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Photo Post: Departures and Arrivals

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Today I thought I’d try a new format which I’m calling Photo Post – not an original title, but as we say in Britain, it does exactly what it says on the tin. More photo, less text.

I woke up this morning at 6am, fully clothed on the sofa. Urgh. I was about to drag myself to the bedroom and grab another few hours sleep when I looked out the window. Wow! Sunrise was in full effect so I grabbed my camera.

As I looked out over Guanabara Bay, I saw a huge cruise ship coming into port. I’m not a huge fan of cruises (I’ve never been on one and don’t have any desire to go), but I thought that it must have been an incredible way to see Rio for the first time. The captain honked the ship’s fog horn for a good 15 seconds, probably trying to make sure that all his passengers woke up and looked out of their windows.

cruise ship

 

I continued snapping and caught this plane taking off. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave Rio for good, but I pictured everyone on this plane telling themselves “I’m definitely coming back here!”:

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Time of Rio

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A friend just sent me this link and I thought today (Christmas!) would be a great time to share it with the rest of you. Some amazing images from around this beautiful city. My favourite part is the bit with the planes taking off!

Feliz Natal!

 

If you want to get all full-screen on this video, then go here to the Vimeo link.

Photos of Rio

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For those of you not on Facebook (how do you live?!), I thought I’d include a few of my photos that I’ve recently posted on the Eat Rio Facebook page. You can see why they named it Cidade Maravilhosa! 

 

Cristo Redentor

Cristo Redentor at sunset, seen from Botafogo.

 

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No one should have to drive past this on their way to work…

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Life isn’t all fun and games when you live in Rio you know? Some of us have to work for a living! I mentioned recently that we are planning to move because my new job in Barra means that it can take 2 hours to get to/from work. Without wanting to moan about it too much (because in reality I’m very grateful to have a decent job that pays the bills) I will say that the long journey can be pretty exhausting. If we take the example of my journey home after a long day in the office, it goes something like this:

Leave the office around 7.30pm and walk 10 minutes to the bus stop. Wait up to 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. Depending on traffic, the bus to Ipanema will take 45-60 minutes. Arrive in Ipanema, walk down to the Metro and take the train for 8 stops. Come up from the Metro and walk up a very steep hill. Total journey time: 1.5-2 hours. And that’s why we’re moving!

The journey home in the evening can be especially boring as (at this time of year at least) it is totally dark, so I can’t even see the scenery. But then on days like today, being able to see the scenery isn’t always 100% positive:

São Conrado and Pedra da Gávea

São Conrado and Pedra da Gávea, glimpsed from the bus as it whisked me along the spectacular Avenida Niemeyer this morning.

 

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Looking up

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I’m feeling a bit wistful at the moment – perhaps some saudade even. It’s because we have reluctantly made the decision to leave our lovely big apartment in Santa Teresa and move a bit closer to my work. A young couple came to look round this morning and they loved it – the looks on their faces said it all: “You guys are mad to be leaving this place”. Maybe they’re right. It’s just that it takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to get to my place of work. And when you spend 4 hours sitting on a bus each day, you don’t have much time left for anything else.

We will probably end up in a much smaller apartment and it almost certainly won’t have the roof terrace and amazing views we currently enjoy. This morning I woke up with a bit of a heavy head , wandered outside and looked up:

Amazing clouds

Woah! Awesome clouds!

 

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