With my stomach back under control, I've been out and
about.
Yesterday was all business. I spent the better part of
the afternoon looking for lodging from the 27th on.
Not a hotel room available anywhere, at any price.
So I started hunting for an apartment to rent for a
week. The first one I went to, you had to enter this
nondescript gray building through some dark, damp back
alley.
The elevator creaked and rattled on the way up and
bounced every time it would stop at a floor. The
hallway was dimly lit and very dirty, and on the way
down to the apartment I was going to check out, there
was a gang of young kids smoking cigarettes.
The apartment itself was interesting. Pages from skin
mags taped up on the wall, stacks of porno magazines
on the table, mirror in front of the bed--you get the
picture.
I figured this place would be about as safe at night
as a Harlem crackhouse, and politely declined.
Fast forward to later in the afternoon, and I finally
find a place that I like. A nice furnished apartment
just a block from where I'd been staying with a
security guard and everything. I rented it from the
22nd to the 31st.
This meant that I had to get up *really* early this
morning to check out of my hotel and move to the
apartment (10:30AM, a full five hours earlier than
usual!)
After settling in, it was time for some fun. 'Twas
sunny and blazing hot outside and I was in the mood
for a little adventure.
I grabbed a cab and told him to go to Praia do Sao
Conrado, then settled back in for the ride.
A few minutes later, it suddenly dawned on me that we
were heading in the opposite direction of where we
were supposed to go.
"Porque vamos en este direccion?" I asked the driver.
"La praia esta en otro direccion." (I know, my ability
to communicate impressed even myself)
Basically, the driver had no clue. God only knows
where he was headed. He had to ask several people on
the street how to get there.
30 minutes later, we made it. The beach where all the
hang gliders hang out. I immediately signed up for a
tandem glide, got in the car with the pilot, and we
drove up to the peak.
The peak you jump off of is about 1500ft. above sea
level. The small, narrow, uneven cobblestoned road
through the jungle vegetation we took on the way up
was so steep, I would've had second thoughts about
taking my Jeep up. It looked like the front of the car
would lift up at any second and we'd flip over, end to
end, back down through the forest.
At the top, there's a clearing to set up the glider,
and a 20ft. downward sloping wooden platform jutting
out.
It didn't take long to get ready. I put on a harness
and a helmet, was clipped on to the hang glider, and
my pilot basically gave me 2 instructions: 1) upon
pain of death, do not touch the hang glider at any
time during the flight, and 2) when taking off, run
down the platform as fast as you can.
Easy enough, in theory. I'll tell you what,
though--sprinting down a wooden platform and launching
yourself out from a cliff 1500 feet high into
nothingness is a bit counterintuitive. But it also
sounded like a hell of a lot of fun!
"One...two...three..RUN!" We sprinted down the
platform. Then no platform. And then--whoosh--we were
airborne!
It was absolutely incredible. Breathtaking scenery,
with the lush green peaks rising out from behind a
gathering of skyscrapers far down below, and then the
deep blue of the ocean coming in to the sandy beaches
in front of the buildings.
It's the closest I've come to the feeling of actually
flying, much more so than skydiving because you're in
a laying down position with head forward instead of a
sitting position and also because the glider cuts into
the wind faster.
We did several loops over the buildings and then out
over the ocean before coming back in for a beach
landing. Man, what a rush!
After that, I headed over to one of Rio's most famous
landmarks, the mount of Corcovado with Cristo
Redemptor at the top.
In a nutshell, there's this peak overlooking the city
with a giant statue of Christ with his arms
outstretched right on top. Amazing panoramic view and
all that, and looks great on postcards (not that I'm
trying to downplay it, because it is impressive, but
there really isn't much more to say about it.)
The cool thing I did there, though, is that I took a
10 minute scenic helicopter flight. We flew around the
giant Christ, then out to the ocean across Ipanema and
Copacabana beaches, then next to Pao de Acucar
(another famous, pictoresque peak) and back.
Rio is absolutely beautiful from above, and I'll just
have to let the pictures do the talking on that one.
Alrighty, I'm off to dinner and a little Rio nightlife
now.
Ciao!
Gabriel
