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First Half
Buenos Aires Trip, April 17
Second Half
Buenos Aires, April 20
Sao Paolo, April 22
Mario had to finish his medical conference in
Buenos Aires until April 22 while Peter and I proceeded to Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil on April 20. Air Canada did not have any inter-airline
agreement with the airlines going there each of us had to pay US$350 full
fare via
TAM Airlines.
When we arrived at Rio de Janeiro airport we
were told to take a cab certified by the airport authority. Brazil was
quite expensive with an exchange rate of US$1 : BRL 1.72. At such
exchange rate, the cost of living was quite high in Brazil yet along the
highway on our way to the hotel, we saw slums on both sides of the streets.
The low cost dwellings were masked by walls on both sides of the highway.
Rio de Janeiro had numerous tunnels since a
significant percentage of the city was hilly. At any rate, the cab
fare was about US$60 to
Premier
Hotel Copacobana which was at downtown center near the
Copacobana beach. We asked the concierge to flag us a taxi since
most of the populace did not speak English. The concierge assisted us
in translating our destination to
Corocovado where
Christ
the Redeemer was built which was voted as one of the
New 7
Wonders of the World; then to
Sugarloaf
Mountain, then back to the hotel. Peter negotiated the price of
US$70 for the whole trip.
When we got to Corcovado, lo and behold,
Christ the Redeemer was behind bars! The statue was being renovated
and the 2 of us were so disappointed that we did not research more regarding
this yet we paid a hefty amount in our plane fare. The whole statue
was covered in scaffolds and it was really a disappointment.
From Corcovado, we went to
Sugarloaf
Mountain and paid about US$22 for the cable car trip. The mountain
gave tourists a nice overview of Rio de Janeiro. From the mountain,
the cab driver dropped us off at the hotel and we strolled to Copacobana
Beach.
Peter was very excited of taking a dip in the
beach but when we got there, the ocean had a sewery smell - another
disappointment in Rio. We were trying to figure out all the hype but
probably we were just at the wrong time. So as usual, I just ended up
gathering sand for my collection!
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