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October 09, 2004

Brazil Highlights

We're Home from Brazil!! We survived the 10 hour layover at Dulles before our 9 hour flight to Rio di Janeiro...we slept reasonably well on the plane. Our pickup driver was waiting for us at the wrong terminal so we missed lunch at a Brazillian BBQ type place similar to the one we went to in Richmond VA...only authentic! We didn't miss the tour to H. Stern Jewelry factory though...umm...they will actually drive anyone and their brother sister uncle cousin to their factory tour and back again; it's just part of their marketing scheme. One gets a 10 minute tour and a hard sell for as long as you can take it. "soooo, what gems would madame be interested in viewing...." Ok Ok...I was totally interested in the jewelry and especially the sapphire watches and how they are made ( man-made sapphire hollowed out with the watch face embedded within) Ahem...this is MY sapphire watch!!

So I bet you are wondering about the waterfall....this was on the hotel property. Monday morning a few of us (me red shirt)walked up to the falls...then in the afternoon we took a train to the falls...then Wednesday morning we rode horses to the falls. Getting a feeling there was not a variety of things to do especially if it was cloudy and or rainy? Another group of us went out on a snorkeling trip; the 3 hr adventure was nice since it was sunny, but the snorkeling was disappointing since there was very little to see without coral or rocks to attract the fish. Saw some huge starfish and sand dollars though which was exciting enough.

The food was tastey..I could get used to having fresh papaya; after the firsat day the restaurant staff tried to supply translations of the dishes, "meat with bacon" was bacon wrapped beef tenderloins. Strangely enough the coffee was not that great and sometimes even hard to find. I did however develop a taste for espresso.

This is definitely a country of the haves and have nots. Many of the buildings look like bomb sites...shells of buildings, sites stopped mid-construction and life goes on around them. A lot of the poverty ridden shacks however have sattelite dishes on them though. We traveled along the Green Coast by bus from Rio de Janiero to Angra dos Reis where the resort was located...beautiful coastline and mountainsides. Many people had horses for transportation...they were just sort of tied up or wandering around wherever there was some grass for them to munch on. One was even seen in the median of the exit ramp off a highway into the airport in Rio! Strange. We didn't go up to the top of Sugar Loaf since it was raining, although the people who did go said it turned out to be "ok". We went to a local flea market in Ipanema instead which proved to be reasonably interesting. We bough a couple of hemp bags with "Feira Hippie de Ipanema" printed on them.

This is about all I can muster up for now...I must shower and get off to the post office for goodies we need to pick up.

To comment: Click on Sign in link, After signing in, go back to comments and right click on the "sign-in" link and then click on "open in new window". THEN you should get the comment window!

Posted by frani at October 9, 2004 08:51 AM

Comments

WOW...sounds like a great time!!!

I LOVE the watch...I may need one

Posted by: Risa at October 9, 2004 10:09 PM

Oh yeah WELCOmE BACK!!!

Posted by: Risa at October 9, 2004 10:16 PM

Welcome Back Fran!!

My birthday is in March and the watch would look lovely on my wrist.

I enjoyed the recap. Can't wait to hear more.

L, DA

Posted by: DA at October 10, 2004 09:12 AM

Whew, I finally made it to the comment page, seems like you should have brought a whole case of those watches back!!! xxoo Lizzie

Posted by: Liz at October 10, 2004 08:14 PM

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