Rio de Janeiro, Rio Othono Palace Hotel, Friday, 1996-01-19 17:30 local (Z-2)
I managed to stay up Wednesday night only until about 01:00, slept until noon yesterday, stayed awake until 02:00 this morning, again got up at noon, so my attempt to get to a night time schedule is only partly succeeding. Our wakeup call will come at 18:00 this evening, then it will an all nighter, first to Sao Paulo and then an 8.5 hour leg to Miami. I don't like evening departures, nobody does. There's just no way you can really sleep soundly during the day to be read for the all nighter legs.
I spent yesterday seeing the area within walking distance of the hotel Right after rising, I took a couple of hours walk on Copacabana Beach. Big disappointment, there were very few topless gals. <g> However, bikinis down here are very brief, but apparently the gals feel a little mystery is good.
I don't think I have ever seen so many tanned, good looking human bodies. I suspect, though that the beach population is not representative of the city's “bodies” as a whole. The captain I'm with said there was no way he was going to go out on that beach with his white, fat body. I figured that though my body is white and a little fat, it will be a little less so for every minute I'm on the beach. Actually there were some fat people there (but not many). However, it was one of the “whitest” people.
The company that produces Gatorade has put exercise equipment on the beach at regular intervals: pull-up bars, parallel bars, sit-up benches—that sort of thing. The equipment has their advertising on it of course, but it gets useed a lot. Quite amazing really that in this heat and humidity there are people regularly using them.
Yesterday was cooler than Wednesday. The high only reached 38°C (100°F). After my beach walk, I returned to the hotel for my shoes and running shorts and ran in the heat. It was the first time I had run in a 100° temp since Saudi Arabia. It really felt good. It's almost as though the heat energizes me. Much more comfortable than running in Saudi. There you HAVE to wear a shirt. Here there are people running in swim suits. Looks kind of odd at first to see people in bikinis and running shoes.
A few people were running barefoot, and a lot of people were walking around barefoot. My feet have lost all the toughness they developed in New Zealand. At one point I took off my floppies enroute to the beach. I immediately put them back on. It was much too hot for me, but it obviously wasn't bothering the barefoot people around me.
The tans look great, but I noticed a number of people my age and older that have large, rough, dark splotches on their skin. Those have got to be precursors to skin cancer. One gal was covered with them. I believe, however, that the general outlook on life in Rio is to live for the pleasures of the day, the hell with tomorrow, so maybe they don't worry about sun damage.
After I recovered from my run, I took a night timewalk off the main beach area. You only have to go a few blocks off the beach area to get a marked change, and that includes the lack of ability to understand any English or Spanish and a lot of homeless sleeping on the sidewalks. I was getting hungry but was unable to order food even by pointing at two small food shops. At one they seemed rather irritated with me. The guy behind the counter started raising his voice and motioning me to get out of his shop. That was surprising. In general, everyone here has been quite friendly. Possibly he views English sppeakers as a threat. The current issue of a magazine here in the hotel room is headlining the “Invasao Inglesa”, the English Invasion. Indeed, on TV there are two HBO channels, both in English with Portuguese subtitles. There's also the BBC and CNN. The banners being towed by an airplane along the beach are in Portuguese and English.
Eating here is very expensive. But for one meal, all I've eaten is hamburgers from either McDonald's or Bob's (no relation to Bob's in Eugene I'm sure). At Bob's here the menu is completely in English. I felt the need of a little fruit, so I took a chance and bought an apple off a street vendor. That's one of the things you're not supposed to do if you want to remain on a normal bowel movement schedule. <g>
Time for a last walk on the beach and then a short nap before leaving.
Terry