Adventures of a Gringa

famous gringa in Rio

Julianne Moore is in town this week with her kids, sightseeing and staying at the uberchic Fasano hotel. Globo caught her dancing on her balcony in Ipanema this morning. She went to the premiere of her new film last night, which also features Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mark Ruffalo, and Alice Braga (though they did not show). She said she visited the Christ Statue, which was a "wonderful and mystical place," and that she hopes to visit the Sugarloaf and a traditional Brazilian restaurant.

I love when famous gringos come to Rio, because it shows that Rio really is a great place to visit, and not a place to fear.

adventures in ipanema

So now that I'm back in Rio, it's time to continue sharing the adventure.

Eli and I had a day in Ipanema, since I had an appointment at noon and an early apartment viewing. We got there early and finally the "real estate agent" showed up. Here is what the ad said:

Furnished apartment, 2 bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. 2 blocks from the beach in a great part of Ipanema.

Here's what we found: an empty apartment, lacking even a stove, with electrical sockets hanging out of the walls, dripping faucets, the tiniest, dingiest bathroom in Ipanema, and a very large built-in closet. We asked why they had listed it as "furnished." He pointed to the built-in closet and the kitchen cabinets. Right.

So we wandered around, looking for real estate agents, finding mostly touristy rental places with ridiculous rates. The actual real estate agents we found only leased for minimums 12 or 30 months. It was kind of depressing, so we took a few breaks from hunting. We went to the park, one of the few parks I've seen in Rio not overrun by homeless people, to watch the babysitters with their rich little clients and take a break from the sun.

It was then that Eli pointed out to me that nannies in Rio dress completely in white, as a sign of professionalism and distinction. Suddenly, everywhere I looked there were women dressed all in white, with strollers and toddlers. For some reason, I find the white thing a little weird.

We went to the beach for a while, and sat staring at the incredibly turquoise waves. We went to a huge farmer's market, where we oogled the most beautiful strawberries I've ever seen, huge, ruby red, pratically glowing strawberries, and the big slimy fish, and all of the tropical fruit I've missed so much-- maracuja, jabuticaba, goiaba, mangoes.

I had my appointment and then we had a nice por quilo lunch. We're both remaining surprisingly calm despite the fact that neither of us are employed and we're about to lose our apartment. Ipanema does that.

ipanema fun

Eli and I went to the beach in Ipanema yesterday. Not much to report, but Eli took some good pictures and found some awesome graffiti art for his new blog. The only real drama we saw was this toddler wandering around from couple to couple, group to group, staring them down, threatening to steal their water bottles, and trying to dump sand on them. He was so pale and white-blonde that he could have been Swedish, but he was a little brasileiro. That's the beauty of Brazil.

For the full set of beautiful photos from yesterday, taken by Mr. Eli, click here.

Then we watched a rainbow appear and the sun set from Arpoador...

...and walked to Copacabana where a literally golden moon rose above the ocean. I've never seen anything like it. We also saw the most ridiculous dog ever, which you can see in yesterday's post.

And then we scampered up to the top of Botafogo Shopping to get a better look at the moon.

And if you're in the Southern Hemisphere and feeling bummed that the sun has started setting at 6, or if you're missing your Jack Russell terrier, or if you're just feeling blue, this video, featured on CuteOverload.com, will be sure to cheer you up.

always an adventure in Lagoa

Today, my last day of freedom before I start work again tomorrow, I decided to get some sun and did my usual hike around Lagoa down to the beach in Ipanema. When I go walking, say, in one of the parks near my house in New York, the most fascinating thing that will happen is a deer sighting, or bumping into someone I know. But there is always stuff going on in Lagoa.

First, I saw an enormous bird swoop down over the water and swoop back into the bushes. When I passed its hiding spot, I came across a mammoth bird I'd never seen before, here or anywhere. It was some kind of heron, with gray feathers, a white neck, and a royal blue head. It had a big fish in its mouth, though it didn't seem to be eating it as much as parading it around. It was so beautiful.

Next, when I finally had to stop to get something to drink (a coconut water, since it has electrolytes and is good for when you are exercising), this little old lady walked a little too close for comfort to me, and finally came over to talk to me. "Is that coconut water good?" "Yes, yes it is." Big awkward smile. "Coconut water makes you PEE!" she informed me. "Ah, yes." "It is also good for your skin!" "Uh huh." She smiled and shuffled away, going to sit on a nearby bench, looking for other people to randomly accost.

Then, I saw a man pushing a wheelchair with...two old people in it, with an old lady sitting on an old man's lap. Um...isn't a wheelchair meant for one?

There were some blocos today, so I wasn't looking to hang around in Ipanema. So I decided to get a bus on Lagoa to go home. Oh, what a mistake. It took forever and I was waiting with a huge group of drunken teenagers, who eventually got on the same bus I did and were being horribly obnoxious and loud. It's a rule, people: teenagers are monsters in every country, worldwide.

A summer thunderstorm just rolled in, and a huge fork of lighting hit close to Cristo. But the whole valley is now enveloped in a huge raincloud, and even though I can see sunny skies to one side, it is pouring. Oh summer.

who knew?

One of the perks of Eli's job is that certain clubs and bars offer his hostel deals so he'll bring boatloads of gringos to spend all their money on their overpriced cover charges and drinks. Last night we went to another club in Leblon called "House" which is a really hip club/bar/sushi bar on a shady street. They played great MPB and samba downstairs in the lounge area and house and techno on the upstairs dance floor (we danced at the beginning up there and the music wasn't so bad! but then it did get bad). We got in free and VIP, except since I have vowed not to touch cachaca for awhile the caipivodka I got was a whopping R$13.

Eli did succeed in getting the majority of the hostel people to go, and we took a cab with two Swedes and one of their Brazilian ficantes ("girlfriend"). They were slightly insane, but totally fascinating. One of them spoke Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, English, and German. Did you know that Icelandic is the oldest spoken language in the world? And did you know that Icelandic is one of the world's most complex languages, and that a famous linguist who speaks dozens of languages learned Japanese in 2 weeks, and Icelandic in 3 months? Did you know that Swedes use a type of tobacco that looks like a tiny tea bag that they stick in their cheek like Andeans do with coca leaves, and it has the strength of 9 cigarettes, and that it is called "rape"?? (pronounced rah-pay, I think it means tobacco). I also met a fellow New Yorker last night, an Asian American investment banker. That's the thing about Rio. There are people here from the strangest, and most familiar, of places.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Floripa. I am nervous and excited, since I'm going alone, with a slightly expired visa, for a whole week. And the weather report isn't looking so great. But I'm hoping for the best so I can have a nice little vaca!

hot hot when will it stop being hot

Today Eli and I started the day late, got lunch, went to Centro to pick up my paycheck, and got some fruta do conde ice cream at my favorite old-time cafe near my job. Then he had to go to work, so I decided to get some exercise and sun and walked part of the way around Lagoa, to Ipanema, and along the beach.

I somehow survived the heat, mostly because I made it to the beach where the water was heavenly, but then I decided I'd had enough sun and walked back up to the boardwalk. I was walking along, and then I guess I got lost in my thoughts and all the sudden there was a kid right at my side and he said quickly, "Nao se assuste." Don't be scared. Right. Instinctively, my hand went to my bag and I said sorry and sped away from him. As I sped away, he made a noise of irritation and smacked my arm. For some reason, this made me really angry (though I was happy I had gotten out of the situation).

Tip: if anyone approaches you in an area with lots of tourists, get away from the situation as quickly as possible, because a lot of the time someone pretending to beg will actually be working with other people to rob you. Unless the person is clearly armed, it is best to walk away, fast.

Anyway, it made me irrationally angry. It's possible he was just begging, and it's possible he was trying to rob me. Either way, I felt like it was so disrespectful to hit me (even though it wasn't that hard). But people get beat up, stabbed, or shot during robberies and robbery attempts, so I really shouldn't be complaining. It just seems to me that lack of respect for one's fellow man is such a big problem here. The poor are born into a life without respect, and then those who enter a life of violence transfer this lack of respect--violating respect--for their fellow citizens. It's lack of respect that grows out of extreme inequality, the kind so evident here in Rio.

Anyway, I got lucky. It could have been a lot worse.

In the news...
Seven rare albino alligators disappeared from a zoo in Mato Grosso. It is thought that they were stolen to be sold abroad, and are worth around $10,000 each. They're pretty scary looking, check them out here.

Britney Spears is in fact crazy. Really, really crazy.

it's a small world after all

Last night me, Eli, my friend, and her friends from study abroad and some hostel people went out to Lapa. It was ridiculously hot but we went to the Latin club because it's so fun, though it is ridiculously hot. Eliseu whined and we left kind of early, but I wasn't too sad because we'd gotten some good dancing in. My friends stayed until 6 because they are still youngins. When Eli and I were walking up our street, I saw a huge shooting star sail over Cristo. It was pretty awesome.

Also, randomly, we stopped into the police station to ask what time is the legal time to start making noise, since someone started doing major construction at 7am on Friday morning. A cop came out who looked like something out of an 80s police TV show. He had a full-on mullet, was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, had a sandwich in his mouth and his gun stuck awkwardly into his jeans pocket. He told us the legal time was 6am. Darn.

Today we went to the beach because really it was too hot to do anything else (sidenote: when we got home, the walls of my house were vibrating with heat. seriously). So we went and the beach was more packed than I had ever seen it: people for miles, like ants. Or on Rio postcards. In direct contrast with the weather, the water was frigid. Literally frigid. It was like God had decided to make a caipirinha out of the Atlantic and all the ice in it melted. And the waves were absolutely enormous.

So, here is the more ridiculous part. I was walking back to our towels with my friend, and I hear someone say my full name, and then I turn and see a girl sit up and ask again. At first I didn't recognize her, since it's been awhile, but then I realized it was a long-lost friend from my high school in New York. So we had a slightly awkward conversation and she explained she was on vacation with her college friends in Rio--even though she moved to Hawaii after college. It was so profoundly weird and ridiculous that there wasn't much more to say, so I told her I'd facebook her so maybe we could hang out. I don't think we will, but you always have to offer in those incredibly coincidental situations.

How small is this crazy little world?

My friend and I just got back from a little dinner out and now we're splitting up so she and her friends can do some samba stuff and Eli and I are going to some party his friend is having.

Next entry: our adventure at the Festa de Iemanja!!