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This is who greeted me at the airport. I almost didn't recognize Al. Luckily, the tattoos are fake!

Day 11 -- Goodbye Rio

We have to check out in a couple of hours. The internet in the hotel is barely working so I'm not sure if I'll be able to upload pictures.

For now some general observations about Rio/Copacabana: It’s probably one of the most beautifully located big cities in the world. It’s a dog city – you see lots of people walking with happy-looking dogs large and small, and not just one dog -- often 3 or more, and they clean up after them too! Our guide told us that many older Brazilians when they retire, they move to Copacabana so you see a lot of older people here. Beautiful Brazilian girls – on Copacabana beach you can see some great looking young girls in scant bikinis, but you also see a lot of not so young women, not so slim either, also in scant bikinis. Actually, you can see quite a few half-naked people (only in swim suits) walking on the streets. Rio has a good public transportation system – metro and buses. Buses are nice, but they do get stuck in traffic. Another interesting thing is that buses going one way have a different number than buses going the other way, e.g. the bus from Copacabana to the botanical garden was #570 and the bus back was # 569. The routes are a bit different too because a lot of the streets are one way streets. Both Rio and Sao Paulo look prosperous, at least as prosperous as American cities and the costs of meals are similar to the US. Clothes, shoes and other goods may be a bit more expensive here. You don’t see beggars at all, but there are a few homeless people here and there. Not very many and not bothersome.

Day 10 Still in Rio --

A visit to a IBFMC university campus revealed a Polish connection. The young man in charge of international relations had a Polish grandmother and he could even speak some Polish. He established a partnership with Kaminski University in Gdynia (of which I haven’t heard until now) with faculty and student exchanges. Maybe something to follow up on. I did get to the botanical Garden today – this time by bus. I got very lucky because as I was walking there and stopped to look at the map, a woman approached me and asked me what I was looking for (in Portuguese). I responded in Spanish, but she asked if I spoke English. She told me she lives in Rio and walks in the garden every day, and then she took me on a tour. She showed me some amazing places and plants I would never have found by myself – a blooming tree from the Amazon that was Margaret Mead’s favorite, an avenue of huge mango trees, a favorite place of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and many more. She seemed to be a very educated woman and knew a lot about the plants. She said she used to bring her granddaughter to the garden and make up stories about plants. Her name was Sylvia and she was an absolutely delightful guide. She showed me where to catch a bus back to Copacabana and we kissed goodbye. On the bus, a woman sat next to me and started talking to me in Portuguese and when I said I didn’t understand she switched into English. She was a high school English teacher. She said she used to live in Sao Paulo, but she’s been living in Rio for 28 years. She says that Sao Paulo works and Rio enjoys. In the afternoon I went to the fort. I don’t know why I thought that there will be a little train or something that will take us up to the top of the mountain. Wrong. I had to climb there. It was worth it, though. The views were spectacular and the fort, even though it isn’t very old (1930s), was also interesting. On the long way back, it was getting dark and the promenade was full of street musicians playing the guitars and big, tubular drums. Good walking music.

Day 9 -- Rio Again

Today I must have walked for at least 8 hours. My friend wasn’t feeling well so early in the morning I went for a walk on the beach by myself. Actually there were people walking and jogging there already. After an hour walk, I went to breakfast (I forgot to say that I’ve been eating passion fruit for breakfast every day both here and in Bogota, as well as drinking passion fruit juice and eating passion fruit yogurt). After breakfast, I decided to walk to the tourist information office which was supposed to be near the Copacabana Palace hotel, the oldest hotel in Copacabana, but I actually had to walk much further to Princessa Isabel street. I got a lot of good info there and sightseeing tips. From there I walked to the end of Copacabana, which is a big hill with a scenic walkway around it and an old fort on top. Unfortunately the fort was closed today, but I will probably come back to see it tomorrow. From there I walked back to the hotel, mostly on the beach. When it got too hot, I crossed the street and saw a store with interesting looking bags. It turned out to be a store of a (supposedly) well known Brazilian designer Gilson Martins who makes things only from recycled materials and employs people who live in favelas. The guy there spoke good English and told me the story of the company and also treated me to passion fruit juice with some Brazilian alcohol, which was very nice. Of course, I had to buy something… In the afternoon, following the tourist info guy’s recommendation I walked along the beach through Ipanema and Leblan. They are totally different than Copa – lower buildings, mostly residential with very few low-key hotels. Then I cut through to the lagoon and I was supposed to follow it to the left to go to the botanical garden. But by the time I got to the lagoon I’ve already been walking for 3 hours and it was already 4 pm and the botanical garden is only open till 5 pm. So instead I followed the lagoon to the right and eventually ended up in downtown Ipanema. Wow. It was like Beverly Hills. Posh stores, bars and restaurants, well dressed people and there I was in my tourist attire. I sat down in one of the cafes to rest and have some ice cream and coffee and then continued walking along this long commercial street called Visconde de Piraja until I got back to Copacabana.

Day 8 Rio de Janeiro

Today is Sunday and on Sundays only there is a big street market in Ipanema so we walked from our hotel in Copacabana along the beach to the market. It was quite big – lots of stalls with leather goods, jewelry, wooden stuff, T-shirts, clothes, etc. We bought a few things and then walked back. It’s a gorgeous walk because the coastline is spectacular. In the afternoon we took a tour of Corcovado (Christ Redeemer), old town, a stadium where the carnival takes place and Tijuca forest. We were lucky because the visibility was good at Christ and it wasn’t terribly crowded. The views were great. The Rio cathedral is a relatively new building that looks like a pyramid and is pretty ugly from the outside, but inside it’s quite beautiful. Like the carnival stadium, it was designed by Brazil's most famous architect Oscar Niemeyer who is still alive and 104 years old now. There were 12 people on our tour – from Argentina, Russia, Switzerland and Czech Republic. Luckily it was a disciplined group and we didn’t have to wait for anybody.

Day 7 -- Iguacu - Rio de Janeiro

In the morning, I took one last walk along the waterfall trail. This time with lots of people and grey skies. The strike was still on so the hotel told us that if we want to get to the airport, they will take us to the park gate and from there we have to take a private taxi/limo to the airport for 90 reales ($45). This was highway robbery because a taxi from the airport to the gate is 20 reales (5 minute ride). We opted to just get to the gate for free and then look for a taxi there. The shuttle driver was nice enough to take us a bit further to the protesters’ blockade where we found a whole bunch of cabs. The flight to Rio was easy – 2 hours. From the airport it was a 30 minute cab ride to Copacabana where our hotel is located -- across the street from the beach. It was dark when we arrived, but we walked along the ocean and then had dinner in an Italian restaurant. Rio definitely has a totally different vibe from Sao Paulo. Unfortunately, unlike in other places, this hotel doesn't have free wifi and the paid one is so slow that it's almost impossible to upload pictures.

Day 6 -- Foz do Iguacu

Today was a gorgeous sunny day and the park was again open to visitors. We did the trail again – this time with lots of other people and with the sun. The views are amazing and I must have taken close to a hundred pictures of the falls, including some of quati who came up to us several times begging for food. One even stood on his hind legs and begged like a dog. They are so cute. We spent the afternoon by the pool and even took a dip. It’s winter in Brazil, but the temperatures are around 25-26 C. Very pleasant. Evenings at the hotel are very quiet. The only entertainment is the bar with live piano music, and the restaurant where last night they only had buffet dinner. We opted for a smaller meal at the bar. We’ll probably do the same tonight. The guests at the hotel are mostly Brazilians, and a group of very obnoxious Chinese who spend money like there is no tomorrow. It’s no longer the rich Americans in the world. It’s the rich Chinese.

Day 5 -- Foz do Iguacu

We got up at 4:30 am and went straight to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls. I thought this check-in would be a breeze; after all it’s only a 1.5 hour domestic flight. Well, it took almost an hour to check in at the kiosk. We had to fill out pages of stuff, almost a life history. The flight itself was great. Thumbs up for TAM airlines – they even fed us. When we arrived at the Foz do Iguacu airport, we went to tourist information to ask how to get to our hotel (Las Cataratas), which is the only hotel located inside the national park. There we found out that there is a strike of national park workers and the park is closed to visitors. The only people who can enter are Cataratas guests. Supposedly the park receives 7000 visitors per day, and all of them were out of luck today. We got in the taxi to get to the gate of the national park where the hotel shuttle was to pick us up, but before we could get there the road was blocked by the protesters. The cab driver told us he couldn’t go any further and that we had to walk the rest of the way. Luckily it was only 1 km to the gate and a very nice striker helped us carry the luggage. The location of the hotel is spectacular – right on the edge facing the falls. We took a scenic trail along the falls -- the size of these falls is amazing, they go on and on in changing formations. The trails ends with a long platform into the falls so you feel like you are right in the middle of them. Of course, we got completely soaked, but the view was worth it. And the trail was completely empty, which probably never happens. On the way we saw a bunch of animals that look like small anteaters. They are called kwa’ti (quati). We also saw eagles and a lot of butterflies. One sat on my hand for a long time. In the afternoon when we were sitting by the pool, a kwa’ti came to our table looking for food, then another one joined him. They are almost domesticated here.

Day 4 -- Sao Paulo

Since this is our only day in Sao Paulo, I decided to explore the city rather than following my friend to her university appointment. It was absolutely the right decision. Sao Paulo is a great city. It is huge, but it has great public transportation, including the subway. Our hotel is right in the center so I walked around at first, but then decided to go to the real center (old part of town), which took two different metro lines. First, I went to the cathedral and then followed a walk I printed out of my guidebook. I had to ask for directions at least five times. At some point my guidebook suggested going into a BANESPA building to go to the top and see a panoramic view of the city. There was already a line there, but I decided to wait. It turned out that there were two lines – one for the tickets (free) and the other to get on the elevator. They moved very slowly because the top elevator only took 5 people at a time. This whole adventure took more than an hour, of which only 5 minutes were at the top. It wasn’t that high, either (36 or 38 floors), but the view was quite good. Just skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Then I did the rest of the walk and when I got hungry, I was in a regular neighborhood without any particularly good looking restaurants. I saw several lunch places with counters and a few tables and menus in Portuguese. I skipped two, but the third looked nice and clean so I decided to try it. Menu was only in Portuguese, of course, but a nice waiter helped me pick a sandwich, which turned out to be very tasty – a piece of grilled beef with melted cheese in a pressed baguette. The beef was amazingly flavorful. Then, I walked to the closes subway station and took a totally different route back to the hotel. I really like Sao Paulo. It has a vibe similar to New York before it was cleaned up.

Day 3 -- Bogota -- Sao Paulo

We had an early breakfast and at 8:15 am a female driver picked us up to take us to la Sabana University in a small town called Chia about 40 miles north of Bogota. When we got to the car, it turn out that it wasn’t just us. She also had her mother and her daughter in this small car so it was quite cozy for a while until she dropped her daughter off in a shopping center on the outskirts of the city (she worked in a fashion store). None of the women spoke any English so I had a good Spanish workout. The university campus was very pretty – with traditional style yet modern buildings, a river, lots of greenery and with mountains all around. We had half a day of meetings with various departments and the international office. Everybody was super nice, and I have to say that the student facilities, and definitely offices are much nicer and better equipped than at many US universities I have seen. For example, director of international relations had a beautiful large office with a conference table and a huge flat screen on the wall with a teleconferencing system so she could use it with skype or some other system to conduct remote meetings. The meetings ran long so we got to the hotel late and only had enough time to close our suitcases, check out and get a cab to the airport. I had a real dilemma at the airport which passport to use to check in – Polish or American. I knew I had to use the American passport to go through immigration in Bogota and the Polish one in Sao Paulo, but check-in was iffy. I opted for the Polish one and it turned out to be the right decision. My friend who had to use her American passport (with Brazilian visa) had to run around to get some additional papers, stamps, etc so it took us quite a while before we were ready to go to the gate. Two hours turned out to be just enough to make it. The flight was about 5-6 hours and thumbs up for Avianca. The entertainment system was great – about 10 movies to watch with individual controls, they fed us twice and the plane was fairly new and nice. We arrived at midnight. Immigration was a breeze (especially compared to LAX or Houston), customs people just waved us in and their taxi system is great (you pre-pay at a taxi counter) so we got to the hotel at about 1 am. To our surprise, when we opened the door to our room, it turned out to be a two-bedroom suite with a nice living room and a kitchenette. Too bad we are only staying here 2 nights.

Day 2 -- Bogota

This morning after breakfast we took a cab to Universidad de Rosario in downtown Bogota where my friend had an appointment with international relations people. We drove through very pretty hilly parts of the city into the historical center la Candelaria. The university occupies a whole square right in the center, a couple of block from Plaza Bolivar where the cathedral, the parliament and the presidential palace are located. Juan, the international relations person, gave us a tour of the university and a quick tour of the historical center as well. Rosario is one of the oldest (350 years) and most prestigious Colombian universities – with 3 campuses and about 12,000 students. The main campus is in a gorgeous colonial building. While my friend was talking business with Juan, I went to Centro Cultural Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Museo Botero, Casa de Moneda and another art museum. All of them are on the same street and almost connected and all are free. Then I walked back to the university and joined the meeting. It turned out that Juan’s boss is very involved in many grant-funded projects and very interested in grants and additional projects. Definitely there’s potential… Late afternoon I went to have something to eat in our quaint neighborhood of Usaquen. On the way back, I saw a stand with very thin round wafers (very similar to Czech oplatky) and several colorful fillings that they spread on one wafer and then cover it with another one. The stand was very popular so I decided to try it. I stood and looked for a while to see which filling was the most popular and then went for it. It was delicious. A great desert for less than a dollar.

Day 1 -- Bogota

After two pretty smooth flights, we arrived in Bogota at 5 am. Because people on the plane were wearing a range of clothing starting from shorts and flip flops and ending with winter coats, boots, wool scarves and hats, we really didn’t know what to expect temperature-wise. Once we got through immigration and customs (very efficient and quick), we got outside where the hotel driver was waiting for us with a big sign. It wasn’t cold… The drive to the hotel took about 20 minutes. The hotel is located in the northeast part of Bogota, an upscale neighborhood close to the hills. We were told that the historical zone/downtown called la Candelaria is not as nice and quite dangerous. Who knows. Since we didn’t sleep much at night, we took it easy and explored our neighborhood. A walking distance from our hotel is a lovely old neighborhood called Usaquen. It must be the most popular place in Bogota on Sundays because the whole Usaquen becomes a big artisan market. The narrow streets are full of stalls, people selling, buying, families walking with kids and dogs. There are lots of very quaint restaurants and bars, also full of families eating and drinking and enjoying themselves. We also went to a couple of neighborhood malls, which were pretty crowded too. Prices here are similar to prices in the US (one $1 Is about 1,800 Colombian pesos so we are dealing with big numbers here). An interesting thing about the malls is that they don’t have escalators. Instead they have flat surfaces moving up so people with with baby strollers or wheelchairs can use them too. Not a bad idea. People are generally very nice and helpful, smile a lot and look happy. Lots of good looking girls, too. More tomorrow.

Trip starts tomorrow...

Leaving tomorrow for a speed tour through half of South America. This time not with Al, but with a friend who for security reasons will remain anonymous. We are starting in Bogota, then to Sao Paulo, then to Iguassu Falls, then to Rio and back -- 12 days total.