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• Uneventful flight SFO-IDO (Washington D.C.). United changed our seats assignment, Maggie was pissed.
• In IDO, ordered Pizza at Subway, took it to Gordon Bierch to eat with beer. Both Natan & Maggie got carded.
• Long flight to BA with some turbulences and very little sleep.
• None of the 3 ATM at the BA airport working. Exchanged some dollars for pesos at an outraged rate of 3.02, while the rate in town was 3.44-3.50 pesos to the dollar. Very bad first impression.
• Checked in at the club level of the Marriott located by Plaza San Martin – great location to access the underground and walking distance from city center, however, small non-view very disappointing room.
• Strolled along Florida St. (a pedestrian St.) which is mentioned in all tour books as a major shopping avenue. The expected wide and fancy street turned to be not so wide, not so fancy and definitely very crowded. A lot of pedestrians, vendors selling stuff in the middle of the street, and some amateur performers playing and dancing for tips.
• Continued to Café Tortoni, a tourist must. Not our cup of tea (no pun intended), but the coffee, milkshake and cake were very good.
• Dinner at a restaurant along the promenade of Puerto Madero. The cold cuts & Cheeses plate and the local beer were, surprisingly, very good.
• Free 2 ½ hours guided walking tour of downtown and the old city (www.BAfreetour.com)
• Visited Metropolitana Cathedral on our own – watched the guard change inside, next to General San Martin’s mausoleum. Casa Rosada (presidential palace) was closed for renovation.
• Great dinner at Puerto Madero’s Cabana Las Lilas famous restaurant with large steaks (400g), excellent Pinot Noir and a bunch of freebies. Negotiated the bill for the cover charge (for bread & mesa) served without asking for it.
• Free 2 hours guided tour of the Recoleta Cemetery, including Eva Peron’s crypt. Left the tour half way through, got the idea.
• It started to rain so we stopped for coffee at a café next to the cemetery. We found out later that it is a very well known historical café. Since it still rained we took a cab to the subway station line “C” to find out it is not working. Still raining, so we took another taxi to line “A” to find out it is not working either. By now we realized the whole subway system is down. Since it was still raining we stop for lunch and beer at yet another coffee shop. We basically got the worse combination – the continuous rain did not allow us to walk around for sightseeing, and the subway system being down forced us to move around by taxis.
• We discovered how to get to the market (Fruits & Vegetables Mercado) by bus. When we got there at 4:30pm it was closed for siesta, so we killed about half an hour at an internet café. The market turned to be a major disappointment, relatively very small and nothing much to see.
• By now, the subway system was operative again so we took the subway back to the hotel.
• We later found out that the subway system was down not because it broke down but rather due to a strike.
• Train ride to Tigre, a beautiful town about an hour outside BA. We walked for an hours along the river, visited the fabulous open market and embarked on an hour boat ride in the delta. Good to be outside the big city.
• On the way back to BA the train broke down and all passengers had to step out and cramp into the next train which was pretty full when it arrived to the station where we waited.
• In the evening we went to watch Tango dancing in the park (recommended by the guys on the train). It was the real thing, started slow with the locals, young and old dancing and got heated up when a professional couple performed on stage.
• Stopped for a Pizza dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant that charged us cover charge. Their explanation: need to wash the white table cloth that covered the table, no kidding!
• San Telmo Plaza Dorrego – sat down for coffee and watched the 2 couples that were dancing Tango for tips.
• Natan stayed to sip his coffee and watch the dancers, while Maggie walked around the Square and side streets for site seeing. Maggie got attacked by a young boy who tried to pull the necklace from around her neck. She kicked the boy while a merchant from a nearby store chased him with a stick. The snatching was unsuccessful. To avoid future attempts Maggie took it off and put it in her wallet. She intended to place it in the safe deposit box, back in the hotel.
• Spent the afternoon at La Boca – pedestrian Caminito St. is a very crowded short street with colorful houses, and many restaurants with outside sitting and a Tango shows. We had a beer and watched the Tango show, then moved to a coffee shop where we sipped our coffee and watched another Tango show. A large tip got us a picture with the dancers. After watching several Tango shows, at the park, Florida st., and Caminito – we got tangoed out, thus we cancelled our dinner & Tango show reservations.
• Dinner at Palermo’s recommended steak restaurant (another 450g piece of meat). We arrived at 9:00pm; there were about 10 people in the restaurant (out of a 200 capacity). We were concerned that it is an indication of the restaurant quality. By the time we left (10:45pm) the restaurant was full with people, and others waiting outside for a table. The steaks were grilled in such a way that only when Maggie (undercooked) and Natan (overcooked) exchanged their dishes both could enjoy.
• For the record, Natan wanted to take the ferry boat to Uruguay (1 hr). Maggie wanted to see the famous Sunday Market in San Telmo. So we ended up in San Telmo’s market – a flea market with a lot of junk, what a waste of time. Again, we set at a café around the plaza where we met 2 Israeli couples and cheat chat with them for a while.
• We walked back to the city center for more sightseeing.
• Afternoon was dedicated to R&R at the hotel.
• Maggie decided she could not leave BA without buying something. While leaving the hotel for shopping, we met an Israeli couple from Palo Alto in the hotel lobby. We talked with them for few minutes and gave them our Buenos Aires tour book since they just arrived with no written material.
• Maggie bought a sweater. On the way to the pub, after the shopping Maggie’s wallet was stolen. That killed the mood for the rest of the day and evening – financially not a big loss (about $70), however, the necklace that was placed in the wallet the day before was still in the wallet in addition to the Visa and ATM cards. The feeling of being violated and the hassle of cancelling the cards stayed with us for few days.
• On the way to dinner talked to a policewoman about the pick pocketing. She took us to the police station where nobody spoke English – what a waste of time and energy.
• No one waited for us at the airport. We called the hotel to find out our driver is on his way. Apparently they had a wrong flight number. The driver was only 20 minutes late.
• El Galpon del Glaciar, a working ranch with a lodge 20km outside of town, became our home for the next 2 nights. Cost of cab to town 70 pesos ($20) each way. However, we found out that our rate included: a guided walk around the ranch, which is a nature reserve. We watched sheep shearing and the working sheepdogs in action, a huge meat and buffet dinner with a professional Tango show, all within the ranch premises. The activities made up for the disappointment of being so far from the town. That night there were a total of 6 guests in the lodge.
• Discovered the red wine Malbec. Liked it a lot.
• The excursion bus which was supposed to pick us up from the hotel was 45 min late. One hour drive to the park.
• Perito Moreno Glacier mini tracking activity started with a short lake crossing of Lago Argentino to the beginning of the hiking trail. A nice 30 min land hike followed by a 90 min mini tracking on the glacier. It was a first for us. For the glacier walking portion we had to wear special spikes (crampons) over the boots, to avoid slippage.
• We gave one boxed lunch to a young Dutch couple that look like they needed the food more than we did.
• On the way back we stopped at a vista point overlooking the North face of the Perito Moreno glacier vs. the Southern face which we had tracked earlier.
• Tonight we were the ONLY guest at the lodge. We had a nice dinner at the place and order our newly discover read wine, Malbec.
• We traveled by public bus from El-Calafate, AR to Puerto Natales, CL. The bus left at 8:30am; the station was busy with many travelers (mainly backpackers), however, the only coffee shop at the bus station was closed which we found it to be very strange.
• The border crossing was an amazing experience, about an hour on each side.
• Puerto Natales was extremely windy; we never experienced such strong winds.
• We were picked up for a ride to the Eco- Camp. On the way we stopped for lunch and a visit to an amazing huge cave that once sheltered a prehistoric sloth, the Milodón.
• We checked in into Eco-Camp, a deluxe tent camp of large igloo-shaped tents; it was very windy and rainy, but not too cold. Entering the tent, a fire was lit at the fireplace and the place looked homier. Natan blessed Maggie for choosing (against his wish) a suite vs. a standard dome. We later found out that the suite not only had a toilet and shower inside the dome, but also a fireplace to keep the dome warm.
• That evening we had orientation and dinner with the other travelers that arrived that day and form a new group. Our guide Charlie (young women) was assigned to us for the duration of our stay.
• We were surprised to find out that the shower head and water flow are the best we have seen in any hotel.
• Again, the weather was bad – windy and rainy
• We had an amazing daytrip that could have been much better with the sun out. We traveled, in a van, across the park to Grey Glacier. Along the way, we stopped to visit the Salto Grande waterfall and took a quick hike (one hour roundtrip) to the Mirador Nordenskjold for views of Los Cuernos and the French Valley. We were supposed to see stunning views; instead we saw very cloudy views (what a shame). In the afternoon the weather cleared up a bit. We boarded a ferry for cruising across the Lago Grey to close to the walls of Grey Glacier which is the end of the Southern ice field.
• Dinner was a total disappointment even the free wine could not make up for it.
• Due to bad weather, yet again, we did not do the 8 hours hike to the base of the Torres. Instead, we did a van trip and 3 hours hike to observe the local wildlife, including guanaco, foxes, nandus (Patagonean Rhea), condors and Patagonian flamingo. One of the girls in the group saw a puma, however, by the time the van stopped and backed off the puma started to move away. Natan and the guide were the only ones who were lucky enough to see its back. The group spread around climbing on the hills for a chance to encounter the puma again but to no avail. With the day progressing, the weather started to clear, enabling better views, although from a distance, of the Torres. We will never know whether Option A (hike to the Torres) was better than option B (wildlife observation) or vice versa.
• Dinner today for the great finale was reasonable.
• Rain again
• Long 6 hours drive to Punta Arenas (with another couple from camp) for boarding the cruise ship. On the way we stopped at Puerto Natales for an hour and a half lunch break. We skipped lunch, instead walked a bit around the town center unsuccessfully struggling with several ATMs (all in Spanish). We called Citibank in the US to ensure Natan’s ATM card is valid. Citibank confirmed it was.
• We checked in for the cruise at Punta Arena’s downtown office. Our luggage was taken to the ship by a truck; however, we had to walk to the dock to board the ship. On the way, we finally managed to get cash, of cause Natan took credit for the successful attempt.
• The wind was unbelievingly strong, 140 km/h; we never experienced such strong winds in our lifetime. We needed to hold lamp posts on the street in order not to be blown away. Walking on the pier to board the ship was even scarier, since there was water on both side of the pier and little to hold on to.
• Upon boarding the ship we were assigned a table for our meals. We were pleased to find out that we are sharing the table with a nice Israeli couple whom we met in the lounge during orientation, and 2 young Swiss backpackers that are traveling for a year around the world. Dinner was good, and in comparison to Eco-Camp even excellent.
• We finally slept peacefully in a quite cabin vs. the Eco-Camp dome where you could hear the rain and wind pounding on the plastic all night long.
• The morning walking excursion at Ainsworth Bay was so-so; we saw 2 elephant seals from a distance and a lot of flora.
• The lecture about Penguins and other birds was very interesting.
• The afternoon excursion to Tucker Island was fabulous. This time we did not disembarked but rather stayed sitting on the zodiac. We floated a few yards from the island’s cliffs and shores where we were able to clearly watch colony of Cormorants, Dolphin gulls, Chimango caracara, many other birds and the cute Magellan Penguins. It was very exciting to watch the penguins’ funny walk and coming to shore from the water. We were told that we were lucky that day to see so many species. It was by far an outstanding excursion.
• We spent another wonderful evening with our newly acquainted Israeli couple.
• This morning we attended 2 lectures: Patagonia, from Ice to Flowers and Glaciology.
• After lunch we disembarked at Pia Fjord. The zodiac had difficulties to get to the shore due to massive amounts of small ice chunks that were floating around the Pia Glacier. It appears that earlier a massive part of the glacier fell into the water and broke into thousands of little ice pieces. It felt really special to be in a zodiac surrounded by so many ice pieces. A short walk through a rocky path led us to a magnificent panoramic view of the glacier – What an amazing view!!
• Afternoon navigation was along Avenue of the Glaciers, 5 huge glaciers named after 5 European countries: Spain, Germany, France, Italy and Holland. As we passed in front of each glacier the crew brought food and drinks typical to that country, such as hotdogs and beer for Germany, Champaign and Cheese for France, Pizza and white wine for Italy, etc. What a treat and fun experience.
• Friendship seems taking place between us and (Hagai & Dana) the Israeli couple on the ship
• Cape Horn – END OF THE WORLD!!! – What a miserable experience. We climbed the 160 steps in heavy rain, strong winds and cold temps. The weather has not changed a bit during the visit to the memorial statue and the lighthouse. Natan had difficulties to see the Bird in the memorial statue, and got upset when Maggie tried to explain to him where to look. He finally saw it. With all the enduring discomfort we can now checkmark it on our “been there” list.
• The afternoon excursion was a 2 km hike at Wulaia bay to a top of a hill from which we had wonderful vistas of the bay & islands. The not very interesting museum at the bottom of the hill reflects the history of the encounter of Darwin with the local aborigines as well as other local history and legends. It felt good for a change to hike without having to fight the wind and rain, and even enjoy some sunshine.
• The Grand Finale Dinner was very good for a change. Natan had some issues with the prior dinner’s main courses quality & quantity.
• The after dinner farewell party was fun. Natan felt tipsy and wanted to bid on the navigation map which was auctioned at the party. Maggie stopped his nonsense after his first bid. It finally sold for about $300.
• Woke up at 6:00am (by mistake) for coffee before early disembarkation at Ushuaia, Argentina. Coffee bar was closed so we had nothing to do until 7:30am when the dining room opened for breakfast.
• We were picked up by our guide for a city tour. With permission from our guide Hagai & Dana joined us on the tour. We found out that city tour meant 2 stops on the hills for panoramic view of the city and bay, that’s it.
• Yet again, our hotel, Los Nires, is at the outskirt of town. It offers shuttle to town every 2 hours which meant that we needed to use a cab to get to town.
• We dedicated the day to administrative duties: laundry, telephone calls to the moms in Israel and internet. Maya called – she was checking with us whether we will be back home on time to pick up Alex from the airport, since she had a game at Stanford and Alex was flying into the bay area to see her. Although the call was more focused on “I need something”, it was great to hear her voice and chat for a short while.
• We met Hagai & Dana for a great dinner at a recommended seafood restaurant downtown (La Casa de los Mariscos) whose pink color made it seem from the outside as a dive. The food was excellent and so was the company. After dinner we said our goodbyes, and accepted their invitation to contact them and visit them in our May’s trip to Israel.
• Today is mostly travel day from Ushuaia to Bariloche with a plane change in El Calafate.
• It was very cold the night before, so when we woke up we noticed the snow on the hills around Ushuaia, a beautiful view, no wonder the motto for the unexpected weather in Patagonia is “you can have the four seasons in the same day”.
• Our air travel experience started with checking us through to our final destination, however, our luggage was checked in only for the first segment. We were told to pick our luggage at El-Calafate and recheck it in for the continuing flight to Bariloche. We asked the airline why it is so, but nobody had a good answer. From the puzzled look on the airline personnel it appears as nobody asked them this question before. That episode was quite humorous.
• The connecting flight in El-Calfate was 2 hours late due to volcano ashes on the route of the incoming plane. Of course, nobody gave an explanation to why the flight is delayed; we found it later from the news. While waiting in the airport we converse with few people from a large group of middle aged Israelis traveling in South America. Surprisingly, Maggie was nice and participated in the conversation.
• Bariloche Weather was warm and only few white clouds in the sky a nice change from Patagonia Sur.
• The Edelweiss hotel was nice and for a change not far from the center of town.
• The Lamb dinner that night was quite disappointing; the meat was fatty and chewy, but the Patagonian Malbec was very good.
• The whole day (12 hours) was devoted to lakes crossing tour – 4 boat trips on 4 different lakes, and 4 bus trips in between the lakes. The 2 hours lunch break midway was too long, not to mention the border crossing, yet again close to 2 hours. At the last land portion before arriving Punta Varas, we stopped for a short walk to a waterfall; little did we know the “fun” part of the day is just ahead.
• We and a Spanish couple, who were staying at the same hotel as we, were dropped off at city center rather than at the hotel. Our transfer to the Guest House hotel was not in sight. We waited for a while, and then decided to walk to the hotel that is ONLY 4 blocks away from where we were dropped off. We asked several people but nobody seems to know the hotel, its location and the street it’s on; even a Taxi driver had no idea. It started to rain, and a 10 minutes walk turned into a 45 minutes of search & walk to the hotel that turned to be a B&B rather than a hotel. We arrived at the place around 9:45pm. We felt relief that we had a room for the night. The Spanish couple who wondered the street with us looking for the hotel were told that due to a mistake, their prepaid reservation was not in the book and since the place was full for the night they had no room for them.
• We had dinner at 10:30pm, a record for us. Fancy restaurant (the only one we could find still serving dinner), with great soup & ceviche but lousy pork chops and goulash.
• That night when we went to sleep, we could hear the person in the adjacent room snoring. We were so tired from the whole day so we slept like babies.
• The hostess at the B&B booked us on a late bus back to Bariloche which we did not like a bit. She claimed the earlier bus was fully booked. We took the matter into our hands. We went to town to the bus company office to find out there were still seats available on the earlier bus; we changed the reservation. By arriving earlier to bariloche we will have the opportunity to see some of the city.
• Larer, we took a local bus to Puerto Montt, a nearby port city. We visited the market place. What a dump, but nice to walk around. The highlights: seafood and cheeses sold out of a wheelbarrows (really!).
• We returned to Punta Varas, again by local bus and strolled the downtown which up to now had no chance of visiting.
• Dinner was at a local dive (Don Jorge) where Natan & Maggie were the only tourists. There was a soccer game on TV, and the locals were cheering every time their team was on the offensive. Natan had a good stake, fried in a pan, and Maggie had a pretty disgusting bowl of seafood mix (the kind of mix we saw earlier in the wheelbarrows).
• Today we returned back to Bariloche, but this time in a public international bus. The ride took 7 hours, 2 of them were dedicated to border crossing. By now we are expert on border crossing between Argentina & Chile.
• We returned to the Edelweiss hotel and got up upgrade to a very nice suite with lake view.
• Since we arrived relatively early, we strolled around the downtown street and bought very good dark chocolate. By the number of chocolate stores we realized how big of a deal the industry is for them. Weather was nice for a change.
• The dinner at the town outskirt El Patacon, where former president Bill Clinton dined, was fabulous. We got a welcome drink while waiting for our table. The restaurant has also a boutique at the entrance allowing customers to browse around and potentially buy something while waiting for their table. Maggie did not fall for the trick. The excellent quality and enormous quantity of the food were up to the place’s reputation. After eating a lot we still had about a third of the food left, so we took a doggy bag.
• The flight from Bariloche to Puerto Iguazu via Buenos Aires was late (what’s new?), only 1 hour this time.
• Maggie is very sick. While Natan had an easy cold a few days earlier and by now is over it, Maggie has horrible sinus headaches, fever and continuously watering eyes and running nose.
• The Jungle Lodge, our hotel for the next 3 nights is in a beautiful setting, with beautiful large units with balcony and kitchenette. Location: 20-30 min uphill walk to city center.
• At 7:00pm, with 30 degrees Celsius and high humidity, Natan walked to the town center to buy some food for his sick wife. He returned after an hour with fruits, vegetables, beer, wine, jar of olives and small pizza – special for his sick wife. We had a lovely dinner at the room. Natan had the leftover stake with cold beer; Maggie had the Pizza.
• The privately guided excursion to the Argentinean side of the Iguazú Falls was amazing. We watched the cascading water from various angles. We began the day by boarding a small train to Devil's Throat Station, where there's a suspended walkway with spectacular views. Later we explored the two walking circuits, beginning with the upper walk which is about a quarter-mile long and takes approximately 45 minutes. From there we could see the several famous waterfalls. Our guide mentioned their names as we were able to remember any of them. Upon finishing the upper circuit we rode through the jungle in a rugged 4x4 vehicle, to the nearby of Puerto Macuco. There, we boarded a small boat that navigated four miles along the lower Iguazú River to get closer to some of the falls. The boat got so close to one of the falls that we got soaked, or as our guide pronounced it soak-ket. We disembarked at the beginning of the lower circuit, which was winding uphill and has been described as the "most beautiful thousand meter walk in the world."
• We were dropped in downtown where we found a coffee shop that prepared for us iced coffee.
• Dinner was very good with excellent service. We had great waiter who went along with Natan’s insistence on getting tap water (agua de la canilla) vs. bottled one, against city policy and waiter advise. Finally, he gave up and gave us a glass of ice water (not after we bought bottled one). Surprise, Natan drank the tap water and he is still alive. The music at the restaurant added to the ambience and great evening.
• On the way to/from hotel to town there was a crazy dog (perro loco) that chased and barked at the passing by. Natan decided to protect his woman, so he picked up a stick ready to hit the dog if attacked.
• This morning, we set out on a four-hour open truck safari through the Iguazú Forest. The adventure included a Zip Line over the jungle canopy and rappel down to a 12 m high waterfall that got us totally wet. At the end of the rappel Maggie had difficulties standing on the ramp at the bottom of the waterfall since it was very slippery. Her attempts were quite funny until finally, one of the guides pulled her by a rope to a drier part of the ramp.
• Maggie had a major attitude when she found out what the planned activities were, but after the first section of the Zip Line she enjoyed the activities and the day.
• We got back to the hotel for lunch (leftovers from airline food and hotel’s breakfast items, fruits and vegetables)
• After relaxing for a while we walked to downtown for iced coffee and window shopping. The Café where we had our iced coffee the day before ran out of coffee so we had diet coke instead. The stores were closed for siesta, so much for our little venture to town.
• Our last stake dinner (filet mignon) in Argentina was a major disappointment. The meat was very chewy, the fish, however, was very good.
• As we were leaving, Natan offered his help to 2 Israeli couples next table that wanted more bread sticks but did not know how to ask for it in Spanish. Natan asked the waiter for “Palo Alto Pan”, and although it translates to high stick bread the waiter understood. Natan was proud of his Spanish abilities.
• Concluded the evening at a little outdoor Tango Café
• Finally had a Mate, the national drink that resembles tea but much bitter. Our guide prepared it for us to taste. Although it was not bad, it is definitely something you need to develop taste for.
• Surprisingly, the border crossing from Argentina to Brazil took less than 10 min.
• From the Brazilian National Park we had a panoramic view of the falls (almost 3 km long and 275 cascades). It was an easy walk for about 1 km and lasted about 2 hours including all the stops for pictures and drinks. Seeing the Falls from both sides, the Argentinean and Brazilian we got to the conclusion that if someone has to chose one side over the other, he should do the Brazilian side. The panoramic view, ability to get closer to some of the smaller falls, boat ride and better managed National Park are the reasons behind our conclusion.
• After finishing with the falls, we let our guide return to town to drop our luggage at the hotel while we continue to a 2 hours visit the Bird Park on our own; we took the public bus back to town and the hotel.
• Tonight we decided to change the dinner menu and have Sushi – what a major disappointment, we should stick to the Bay Area Sushi.
• For the first time the plane from Foz to Rio left on time, however, due to terrible lending at the intermediate airport it needed a new tire, a 45 minutes delay.
• On the flight we discovered new Brazilian soft drink, Guarana (diet & regular)
• The weather in Rio at 5:30pm was 36 degrees Celsius with very high humidity.
• Our desired hotel room was not ready (7:00pm), so we went to dinner while they cleaned our room.
• We had a fabulous “Brazilian” type dinner at the close by Palace Restaurant. A grand buffet of salads and appetizers was set up in the middle, while the different types of meats were brought to the table by the waiters. A real feast for 54 real a person.
• Our corner room on the 6th floor had a fabulous view of Copacabana beach.
• The panoramic view from the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, at 1,296 ft (395m) above sea-level, is breathtaking. Two sets of cable cars elevated us to the top of Sugar Loaf. The first brings passengers to the top of Urca Mountain. From Urca Mountain a second set of cable cars brings passengers to the summit with its 360º spectrum of golden beaches, green forests and a thriving city. It was very interesting to see the city slums situated at the foothills and hills surrounding Rio, having the best views; in the Western society the rich usually are the ones that populate this type of topography.
• A walk along Ipanema beach was very disappointing, definitely not what we expected. The demographics was similar to Copacabana, but no cafés or restaurants along the beach. We walked on the beach that was packed (weekend) with hot and not so hot women in the tiniest bathing suit we have ever seen; thin , medium and heavy body type all wearing these tiny bikinis with their breast and bottoms hanging out, a major cultural difference.
• Due to Carnival, we had early dinner at an Arab restaurant next to the hotel. The food was great.
• Carnival – The winner’s parade. This was the last parade for 2009 carnival, where the 6 top winning samba schools parade, each for about an hour with 15 min break in between. We took a taxi (80 real round trip) vs. the hotel arranged transportation (100 real per person round trip). Our seats were great with a good view of the parade. It was a great show, however, not as sexy as expected based on marketing materials. Masses of parade participants in fabulous colorful costumes marched and danced in front of us to very loud samba music. There were only few ladies with limited closing or topless, however, those who were had gorgeous bodies and nice buns, the guys were not bad either. We left at 2:30 am after the 4th school. What a night!!!
• The morning was devoted to visit Christ the Redeemer, a 38 meter high statue who keeps an eye on Rio from an elevation of 710m (2340ft). Poor visibility spoiled otherwise great vista point. A little party with a band took place during our visit celebrating Rio’s 444th birthday.
• Later visited a weekend sidewalk market, a lot of veggies, spices, flowers and cookies.
• We found a sidewalk café not far away from the hotel. Maggie went to the nearby weekend market leaving Natan to sip his coffee and watched the women at the bar. She wore a very short yellow dress with invisible tongs and danced Samba to the sound of a street band. It was exciting how she shook her butt.
• In the afternoon we went to see the biggest mall in Rio. We found it similar to Valley Fair in size, however, many more eateries.
• We decided to have seafood dinner for a change. The recommended upscale restaurant had a fabulous variety of seafood with excellent quality and reasonable quantity.
• The early part of the day was dedicated to a 5 hours walking tour with a private guide of downtown Rio. In addition to being highly enlightening, it gave us the courage to return to downtown the day after all by ourselves.
• We finally went to the beach for sunbathing and swim. Maggie was the only one with a one piece bathing suit. The water was very disappointing – dark with a lot of floating trash. In addition to popsicles, they sell drinks and cut watermelon on the beach. Our mouth was watering when we saw the guy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any cash on us. Maggie went back to the hotel (just across the street) to bring some cash. She came back with the cash, but the watermelon guy never return.
• Of curse we could not leave Rio without having Brazilian BBQ Dinner at the famous Marius’ Restaurant. The place is decorated in a Pirate ambience and has a unique atmosphere. When we were sited, we were asked whether we will have a meat or seafood dinner. We could not understand why they are asking. The appetizers were buffet style with a huge variety of salads, vegetables, sushi and much more. For main course Natan feasted on the different types of excellent tender meats and Maggie on the seafood that was brought to our table by the roaming waiters. The dessert buffet looked as good as the appetizers. We enjoyed the food tremendously, much better quality than the Palace restaurant. The shock was when we got the bill. First, we immediately understood why they asked us whether we will have meat or seafood since they were priced differently. The meat dinner was 97 BR per person, while the seafood 150 BR per person – both outrages prices!!! By the way, there was no price list posted anywhere that we could see.
• It was the last day of our trip. Since our flight did not leave until 10:20pm, we had the whole day ahead of us. Natan arranged for us a late checkout at no charge (6:00pm) which worked out great.
• Natan got up at 5:00am to watch the sunrise over Copacabana beach. The hotel rooftop bar was closed. He could not get coffee anywhere without ordering room service. He went to the beach across the street to take pictures of the sunrise.
• The early morning was dedicated to visit Santa Theresa, a bohemian neighborhood that was highly recommended by books and our guide. We went by metro to downtown where we picked up an old yellow street car that moaned all the way up the hill to Santa Theresa. Half way uphill the street car could not continue due to a disabled bus parked on the rail and no driver in sight. The street car driver with the help from the men onboard tried to push the bus but to no avail. Finally, the street car driver decided to turn the car around and go back, so did we (they also charged us full fee going back).
• We strolled in the downtown market, very large market but nothing special. We noticed there were very few tourists around.
• We spent the afternoon on the beach; this time we brought cash, but the watermelon guy did not show up. From yesterday’s experience Natan did not go swimming.
• The grand finale dinner took place at the Arab restaurant from 2 nights ago. This time with stuffed cabbage and other Middle Eastern goodies – we loved it and it was cheap!
• Off to the airport for our trip back home; our flight seats have been changed by a request from Marius (according to United’s records) from a window and isle to isle and middle seat. Of cause, we have no clue who Marius was (maybe the owner of the famous restaurant). That what the records said and there was nothing they could do. Oh well!!
