Adios Buenos Aires, Bom Dia Rio!

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Buenos-Aires-Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro

Adios Buenos Aires, Bom Dia Rio!

Bom Dia from Rio de Janeiro!

Llew and I spent most of the day airborne but we got through the heart of South America by plane as we cruised above the Pampas and the Rain Forest 35,000 feet above sea level as our travels continued.

Last Breakfast in Buenos Aires:

Up after a leisurely lie-in, Llew and I were glad that we finished off our packing last night. This left time for showers and to eat a leisurely brekkie for the last time in the Grand Hotel Recolleta. 

We settled down with Jacqueline and Tim as we devoured our delicious black muesli studded with dried fruit and nuts, vanilla yogurt and decaf coffee.  Goodbyes were said to my colleagues whom I shall now see in New York in September at the start of a new academic year.

We checked out of the hotel, had the Receptionist bring us a taxi to our door and off we went for our one-hour ride through the city to the airport for our flight to Brazil on the next lap of our travels.

As it was Sunday, the city was still asleep as we skimmed through the snazzy Recolleta neighborhood in the cab of a driver named Joao de Silveira  who happened to be from Brazil and spoke Portuguese. It was a good omen to the beginning of our exploration of the neighboring former Portuguese colony.

Lack of traffic on the streets as we ploughed through Ave 9 Julio past the Obelisk and the Colon Thetaer and took to the highway made us arrive at our airport destination within the hour.

A Wonderful Couple of Flights on Azul Airlines:

We found our Azul Airlines, a Brazilian Airlines, counter—which, for some reason, I thought was a budget airline. We got boarding cards for both sectors of our journey that would take us from Buenos Aires to São Paulo where we had a connecting flight. From there, it would be a short one-hour flight to Rio. But the trip would take us all day and darkness would have descended firmly over the city by the time we arrived in Brazil. I was excited to be back as I had come to know the city really well, four years ago, when I had arrived for a conference. 

We found both legs of our flight to be very comfortable indeed. Believing that we were on a budget airline and because we wanted to finish up the Argentinian pesos we were carrying before we got to Brazil, I spied a Mcdees and bought two meals with their new signature burgers. Llew and I shared the Bacon Smokestack burger on the flight with diet cokes and fries and I have to say that the burger was fabulous—it was the first burger I was having made with the legendary Argentinian beef and it was divine. As it happened, we were also served drinks (Llew and I tried something called Cashew juice which I quite liked but which he did not and which smelled of feni!) and chicken rolls. We put ours away and decided to have them for a picnic lunch after our sightseeing in Rio tomorrow.

Our connection in São Paulo was also swift and painless. We had enough time to nip into a Hudson-type newsagent’s shop to pick up a magnet of the city and the we were airborne again and making the final sector of our flight into Rio. 

Yes, it was night time in winter by the time we arrived in Rio where I did catch a faint and very small glimpse of the statue of Christ the Redeemer on the mountain that is known as Corcovado before we touched down. We changed about $100 to local reals and then hailed an Uber which got us to our friend’s place in the neighborhood of Gloria in just ten minutes for about $2. It was unbelievable.

Reunion with Rosana:

We were delighted to meet Rosana again (we had last seen her about two years ago in New York and I have stayed in her spare apartment in Gloria here in Rio about four years ago). We took the lift up to her terrace apartment and walked the one floor up to settle down in her beautiful flat that overlooks the neighborhood of Gloria (which has always reminded me a little bit of the Bombay suburb of Bandra). 

Rosana, Llew and I then had a little natter as we got ready for dinner—she had prepared a delicious eggplant lasagna that she took out of the oven for us and placed directly on the table on the terrace. We were amazed by now much warmer Rio was and Llew was pleased that he would actually get to use the T-shirts and shorts he had carried. I have nothing really summery to wear—so my clothing will probably be pretty out of place in this weather.

Not to be daunted, we enjoyed dinner over red wine (for the two of them) and water for me. The lasagne was great and was followed by vanilla ice-cream with guava jelly to flavor it. It was wonderful.

I then decided to shower and get more comfortable as Rosana showed us how the bed worked in her spare room. When all was prepared for the night ahead, we said goodnight and settled down after what had been basically a day spent in transit.

We are excited to be in Brazil and we look forward now to the next four days which will allow us to explore this beautiful city of beaches, museums, mountains and mint-flavored cocktails called caprinhas.

Until tomorrow...