February 1, 2008 - Foz do Iguacu, Brasil
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For some inexplicable reason, I seem to be having sleepless nights the past few days. I wake up at 8 AM and was still sleepy (despite going to bed around 11 PM).
After breakfast, I got back to my room and reviewed my travel guides on places to see, things to do etc. in RIO. I should be able to accomplish all my activities during my 5-day stay there. Setting aside a full day for Carnival and recovery from it still leaves me with 4-days of time and I am not the type that likes to sit at the beach for hours and let life pass me by!
Despite the checkout time being 11 AM, I checked out at 10 AM as I had nothing else to do. My credit card was charges BR$180 (US$105) for 2 nights. Not a bad price for this hotel. I ran into Carla (or Denise as she prefers to be called). Denise and I had communication many times during the reservation process and she was the person I spoke to from Asuncion when requesting an extra night of stay at this hotel. Tall, Slim, Brazilian beauty. She towered over me in her heels. Even without them she would be slightly taller than me! As she spoke English we chatted for a bit.
A divorcee (with a 10-year old son) and a fish-eating vegetarian who happens to be a spiritualist. I met her Mom, dad (who owns the place) and Uncle (who runs the Hotel's travel agency) as well. Dad owns 2 other hotels in addition to this one. She has a couple of close Indian friends who live in Foz do Iguacu and is familiar with Indian cuisine. The Indian is a trader at Ciudad del Este (Paraguay). My hotel manager / driver at Ciudad del Este had also told me that almost the entire market at Ciudad del Este (which trades primarily in electronic goods) is owned / operated by Indians.
All of the Information was volunteered including the fact that she is NO LONGER married! However, looking and dreaming appeals far more to me these days :)
Both Denise and her mom were surprised that Footprint guides (South American Travel Handbook) had recommended their hotel. They were under the impression that one has to pay their way to get listed in these guidebooks. They were also unaware that most of the writers for guidebooks, stay anonymously and then rate the hotel or a restaurant. They said that if anyone mentions the guidebook (when making a reservation at this place) they would get a discount. I jokingly asked for my discount (as I had made my reservation based on this guidebook), but my question remained unanswered!
Denise and her parents headed back to work. The Hotel internet was R$10 per hour - no part-hour charge was possible. I asked her Uncle to take me to the airport. He had initially quoted me the same fare (R$40 - US$22) as the regular taxis for dropping me off at the airport.
He spoke good English and Spanish. I preferred to converse in these rather than Portuguese. He told me that the hotel business was quite good even in non-summer months. There are apparently 10,000 Arabs living in the Foz do Iguacu area. These folks are the descendants of the initial Arabs who came from Lebanon, Syria, Palestine etc 40+ years ago and were the first to establish trade between Brazil and Paraguay. In addition to the Arabs, there are lots of Indians, Chinese and Koreans as well. All engaged in trading at Ciudad del Este which was not surprising. Foz do Iguacu has a population of over 300,000 and over 200 hotels!
He described the corruption scale of the lower South American Countries. Paraguay is most corrupt, followed by Brasil and then Argentina. Chile is considered quite clean. Paraguayan police apparently dislike the Chinese and Korean folks. Is it because they are successful traders or is it because they sell shoddy products that break down on day 2? Don't know. Did not ask as we had reached the airport by now.
I paid the 40 Reais as we agreed. Looks like I have not been given any discounts! At the airport counter, I asked if I could travel on an earlier flight to RIO. No luck. Internet was expensive. I had 2-hours to kill. I browsed through some magazine shops. English language magazines are quite expensive here. Even a cheap Magazine like PC world costs around US$15 here. Some other magazines were more than US$20.
I ordered a Milk shake and wrote a bit of my diary. I still had another 40-minutes to kill! For all the time-wasting tactics and coming to the airport early, my flight departed an hour late! It is a good thing that I have a 2 1/2 hour gap at Sao Paolo (where I will change planes for RIO). As the flight took off, I did get a distant peak at Iguassu from the sky. Apart from that, it was an uneventful flight.
At Sao Paolo, I had to go through the International departures for the flight to RIO as it was eventually heading to Caracas (Venezuela). We waited close to an hour before boarding the plane. I had a window seat (I had requested Window seats for all my TAM flights when I made my booking). I watched my bag being loaded onto the Cargo hold of the plane.
A young kid sat next to me and we broke ice after an hour or so. He is a journalist working for the Brazilian tourism organisation and was headed to Recife (in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco) to report on the Carnival Celebrations there. He gets to travel around the country on an expense account and writes about cultural and tourism events. Nice gig and he loves it. He is 22.
We talked Soccer for a bit. He things the current coach DUNGA will not last long and that Ronaldo is fat. He thinks I should be fine by myself while travelling in RIO as I look like a Brazilian (until I open my mouth). Since he is based out of Sao Paolo, I will get in touch with him when I reach Sao Paolo. He has promised to shoe me around. All I would perhaps need are the locations of the Indian restaurants there and how to reach them :)
February 1, 2008 - Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
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I was waved through Passport and Customs as I told them I was coming from Iguacu. I obtained an excellent map of RIO from the state tourism agency at the airport and decided to take a bus to the area of IPANEMA where my hotel was located. I chatted with a Brazilian (who spoke English) who was also headed to Ipanema. We waited for close to 20 minutes and there was no sign of the bus to Ipanema.
A cab driver chatted the Brazilian up and wanted R$50 to carry any number of passengers to Ipanema in his mini-van taxi. We found 3 others (2 were Brazilian and 1 was a German Tourist). Apart from the German and self, the rest of them hardly had any baggage. So squeezing 5 people into the Mini-van along with our luggage was not a problem. All of the folks were travelling to Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon (adjacent suburbs). AT R$10 a person, it was R$3.50 more than what we would have paid as a bus fare (R$6.50).
The Van dropped me close to the hotel and I had to walk a block to get to it. Not an issue as my large bag had sturdy wheels and Ipanema is considered a very safe neighbourhood. I check-in and was shown a tiny-room with 2 beds and an attached bathroom. I was sharing this with my ex-colleague (who had called the hotel to inform them that she would be arriving on Sunday Morning). Would be a tight squeeze. Being Carnival time, we were being gouged and they knew it and we knew it and they knew that we knew it!
The Hotel had not received any tickets from RIO CARNIVAL Services. I was worried as they were scheduled to deliver the ticket on Feb 1 by 3 PM. The front desk clerk did not speak good English. I will need to talk to the day manager tomorrow morning about this.
The local map of RIO had advertisements on the observer side and an advertisement for an Indian restaurant caught my eye. It was located in Leblon (20-minutes by walk from my hotel). I started walking and stopped to ask a local lady for directions in Spanish. She took one look at me and told me in perfect English that I SHOULD take a BETTER lit road for the next 19-minutes of my walk before coming to the next street for the final minute of my walk. She told me to be careful and wished me luck. These ominous warnings are getting to be a real downer for me. I had none of these issues in Chile or Argentina and despite the warnings, I had a good time in Paraguay.
I reached the restaurant and gorged like this was my last supper. The bill was R$65 (US$38)! I did not care. I was tasting Indian food after 6 weeks and wanted to make the best of it. The quality and taste at the Indian Restaurant in Santiago, Chile was far superior! There were 4 Indians at the next table. All through their meal (and most of mine) they talked shop. Terms such as deliverables, project plan, change request, chargeability, statement of work and more! Now I really know why I need a CHANGE! I gathered that they were trying to con a junior guy into accepting more responsibilities. The poor kid had no chance. He was going to take the additional responsibilities and wreck his life!
After the group departed, I chatted with the rather enterprising manager from Kerala who had lived here for 10+ years. We talked about the local stock market, coffee growing and so on.
I walked back to the hotel on the brightly lit street. Wrote my diary and went to bed. The Carnival has commenced today. It will last for the next 5 days until Ash Wednesday (Feb 6).
Since my ex-colleague does not arrive until Sunday, I may use tomorrow to see some of the things on my list.
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