Rio - from the air...

One of the many benefits of being the wife and daughter of the big cheese is that sometimes you get to do EVEN MORE really cool stuff...

Ricardo Malaguti was booked by ESPN many months ago for the duration of the World Cup. He is the helicopter pilot for all of their aerial footage - paid for by Goodyear, since the blimp is not making an appearance this time around :

https://www.facebook.com/GoodyearBlimp/photos/a.381994475167.167030.376629715167/10152163284530168/?type=1

And that's a good thing!
Ricardo volunteered to borrow his dad's Bell Long Ranger for us to take a tour on ESPN's "day off" (Jed's first one since Memorial Day).  Although it was hazy, and we couldn't see things like Christ the Redeemer, it was supremely cool. I got to ride up front; my 1st time ever, and I was as giddy as Nicole :)

Never, since having taken my one course in Helicopter Dynamics (I passed, barely) - had I gotten to sit next to the pilot, and watch him control his craft. I forgot to look at, or even take a picture of the instruments, and was unable to answer all of Jed's later questions about altitude and speed ... I totally failed as a co-pilot :(

But back to the day : The hangar was immaculate, and housed not only his fleet of 2 man helicopters, but also some brand new Dauphins belonging to execs that need a quick way to get to Sao Paulo. I was in heaven!

Nic's favorite had an iridescent rainbow paint job...

Our Ride  : 

1st we headed NE to Barra Beach - 18km long ... 

Found this on Wikipedia : "Although representing only 4.7% of the city population and 13% of the total area of Rio de Janeiro, Barra is responsible for 30% of all tax collected in the city."  In other words, it's the nice part of town.

As compared to what we see next, the largest hill favela in Rio de Janeiro - Rocinha :

It is impossible to describe the sight, and I still don't truly feel it. I think we need to drive through one to understand what just can not be experienced from the air. (don't worry, we have a very capable local driver with a well equipped car). 

The buildings are all tumbled on top of each other, as if they were made by a toddler with their first set of building blocks ... you know how they don't line up well, and finally fall over when stacked too high?

Many of the buildings are not completed on the top floor ... just a perimeter wall of concrete block - as if waiting for someone else to come and build another story above. 

Then on to Impanema (the next beach SW of Copacabana) ... Not too crowded today since there was little sun : 

And then to the point between Impanema and Copacabana (note the long white roof on the farther point - to the right) : 

The ESPN compound sits just inside that long white roof (below, center). Also, FIFA has offices and some broadcast sets in the building to the right of ESPN - it bridges Atlantica Avenue and has a blue mural on the wall (that Geoff Mason convinced the Mayor of Rio to install, since the building is really ugly and is in the background of many of the shots from the set) :

You can see the mural being painted on the side of the compound is coming along well : 

And the soccer pitch Jed paid to have installed on top of the rescue station where we get to go watch some really talented analysts play ball tomorrow : 

Our hotel is the one that looks like it has a house in the middle : 

And the Fan Fest on the beach was empty today with no matches being played : 

Site of Friday's match GER-FRA. We will be there, but only through regulation, as Bob Ley and Jed have to get back to the studio for the BRA match... I think they have a police escort set up .. we'll see!!

Soaking it all in : 

Olympic construction is truly shocking, the only buildings that are standing are those that already existed and are being rehabbed, such as the downtown stadium built in 2007 for the Pan-Am games :

This is the main venue for the Olympics (back in Barra now, we have circled around to the NW and have headed down South again ) : 

That big dirt area was once a motor speedway, and even now only has the foundations of all the buildings to come. The building on the left will be used - it is now their concert hall (as in rock concerts, etc).

And for the ride home, some beers & wine for us... while a snooze for another : 

Back from the Amazon...

When you take one thousand photos or so, it's hard to sort through and make any sense of them.
So rather than bog myself down ... I'm going to continue with life as it's happening, and post the Amazon stuff when I can.  Every minute is fun here, and I don't want to waste in on the computer!

That said, yesterday and today were too much fun to miss.

Although the US lost, it wasn't because we weren't supporting them :

didn't help though.... nor did @theLastCallHat :

So very interesting to listen to the analysts as they sit around watching the game on the Last Call set ... 1/2 of it is in some sort of soccer-player code ... similar to sailing dialog I guess (I didn't record it since I thought that would be in bad taste)...

Then, just before half-time, they all jump up and go over to the set to prepare to explain the highlights (wedged in around the inevitable ads). Everyone gets to see this part, albeit from a different angle : 

More later tonight!! (we got to see Copacabana from a helicopter)

The Choco-Museo

What to do with a 7 year old in Lima?
Visit ruins? Wander around a museum looking at ancient artifacts? Nope!
I found the Choco-museo ... where you could take a workshop and learn the history of Chocolate in South America! Score!!

After a quick trip to Pizza Hut for lunch (peruvian street fare is not very safe, and not exceptionally appealing to my less-than-adventurous eating companion) ... we walked to the Museo.

We got to roast cocoa beans in a clay pot, then separate the beans from the husks:

Pound them into paste with a mortar & pestle :

Make both Mexican (no milk, but with hot pepper powder) & Spanish hot chocolate (yes milk with cinnamon & cloves) :

 And then proceeded on to the fun and mess:

And finito!

so true : 

Hopefully, we will be able to keep from eating all the chocolate, Jed asked to try some ... !

Peru...

Next stop ... Peru!

We left the hotel at the ungodly hour of 3:30am after staying up late to watch the USA tie POR ... 4 hours of sleep for Nic & I...

Not that you can read it, but the clock reads 4:11am ... ugh!

We had already gotten the luggage "wrapped", to help keep unwanted fingers out :

And after a five and a half hour flight, made it to Lima, Peru. We checked into the lovely Belmond Miraflores Park hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean: 

Our room is HUGE (thank you Elizabeth Kratzig & the Continental Travel Group : mailto://ek@continentaltravelgroup.com), and aside from the San Diego-like June Gloom ... it is a beautiful place. 

A very residential neighborhood ... but we found one very cool thing to do : visit the Chocolate Museum. I'll upload that next... !

Nic's World Cup Sticker Collection

I don't know how it happened, but just by luck, we have gotten connected with one of those random things that tie you in to the local community; it has opened doors and created conversations we never would have had without it...

It is our World Cup Sticker Book by Panini. As it turns out, Panini cards are collected and traded all over the world, and we are just ignorant. We happened to find our book at the Toy Chest in West Hartford, CT when we were there picking up our Brazilian visas at the consulate: 

We bought the book and 5 packs of stickers on a whim, and started working on it during the 1st USA match against Ghana, while we were still in JTN (Note: Landon Donovan made the book, but not the team;)  

Since then, I am sure we have spent nearly US$50 buying packs of stickers... it took a couple of days in Rio to find where to buy them (the news stands), but once we did, we were off again in force.

Problem is, as you go on, you collect more and more duplicates, and get fewer and fewer ones you need. Luckily, at one news stand, a nice lady asked in Portuguese/sign language if we had any to trade (cambio) ... we rushed to the hotel and brought back our duplicate stack... and pronto!... we were part of a club ... an obsessive club, where some people keep hand-written lists of the cards they still need, and others use the on-line app to keep track of their collection.

We then started making friends wherever we brought out "the book" ... all the staff in our hotel have exhausted trading their collections amongst themselves, so they were happy to look at what we had to offer ... 

It's incredible! And I can't imagine a better way to engage the real people in Rio ... as compared to all those World-Cup crazed tourists who sit in cafes and watch the games and drink beer all day. 

to be continued... 

Horseback riding in Brazil

Nicole has been asking me for riding lessons all winter, and seeing as I haven't followed through, I was feeling a bit guilty. 

So when our driver, Flavio (grand master black belt, carrying)  mentioned she could go riding here in Brazil, Nicole was all for it. 

Flavio & Nicole outside our hotel : 

I was a bit unsure ... the thought of Nic on a horse riding up mountain trails when she has not really mastered riding was a bit too much to swallow. But I was game to go check it out. 

When we arrived at one of the most lovely, manicured stables and riding fields in a valley south of Rio, I was much relieved ... 

Nic got a miniature pony named Bombom (bunny tail in Portuguese) ...

Flavio had smoke (yes, the horse sank a bit when Flavio got on ;) : 

and I had Tarzan : 

We rode around the compound for an hour, with Nicole being led by a nice guy, whose name I could not pronounce. 

I'm sure we never exceeded the speed limit : 

On the way home, Falvio drove us past the future Olympic venue, and the Olympic village ... all of which are way behind construction schedule.   This will not be the home of the sailing venue ... that's up north in the bay.