Continuing...

Monday, November 20, 2006


Sunday night in Lagoa
Current mood: sleepy
Category: Travel and Places

Most of Sunday was spent relaxing and napping. Sunday night, around 22:00pm local Roberto and Flavia picked Dani and I up at the condo, then we all headed over to Botafago to pick up Caroline, another friend of Dani's.



Caroline – 29, slim, newly single, sandy blonde hair. Other than that, didn't get much of a background on her, but she's nice and has known Dani for years.



We drove around a little bit then went to an open air dining place in Lagoa. We walked around a bit first. Managed to get a few nice pictures of Lagoa by night, including the 90m tall Christmas tree the Prefeitura (Mayor) of Rio had set up. The picture of Corcovado didn't come out nearly so well, as by that time, well… get to that in a second.



We ate sushi – I had a Mix Tempura (vegetable medley and shrimp fried tempura style) with some wasabi and soy sauce. To drink, cachaça and agua con geis ("water with gas" or sparkling mineral water). Total R$40. Dani had a plate of salmon pate and Pepsi (was surprised the place had no Coca-cola). Total $26.



(Oh, a note about service in Rio. They charge for just about everything. Wasabi, refills (here everything coke-wise is canned, so no taps), etc. So pace yourself if you plan on drinking while you eat. And watch what condiments you get. If it ain't on the table aforehand, it prolly will cost a bit.)



The weather was great. There was a band playing, and lots of couples walking around hand-in-hand. The band played the Girl from Ipanema, as well as a Portuguese version of several American classics – Nirvana's "Come as you are" and some Beatles – some conga songs and more. About 1:30am local, tho, it kicked up a rain storm. It had drizzled for a few minutes, nice warm rain. Then bam. Wind was blowing, girls were screaming and giggling – especially when it would blow the umbrellas over the table a little and a spout would hit someone on the ass.



After some discussion with the waiter (the bill was not itemized, and it took us twenty minutes to figure out what was the price for which item, since it was all hand-written except for the receipt which only had the amounts, not the items), we paid the bill, and then Roberto ran to get the car.



We dropped off Caroline, and then Roberto & Flavia dropped us off at Rio Mar, and we called it a night about 2:45am local.



I stayed up til sunrise this morning, trying to figure out when the sun came up. I'd forgotten that in the Southern hemisphere, days are currently getting longer as summer approaches. (It's spring here.) Sunrise is at 6:00am local, sunset at 19:16pm. It's like Jacksonville a little, in that in the morning, no one is on the beach. The beach here in Tijuca is narrower than in Jax, but the waves are great, and the water looks a helluva lot cleaner.



I'll write up Monday evening shopping with Dani and Ani in Barra Shopping (the largest shopping center in Rio) tomorrow. I'm also going to try and catch the sunrise. We're facing south here, so once can see the sun rise and set on the ocean, unlike in Jax where the sun rises over the Atlantic and sets over the St. John's.



I´m also posting the first batch of pictures soon. To see my photo gallery, go to http://photos.yahoo.com/clintonhlowery