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Linda Roy Cross - Copyright pending 2015
Linda Roy Cross - Copyright pending 2015
Prologue: My brother, Father Duane Roy OSB has lived in the interior of Brazil for 45-some years. He invited me to visit him in Rio de Janeiro in April 2014. I purchased a ticket (with no notification I needed a travel visa). I visited him three times prior in 1987, 2000, and 2005. Perhaps each time travel agents prepared tickets and arranged tourist visas for me. So this time, nine years since the last trip, the requirement of a tourist visa completely slipped my mind. Even Carol, a well-traveled cousin whom I invited (along with her husband) to go with me, didn't realize they needed and also failed to obtain travel visas. Ten days or so before that trip I discovered my omission. There was not enough time for us to obtain visas due to high demand for the upcoming World Cup from June 12 - July 13, 2014. We were forced to cancel our trips and were heavily charged re-booking fees. In the meantime, several months later, Carol took her grandson, Aric to Brazil.
Fast forward for me... eight or so months later I invited my brother, Roger and his wife Desra from Kansas to join me in Rio de Janeiro and we met at JFK airport. From there we flew on the same flight to Rio.
An older brother, Father Duane Roy a Benedictine monk/priest, met us at Galeao (GIG) airport having stayed the previous night with the Monks at St. Benedict´s Monastery in Rio. Abbot Filipe offered a car and driver, Brother Paschal met us at the airport. We foursome were delivered to (O Centro) Center Hotel on a main artery called Avenida Rio Branco (White River Avenue) where we were housed on the 12th, the top floor in what's famously named the “Marvelous City”
The hotel was better then we imagined since older photos were posted on the internet from disgruntled clients showing its former shoddy condition. O Centro Hotel was clean and its location was indeed central in the older part of Rio. We were fortunate to get a good rate since rates double during Carneval (and the reason we moved to another place the night Carneval officially began). Everything was okay aside the twin beds for near-honeymooners Roger and Desra.
Many website comments suggest this old center of Rio is unsafe especially at night. We found it very safe, perhaps because we were four-strong. We also found its location wonderful for sight-seeing since we were not interested in spending our time solely at the beach. The only downside was that many restaurants within walking distance (and geared toward daily business clientele) closed at night and we needed to take taxis to other zones for dining. But not really an issue.
In New Orleans the time just before Lent is known as Mardi Gras, but it Rio it's called Carneval and composed of two Latin words: carne, meaning meat, and val, meaning goodbye. So Carneval is the time before saying goodbye to meat (the Lenten way.)
In Rio during Carneval there is plenty of drinking going on, just like in New Orleans, but this was the real deal with its explosion of color and culture and amazing costumes and headdresses sambaing through the streets. In the meantime Samba schools, formed by people in various communities, provided nightly street entertainment as they practiced the music leading up to the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday events before Ash Wednesday.
An older brother, Father Duane Roy a Benedictine monk/priest, met us at Galeao (GIG) airport having stayed the previous night with the Monks at St. Benedict´s Monastery in Rio. Abbot Filipe offered a car and driver, Brother Paschal met us at the airport. We foursome were delivered to (O Centro) Center Hotel on a main artery called Avenida Rio Branco (White River Avenue) where we were housed on the 12th, the top floor in what's famously named the “Marvelous City”
The hotel was better then we imagined since older photos were posted on the internet from disgruntled clients showing its former shoddy condition. O Centro Hotel was clean and its location was indeed central in the older part of Rio. We were fortunate to get a good rate since rates double during Carneval (and the reason we moved to another place the night Carneval officially began). Everything was okay aside the twin beds for near-honeymooners Roger and Desra.
Many website comments suggest this old center of Rio is unsafe especially at night. We found it very safe, perhaps because we were four-strong. We also found its location wonderful for sight-seeing since we were not interested in spending our time solely at the beach. The only downside was that many restaurants within walking distance (and geared toward daily business clientele) closed at night and we needed to take taxis to other zones for dining. But not really an issue.
In New Orleans the time just before Lent is known as Mardi Gras, but it Rio it's called Carneval and composed of two Latin words: carne, meaning meat, and val, meaning goodbye. So Carneval is the time before saying goodbye to meat (the Lenten way.)
In Rio during Carneval there is plenty of drinking going on, just like in New Orleans, but this was the real deal with its explosion of color and culture and amazing costumes and headdresses sambaing through the streets. In the meantime Samba schools, formed by people in various communities, provided nightly street entertainment as they practiced the music leading up to the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday events before Ash Wednesday.
Being on the top (12th floor) of O Centro Hotel helped eliminate much of the street noise. This was important since the street outside our windows was in the process of torn up to make way for a new light rail system planned for the August 5-21, 2016 Olympics. However, one night several cement trucks could be heard hauling their load before early morning local and business traffic began.
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Speaking of streets those in front of the hotel, and many streets throughout Rio, are tiled with black and white stone (called Portuguese pavement). The most famous is the wave pattern designed for the famous Copacabana beach.
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Our brother has taken the overnight, round-trip flight from Brazil to the U.S. many times and he knew the importance of not letting jet lag or the time difference slow us down. After getting settled and a very short rest we took a taxi to Copacabana Beach (which originally was a fisherman's village with sand dunes.) The opening of Avenue Atlantica along the beach and the glamorous Copacabana Palace Hotel in 1923 changed all that.
At beachside Fr. Duane ordered delicious and thirst quenching coconut water for us. Meanwhile, Desra hams it up with the green young coconut offering plenty of the refreshing liquid.
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The cloudy day was prime for getting sunburned. And yes, many of the bathing suits appeared to be not more then dental floss! I was discrete and did not get close enough to take photos. Instead, note the distinctive wave-patterned paving.
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