My least favorite part of traveling is the long plane ride. I got pretty lucky on the flight from LAX to Toronto - I had a whole row to myself, which was pretty sweet.
The Toronto-Rio leg was interesting. First, there was less than an hour between when the first flight landed and the second took off, so that was a bit worrisome. I really wanted to pass out on the second flight, as it was over 10 hours, so I had a quick drink at the bar, which was interesting, as I made friends (ish) with three other people on the same plane. One later gave me a Canadian quarter, and real friends give each other money, right? (Remember that, amigos.) There were a lot of young people on the flight, all going to Carnival for the first time. It was also a talkative bunch - I started chatting up the guy next to me, who lives in West LA, and the guy next to him, a visitor from England who was also on my flight from LAX to Toronto.
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| Welcome to Toronto. |
As soon as we landed, the difference in weather was noticeable - it's super hot and humid here, compared to LA's chilly weather. After we finally made it to the hostel, we explored Copacabana, trying to find ATM machines that would let us take out money. After that, we had a nice lunch and explored the beach.
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| I had what's called "the American sandwich" |
Although people have told me that Rio is an expensive city, I'm finding that things are pretty cheap. For example, I had a beer that came out to <$2. And we rented two chairs and an umbrella on the beach that totaled $18 reals, which converts to $4.68. Also, I totally passed out on the beach for what felt like a long time.
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When The Simpsons went to Brazil
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| The beach with Sugar Loaf mountain in the background |
After I came to, I saw a guy wander to the beach holding a news reporter microphone, followed by a camera guy and a couple of helper people. I was watching him for a while (like a creeper) and heard him speak English.
His people noticed me and Jimmy (who was passed out with a shirt over his head) and asked if we spoke English. I gave an (awkward.. because it's me) interview about the traffic so far, if I felt like it was dangerous in Rio, and if I was worried about getting zika (totally am). That was exciting but again.. super awkward. So I don't know if I'm going to make it onto the news. But if you live in the Houston area, make sure you're diligently combing through KPRC Channel 2 news for Andy Cerota maybe interviewing me. He interviewed other people for a longer period of time, so I think they were more interesting than I am. I didn't find out that they cover Houston until after, which may or may not be good, since I'd likely be talking about my beloved Rockets the whole time. My hope is that someone on the Rockets team watched me and sensed that I'm their biggest California fan.
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| Jimmy refused to give an interview, even though they asked him several times. And he didn't even take a picture of me so this is the best picture I got of this. |
Here are some other shots of the beach
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| Brazilian men playing beach volleyball |
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| Charlie Chaplin impersonator |
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| All made out of sand. |
Anyway, we're back at the hostel now. I've had the obligatory passion fruit caipirinha and am ready to pass out.
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