Some Statistics

I am not sure how accurate some of these numbers are, but we have traveled a lot the last month or so.

• Fly from Teresina (THE) to Portland (PDX): 8200 miles. (Our route took us through Brasilia, São Paulo, Miami, and Dallas/Fort Worth.)
• Drive from Portland to Weiser, Idaho and back to visit family in Idaho: 800 miles.
• Drive to Pacific City, Oregon for a weekend of family togetherness (and back): 200 miles.
• Fly to Tampa Bay, Florida, drive to Ocala, and back to Portland for Patrick and Nyna's wedding: 5400 miles.

That adds to a grand total of 14,600 miles (23,500 Km) per person for the three of us in a period of five weeks—not including travel within the various cities.

We are doing well, and getting adjusted to life here. It isn't without some bumps and the odd bruise, but we are doing well.

In fact, I start work on Tuesday. It is a manufacturing job, and it looks like a good opportunity to get our feet on the ground financially speaking.

There are more updates and photos to come now that we have stopped traveling so much.

In the USA

This is just a short post to let you all know that we have arrived in the US!

We arrived on schedule, and without incedent (though there were plenty of near misses with five flights in a 26 hour period) one week ago today. We spent a couple of days resting, then traveled to Idaho to spend some time with my parents and extended family here. Pictures are coming someday. I think.

We are currently enjoying this time with family through this weekend, then I will probably start working at a somewhat temporary position while I look for a more permanent solution. Then we take off to Florida to see Nádya's sister get married to Patrick (someone bought our tickets for us, which is awesome).

The adjustments and culture shocks are abundant, but we are trying to cope well with them.

Headed To Portland Oregon

We now have plane tickets in our hands for the arduous journey from Teresina to Portland, Oregon! That is important, but some of you have known that for awhile.

What is more important is that we now have confirmation that the visa has been given the official stamp of approval! This means that we can leave on our flight as scheduled—provided the courier does their job in a timely manner. As you may recall, Patrick and Nyna had to delay their trip home because the courier took forever to deliver the package.

As long as the visa gets here, and all the flights are on time, we should be in Portland, Oregon on the 22nd of April at 2:30 PM. After about 26.5 hours of planes and airports we might even have enough energy to say, "Hi!" (And maybe someone can tell me whether or not I actually have an accent in English!)

Kylie: Eight Months

Here are some nearly forgotten images I recently stumbled across in my photo library. They are from Kylie's eight-month-party, which is sort of ironic in that tomorrow is her nine-month-party. As you can see from the photo above, Kylie is beginning to discover what a good cook my mother-in-law is.

Here is the slideshow version of the album (Make sure you can see the captions, there are a couple of narrations by Kylie on some of the photos.).

Here is the album.

Rio de Janeiro In Retrospect

There were are few things that just did not fit in the previous posts about our trip to Rio de Janeiro, which I thought were important. So I have rounded them up in this post.

Rio de Janeiro is a lot larger than Teresina. More people, more cars, more money, more of most things. What surprised me about the culture, though, is that people were more polite. And not just a little.

The Public Transportation System

In Teresina the idea of getting in line for something does not exist (unless there is someone to enforce it). In order to get on the bus here, if there are more than three people at the bus stop, one must fight just to get to the door. No blood no foul.

In Rio de Janeiro people were orderly, and even polite, about getting in line.

I was also impressed that the equipment (the buses and subway trains) was in very good condition, and often had air conditioning. In Teresina the buses are generally pretty old—or at least get to looking that way in a very short time. Air conditioned buses would be a dream.

The bus / Metrô combination worked really well for us. If you don't know Portuguese it might not work as well for you, but a great many people there speak English, so I recommend trying it. Besides, the Metrô website is available in English, so almost anyone could get their route planned easily.

I like riding the bus around to get a feel for a new city. While it isn't always the best form of transportation it does help one familiarize oneself with the basic layout.

Feel

As I mentioned in the second paragraph, as a whole people were a lot more polite than here in Teresina. Many people said "Hi," as we passed on the sidewalk. And almost everyone we asked for help was happy to guide us on our way. It struck me as odd that in such a big city people would do that, while in Teresina people can be a lot more cold. Maybe it is the heat here.

For being so full of people, Rio really felt like a much smaller town most of the time—just sprawled over a lot of area. The geography of the city could have something to do with that. The city is built within the vales of these granite hills that rise from just above sea level to 2000 feet and fall back down to sea level, all within a couple of miles. There is a lot of getting around the mountains to be done.

Our expectation was that we would constantly be hearing "bolas perdidos" (stray bullets) flying around, in some ways. That is the sense of Rio de Janeiro that the national news portrays. I did not hear any. Though, the favelas are different where most of this takes place, and we had no reason or desire to go into any of them.

On a side note, I have found a couple of great blogs by some Americans living and working among the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

I never felt like we were in any immanent danger, but knowing that crime is a huge problem there kept us alert. We also avoided using English at all times, and I avoided speaking at all in buses and on the sidewalks. While my accent might not give me away, a) I don't trust that I don't have an accent, and b) A simple grammatical mistake would be a giveaway that I am a foreigner. Foreigners are often the target of choice for the local banditos, who generally just want to make off with some cash or nice jewelry.

Recommendations

The following are a few things that one might consider while planning a trip to Rio de Janeiro. It is not complete, but I think covers the major things.

• If you are planning a visit to this great city, then do not miss Sugar Loaf, or Christ the Redeemer. Each of these costs R$ 35.00 per person currently, but well worth the trip.
• Know the basic distance (in kilometers) between your various destinations if you are using a taxi, as well as how much it will likely cost. Taxi drivers pick up the little things that give you away as a foreigner very well, and will sometimes "take you for a ride."
• Museums seemed to be plentiful, but we never had time or energy to visit one. When we do return I would like to spend some time seeing the various memorials and museums around the city. Patrick and Nyna visited at least one that looked really interesting from the photos. Maybe Patrick can write a little more about that (hint, hint)?
• Maracanã [*] is one of the largest football stadiums in the world—soccer, if you are in the US. Patrick and Nyna took a tour. From the pictures I saw, I would say this is on the list of must-see things, though maybe toward the bottom.
• Follow basic travel-safety guidelines. Keep your wallet in your front pocket. If you are lost or scared (or both) do not act that way, it is the best way to become prey. Do not carry to much cash with you (and not in your shoe, as you could end up barefoot and broke!).

Closing

Though the primary purpose of our trip was to do Nádya's visa interview at the US Consulate, we did get to do some of the fun things there are to do in Rio de Janeiro. We noticed a big difference in the cultures of Rio and Teresina, and really enjoyed ourselves once the stress was over. If you are considering a trip to Rio de Janeiro, stop considering and go. By far, it is one of the most interesting cities I have visited.

I am open to questions or comments if anyone has something you want to know. Hope you enjoyed the series! (And if you did feel free to share it with others.)

This entry is the closing segment of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. If you liked the series, try subscribing to the RSS feed or getting updates via email.

Rio de Janeiro Day Seven: Rest and Return

The photo above is very significant in our adventures of our last day in Rio de Janeiro. But it came late in the day, so I will first tell you the events that lead up to this dramatic ending.

Saturday Morning

The previous five days of carrying Kylie around the city had all but worn us out. She is over 20 pounds now, and at eight months she does not yet walk on her own. That leaves few options to parents far from home with no stroller near at hand, so carry her we did.

We decided that it would be good just to relax and take it easy as we prepared for our departure. We had our breakfast, did some wash, cleaned up around the apartment, and got our suitcases packed during the morning hours.

Lunch was an interesting mixture of cleaning out the fridge. We had purchased some groceries and done a lot of our own cooking to save money. Afterward we went to return a map we had borrowed to Mark and Helen's apartment just a short walk away.

The Last Meal

One of the very good ideas we had that day was to eat out for our last meal in Rio. We had eaten lunch at a place called "Otto" on Thursday. It is a very good German/Brazilian resturant on Rua Uruguai. The lunch had been so good that I was really ready to go back—what is more it was very economical.

The dinner prices were higher, which was a bit of a surprise, but the food was still excellent. We had oven baked chicken in gravy with mashed potatoes and an exquisite risotto. It cost about US $15 for the two of us, and there was enough left over for two more people to eat.

To the Airport

I am a visual learner, which is why I love to be able to schedule things on my computer's calendar; I can see where conflicts will arise, and re-arrange if need be. Since the laptop broke I have been using a desktop computer, and typically have had no regrets about that.

All day Nádya had been concerned that we were planning things to late, and wanted to get an early start to the airport. I kept saying, "Relax, we are fine." Our flight was at seven. It was six when it finally clicked in my head that we should already be at the airport. I didn't feel stupid, or even really panicked. Just late.

The taxi was backing up to the stairs so we could load our ready-packed bags at that very moment. We bundled into the taxi, and headed off. As we left I had a lingering wish that I had been able to plan the day in my normal way. "Oh well," I thought, "We will get there in time and everything will be fine."

Now, I do not understand completely how the fare system works in Rio de Janeiro, but it seems that there are two ways you can be charged. Either a flat rate from one neighborhood to another, or the meter. It seemed that when we chose the meter method the driver was a bit put off. We think he did some extra driving so that we would pay closer to the flat rate (we ended up paying only a couple of Reais less than that).

No problem, we were to the airport in time for our flight.

Or Not

As it turns out all our (the taxi driver's and mine) killing of time had added up, and we were a whole five minutes to late for the nice people at the check-in counter to help us. No huge deal, we can just catch another flight. Right?

Or not.

We bought the tickets on sale, we paid for the flight there, and the airline would take us home for free. Except when we missed our flight, the deal was off. So I found myself whipping out the plastic and paying for two seats on various planes to get us back to Teresina. I was pretty distraught, frustrated, and... Well, I felt very stupid. And poor.

The picture at the top of this post is a memorial to the R$ 1,950 we paid for plane tickets home, and quite possibly the to the last time I will ever be late to the airport.

Make the best of things, that was the goal of the photo.

The Ride Home

The plane ride home was without significant incident. No star sightings, or missed flights. Just a lingering sense of having a significantly lighter wallet—well, at least for me. We arrived in Teresina in the early hours of the morning and got a few hours of sleep, then unpacked our bags.

Ending

So end our adventures in Rio de Janeiro, but there are a few closing thoughts I would like to share in the next post.

This entry is part of "Rio de Janeiro: A Series." All the published entries are linked from that entry. Don't want to miss out on the coming entries? Try the RSS feed, or getting updates via email.