Once upon a time, there was a little girl, who lived in a land far far away, across the mountains and the seas. The little girl was not so clever, but she had 2 special talents: The first one was finding awesome friends. The second one was finding beautiful new places.
This little girl went paragliding this weekend in São Conrado with 2 brave souls who were in town from far away lands and had this brilliant idea of jumping off a cliff while they are here. Life is too short. Live a little!
Pedra Bonita
The Sphinx from Rio
The arrival of my Paulista friend and her newly migrated french second half required a special tourist program. So we headed to Sao Conrado part of Tijuca Forest to do the Pedra Bonita (beautiful rock) trail. Pedra Bonita has amazing views and is a destination for paragliders and hand gliders.
Yet another time in my life I realized why I never want to drive a manual car when the car we took got stuck going uphill and had to be maneuvered out by our french MacGyver. So, if you attempt to try this trail, make sure to take a car with sufficient horse power or bring a frenchman along.
Why Sphinx in the title? Pedra Bonita has the Sphinx face on it..
Day 2 – Rio my Love
On my second day walk across the Copacabana boardwalk, the realization came to my mind. I think it is the beginning of a love story. Mine and Rio’s.
During medical tests at the company I had a conversation with the doctor who was trying to get my medical in history, a process which was quite amusing. She didn’t speak any English and I knew medical terms only in Hebrew and Russian. So we had to kind of guess. I think it’s highly likely that I haven’t had rubella… before that I had fun trying to decipher the medical form which was transliterated from Portuguese. Some of the highlights: “complexion” (ethnicity) and “biotype” (body type).
After this fun morning, my relocation agent took me on a city tour and we visited all the various neighborhoods. The weather was absolutely perfect and I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. All I managed to capture on my Blackberry were the two photos in the previous post, which really don’t do justice to the beauty I’ve witnessed. I think my favorite spot was the view of hand gliders floating over Pedra Bonita from Praia do Pepino (Cucumber Beach), an area where many government officials live (smartly so..).
I also proved once again that it pays off to be a complainer, and after a one to one with the hotel manager (ok, not exactly, had my relocation consultant to my aid), I was upgraded to a suite with ocean view and a living room. I say ‘Not Bad’ (read out loud with a Borat accent). I also went on to becoming bff’s with more hotel porters who seem to love the fact that I speak Portuguese to them. I suppose this may become handy one of these days.
Stumbled upon in Rio
Just some of today’s views..
Grobetrotter 