Cavtatportal.com: Brasil (Part 3) by Little Wonder

It was time for C and me to get our stuff together and head to the main bus station to catch a ride to Rio.

The whole point of going to Rio was to see T. It was her big moment. You see she was having her graduation ceremony at the navy. T in the navy, it was still quite an ambiguous concept to fathom, her being the little revolutionary and all - so we had to see it for ourselves to actually believe it!

Anyway her job title in the navy was - cartographer, so drop the pre-conceptions of her being in any kind of combat.

We boarded the bus, which compared to Croatian buses was like driving in a limo. It had plenty of leg space, free bottles of water, movies and a decent toilet - the bus had attitude, way to go Expresso Brasileiro!

C and me where getting a bit worried, though, we had been trying to reach T all last night and now every hour on the hour and still nothing. I looked at C and I saw paranoia settling in nicely while I decided to just immerse myself in the beautiful countryside we were driving by. All I could think of was - what my little tomboyish sister would look like now, would she still be in her punk - I'll never wear a dress and make-up till I die phase, while cultivating her cute beer belly, or not? Boy was I in for a big surprise!

We got to the hotel which was in the very heart of Downtown Rio, we asked for our reservations and the receptionist told us there would be three in our room. So T was planning on joining us after all!

Just as we started unpacking we heard a loud knock on the door, C run to open the door and then I saw my little sis after 4 long years. I couldn't believe my eyes, there were no more traces of my little tomboy gal. T had become a lady. Nails and toe nails cultivated to perfection, flashy jewelry and to top it off - she was wearing a mini skirt. C and I looked at each other in disbelief, this was no optical illusion, this was for real. But the moment she started talking I could see that this was the old T and we were not cast in the twilight zone after all.

She was in a complete frenzy with trying to get everyone groomed to perfection! She looked us up and down disapprovingly and offered to take care of us too, but "unfortunately" we had to do all the tourist stuff!

Before we left the hotel T's entire family made it their business to caution me about Rio's imminent dangers. The list was as follows: 1. Don't look like a tourist, 2. Look like you know where you're going, 3. Don't carry too much cash, 4. Don't carry too little cash - as your robbers might get very angry and...shoot you?, 5.Don't take pictures, 6. Don't carry a map, and so on. C' advise was about the same, she also added that in situations like these she had one foot behind (UM PÉ ATRÁS ), an expression she used when she felt she had to take precaution measures because she didn't trust the situation. But the story with C was that most of the time she had two feet behind if you know what I mean!

So after listening to all this all I could do was glue my arm on to the bag. The only possible way anybody could get their hands on my bag was if they had a chain saw! So me and my glued on bag walked the streets of Rio while I made an extra effort to walk like I owned the street - and I sure pulled it off, yeah right. Miss innocent looking Snow-white showed them who's boss!

C and I had a bite of pizza at the main square and then decided to go to Lapa where supposedly all the bars were. The cab driver dropped us off at some gas station. I couldn't see any trace of bars around - just pitch darkness and a few people standing in the street just gazing at us - that's the way aha aha I like it aha aha, paranoia was once again slowly but surely kicking in! So in panic we started looking around for a bar and then we saw a sign saying Teatro Municipal.

A theater? There seemed to be theaters everywhere, or so I thought, most of those theaters also operated as bars, hmm handy. Not in Europe I thought, maybe I should let the gang back home know that it's time to modernize those cultural venues.

So in we went, there were young musicians fresh from the Music Academy playing jazzy numbers. Finally I could unglue, relax, have a sakerinha and smoke 1 clove ciggy I savored from before.

The next day was T's day, we had to go to the church ceremony and dress our best for the event. I decided to take my high heels for a stroll (oh what a big mistake) thinking there would be a place for me to sit. C was much smarter and opted for the comfy look. We got to the church and it was packed. I was thirsty, desperate and on the verge of screaming out in pain! But then I stumbled on a toilet, boy was I thankful for this. In Croatia churches didn't have toilets, maybe because the service never lasted over 45 minutes. Hmm, maybe I was in for hours of agony stuck in a toilette.

Eventually I had to leave the toilette; they virtually had to bring guards to remove me from the toilette seat! The ceremony was beginning, I couldn't see T's face in the angel like parade of white navy men and women. After minutes of almost losing my sight I finally saw her. I couldn't understand a word the priest was saying but T's face was a vivid expression of the meaningful words uttered out loud. I could see her eyes watering and I choked up. With tears glistening in my eyes I felt like I was marrying off my only daughter. It must have been the monumental church atmosphere that brought it on. Whatever it was - my baby made it and I was so proud of her!

Later (after 2 hours-ouch) we all congratulated her and went back to doing the tourist stuff. We went to Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf), took the cable car and relished in the amazing view before us. I got sun burnt of course; it sure complimented my evening dress I was wearing for T's Graduation Dinner in Barra (after I impregnated half a bottle of foundation.

On our way to Barra - the elite part of Rio I saw hills shinning with bright lights, like lights on a Christmas tree except there was no Christmas feeling there. Those were the lights in the favelas (the poorest neighborhoods, houses made out of inexpensive materials, where 1 in 5 Rio residents live). The poor and the rich with a fine line dividing them, how fine was that line I wondered. The dinner was a hit, with T being the belle of the ball urging C and me to dance. I felt like I was back in High-school at my own dreaded prom and had a sudden urge to leave, C didn't have to say a word; I knew the feeling was mutual. After sitting/sleeping at the table for a number of odd hours T's Dad finally said he'd drive us to the hotel. The ride which would normally take up to half an hour or more lasted barely 20 minutes, need I say more?

Later I found out that in Rio you could drive through red lights after 11 pm for safety reasons!

Our last day was reserved for Corcovado and the infamous beaches. How to pull it all off in one day? We decided to take a cab. We stumbled on a crazy cab driver who just couldn't keep his mouth shut, but that made it just that little bit more entertaining for us!

With my cosmic luck of course we went up to see the Christ and saw nothing, as it was too cloudy, the weather report said it was the cloudiest day ever to be reported, we could barely see each other through the mist, but I managed to take a few pic's with my eyes closed. The result was brilliant - Christ appearing through the clouds.

Afterwards the driver took us down hill and decided to give a kid in the street a ride home. C just turned to me and said put your bag on the floor between your legs; we'll be driving through a favela. So in we went, it reminded me of devastated villages after the war. Most of the houses were roofless, windowless and as bare as Paris Hilton's clubbing attire.

But as the driver informed us, this was one of the better ones. He told us a story of some people from Santos who took a wrong turn and ended up in a dangerous favela and the trigger happy neurotic inhabitants shot them all. He said they shoot everyone first and then ask questions later! Hm, duly noted, ready to vacate no matter how good this one might be, you just never know!

In a few minutes we were out of there and skidding down to the beaches. Copacabana and Ipanema where right in front of us and C had the desire to talk to Goddess Iemanja (Sea Goddess) so she just took her shoes off and soaked her feet in, err so much for not acting like a tourist! She had her little private chat and we were on our way to the next beach.

The next day we had to go back to Sao Paulo, I would leave Rio without really feeling the place out. 3 days was hardly enough to really experience the city but still I had an intense feeling of regret as I realized that I spent my days skipping from cab to cab in comfort, glancing at Rio like I was at the movies and not really diving into its realms, as I usually would, because I kept having one foot behind!