Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Trip - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Panama City, Panama

We had a Bodies Revealed exhibition open in Rio de Janeiro on September 27, so on the 23rd, I went to Brazil.  The Delta flight was 9.5 hours and unfortunately, there were three young (spawns of Satan) children sitting two rows behind me that made this flight, by far, the worst one I had ever been on.  What makes parents think that small children can behave themselves on a 9.5 hour flight?  And when the children don’t behave, why don’t the parents take them into the lavatory and wear out their backsides?  Call me old fashioned, but I see NO reason whatsoever to allow children to scream, argue, fight, and bicker loud enough to irritate numerous other travelers for 9.5 hours!  Trust me, I wasn’t the only one complaining.

I don’t really put the blame on the children, though, because they will only do what they are allowed to do.  The parents did absolutely NOTHING to curb their childrens’ behavior.  The fighting, arguing, bickering, yelling and squealing went on for the entire flight.  I had to ask the flight attendant to say something to them three different times. 

I can tell you one thing, if I had behaved that way when I was a child, my mother would have snatched me bald-headed…and we wouldn’t have even taken time to visit the freakin’ lavatory!  It would have happened right there in front of God and everyone!  Then she would have dared anyone to say a word to her about it.

Speaking of lavatories…I have a thing about using an airplane lavatory, so once I got off the plane, all I cared about was this:

But I digress…to sum up my trip, below is a cut & paste email that I sent to Jimmy and Josh on my second day there:

I just had lunch, consisting of chicken (at least I think it was chicken), corn, peas, beets, rice, black beans, and a lettuce/tomato salad. They don’t cook any of their vegetables apparently. The corn, peas and beets were all raw. The local General Manager is Brazilian and ordered for us.
There are no urinals in the mens room, only commodes.
There are no wash cloths in the hotel. Apparently that’s standard in a lot of non-US countries.
They don’t iron their clothes and don’t provide irons at the hotel.
You have to leave your hotel key/card at the hotel desk so if you get mugged, the mugger doesn’t know where your “stuff” is.
You have to keep a hotel business card with you so the cabbies know where to take you because they don’t speak English.
And contrary to what everyone says, there IS a language issue here.
 I had to eat pringles and oreos last night for dinner because the restaurant I went to first couldn’t understand me. I found a little market next to the hotel and found what looked like pringles and oreos. After I opened them, I was glad that’s what they were.
I’m ready to come home now.
I’m really ready to come home now.
I’m really ready to come home right now.

Later in the week, I went to the top of Corcodova Mountain to see Christ the Redeemer.  What a magnificent statue!
    

A few days later, I went to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain and enjoyed beautiful views of Rio de Janeiro.  If you want views, Sugarloaf is the place to go.  The views are okay from Corcodova, but much better from Sugarloaf.

On September 30, I left Rio de Janeiro and headed to Panama City, Panama.  While it was easier to communicate in Panama, Rio was definitely a more scenic area.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any Panama pics because I got sick later in my stay, when I had planned to do some sightseeing.

Posted by Jerry at 16:19:54 | Permalink | Comments (5)