Adventures in South America

Beach fun in Rio

My parents arrived on Thursday morning, Mar 17th. Their flight was delayed and unfortunately this caused some confusion with the taxi arrangements I had made for them. By the time they cleared immigration (apparently there were about 100+ people in front of them) and customs the taxi driver had already left thinking that they never showed up. After some harried phone calls to me from them on some borrowed phone lines and some frantic calls to Roberto (who helped us make the taxi arrangements) the driver returned to the airport and found my parents. I felt bad because no one wants to deal with that kindof stress in a foreign country where you don't speak the language!

My parents finally arrived and settled into the apartment they would be staying in during the duration of their time in Buenos Aires (luckily an apartment was available to rent in the same building that Seth and I are in). We then had our first Parrilla meal at Campo Bravo in Las Canitas. My parents enjoyed the meal of grilled steak, French fries provencal, pureed squash, proveleta and a bottle of Malbec. We also stopped by Persicco afterwards for coffee (cortados) and ice cream. They enjoyed the ice cream but felt the cortados were too strong for their taste.
My parents happened to arrive on St Patrick's day. Our friend of ours from the english language group, Jaquelin, invited us to a Celtic music concert. She performs with a Celtic music chorus and they performed at the Borges Center in Galerias Pacificos. The first half of the concert consisted of 4 musicians plus a singer playing Celtic music. The second half consisted of the chorus performing. I enjoyed it a great deal, more than I thought I would. Afterwards we enjoyed a later dinner at Ifresh Market in Puerto Madero. When we left the restaurant it was POURING RAIN and we had quite a time trying to get a taxi. That evening my parents had their first taste of the horrors of Porteño driving... our driving didn't put on his windshield wipers or his lights.

The next afternoon we enjoyed lunch at Central and then headed to the airport to make our afternoon flight to Rio de Janeiro, where we arrived late in the evening. Enjoyed a late meal at Via Sete and there Seth met Fernando Salis; a documentary film maker whose movie we saw last year at Columbia. We had to encourage Seth to go over and talk to him, but Fernando seemed very pleased to be recognized and very friendly. He is filmmaker who makes documentaries. The documentary that we saw had to do with people living in the favela and improving the knowledge of their situation.

We spent the night at the Hotel Vilamar Copacabana. The next morning we made our first of two attempts to visit Corcovado. Unfortunately the weather did not work out that morning – the Jesus statue was covered in clouds and visibility was very low. As we went to buy tickets the vendor suggested that we come back another day due to the low visibility. We took his advice, headed back to the hotel and got ready to hit the beach. We enjoyed sucos at Big Nectar – over the course of the weekend, we tried acerola, manga, pineapple and other exotic fruits. We walked from Copacabana, through Arpoador and found a spot on Ipanema to sit down and relax. My parents tried coconut water, caiparinhas and enjoyed the neverending parade of vendors on the beach selling everything from sodas, cashews, sandwiches, and empanadas to bikinis, jewelry, beach blankets and HAMMOCKS! Dad was temped to buy one of the hammocks ;) Seth, Mom and I even enjoyed a 30 min massage on the beach by a very nice Carioca woman named Katia (well worth the approx $12 US it cost)

That evening we had dinner at a very nice Asian restaurant called Zaza Asian Bistro. The next morning we finally made it to Corcovdo… although the visibility was not that great, we managed to take a few pictures through the clouds. Like most Cariocas on Sundays, we spent the afternoon at the beach. That evening we enjoyed a carnivorous feast at Porcao in Ipanema, a Churrascaria where cut of meat after cut of meat was brought by, Along with the huge salad bar that started off the meal.

The following morning we got up very early to head to the airport for our 9am flight. Back to Buenos Aires!

posted by Kathy T @ 8:02 AM