the soccer field, it was lunchtime. Here is a shot of downtown Rio. It reminded me of New York City. No one spoke English and there were cabs everywhere.

We had lunch at Confeitaria Colombo. Its one of the oldest restaurants in Rio. It was another giant buffet but this time it was fantastic. The restaurant was very elegant.

Yummy!

The dessert table was unbelievable!
Here is the front of the soccer stadium.

It cost $20 to tour the facility!

Here Mooey and I are in action!

Weenie in action!

The stadium holds around 90000.

Pele made his 1000th goal at this stadium.
It was nearing the end of the day and Luciano suggested we tour H. Stern. You can watch them cutting stones and making jewelry.

We were shown to a table after the tour and we realized they were going to try and sell us something. We were about to bolt when the lady returned with a tray of watches. Below is a photo of us upon realizing a sales pitch was about to happen.

She opened the tray and I saw the price tags. $13000 and up. Mooey asked her the price and she blurted out $18000 for this one watch and then began to laugh uncontrollably. That made us laugh a little and feel weird at the same time. We told her that was out of our price range and ran away.

We took a cab back to the hotel so we could change. We decided it would be a good idea to bar hop since it was STILL raining.

This is the view from our first bar and where I had 2 caipirinhas.

Then we walked 1/2 a block to this place. Weenie decided she wanted some appetizers.
She ordered calabresa potatoes. OMG, the were so fucking hot we could barely eat them.
The waiter brought us some complimentary empanadas. Some of them had fish in them and were not tasty.

Weenie also ordered tempura cauliflower. I know! Well, I don't eat cauliflower so I can't say for sure but Weenie and Mooey said they sucked. We were pretty buzzy by now and Weenie turned around and kinda yelled at the waiter "Yeah, I don't like this!" Of course, we fell out laughing because he didn't speak English.

We moved onto this bar. I was really getting drunk.

I was on caipirinha number five when I had to pee. We were sitting outside and I could see the inside of the cafe. It was empty except for 2 women. As I walked in, they pointed to the restrooom and I noticed they were shitfaced. I came back out and sat down. Before I knew it, they were approaching our table. Check out the fellow lesbians we met!

Holy shit these ladies were drunk. The one in the flower shirt kept poking her middle finger into her hand saying "I fuck yourself!" and then she would die laughing. We didn't have the heart to tell her she was saying it wrong. They barely spoke any English. Finally, Mooey eyed the bartender and asked him to rescue us. They were ushered back into the cafe.

After caipirinha number 6, it was cabbage patch dancing time. These videos are priceless. They are done to the song The Girl from Ipanema which we sang the entire trip.







After dancing I had to pee again. Mooey and Weenie both warned me that returning inside the cafe was asking for trouble but I could not hold it. When I walked in, flower shirt was not at the table but the other woman was. I was peeing when I heard the door open and then the lights went off. SHIT! I calmly said "Turn the light back on!" Then I heard the door open again and it was Weenie to the rescue. She had been watching.

I came back out and ordered number seven. Wow, I was drunk. Then I saw a dog with shoes on and knew it was time to go to the hotel. We had to get up early. We were going to the beach tomorrow!