Whenever I'm leaving for vacation I always imagine the experience as something like Pilgrim's Progress. I'm cutting off heavy load called "work" that I carry with me. Whenever I have a trip experience where things go wrong, I imagine it's like work trying to drag me back. Take four people on three flights with six segments through six various airports, combine with some bad weather and you have a recipe for a "Anything Could Happen" casserole.
My 9pm departure from Houston direct to Rio de Janeiro did not leave until after midnight, over three hours late. I was going to be the earliest to arrive and now I thought I'd be the latest. Since there was nothing I could do to speed the plane up I just sat back and enjoyed the 9hr 10min flight to Rio. I decided to upgrade myself to first class. I'm glad I did. The food and service were "ok". The real benefit for me was after the meal when everyone in the cabin pulled out their masks and ear plugs then laid their seats down, extended the leg rests and went to sleep. I slept until it was time for breakfast. It was very relaxing. Then, we landed. That's the end of the relaxing.
I was supposed to meet two others who were coming from Dallas at the airport. When I checked the arrival boards I could not find their flight. Two hours later I found out they weren't coming to that airport. I found myself in the circumstance I feared the most. No idea where anyone was. No idea how to speak to anyone in a place that was foreign to me. I was making calls to the people back in the states. I finally heard from Alex, we agreed I would join him at his airport. I arrived there around 5pm, four hours after landing.
On the cab ride over I saw much a very stratified Rio. Slums called favelas full of precariously stacked apartments, some only partly finished pushed up against a freeway of crawling traffic where motor cycles wiz between cars and vendors walk along the narrow medians selling food to people in their crawls as we crawled along. Then, we turned a corner, and we were on the main drag to Copacabana. As we entered the city the scenery changed dramatically. Lovely tree lined vistas, parks where kids were playing soccer and large buildings took the place of sprawling squaller. The people changed too. All dressed in shorts, sun glasses and some with shirts.
I arrived at the other airport to find Alex waiting. My trip at this point changed dramatically. I had someone who could speak the language. We stopped at a food stand and ordered some thing that was a blend between empanadas and a corn dog. It was delicious. Then we headed over to the apartment we would be renting for the week.
The feeling of getting to a "home" is such a grounding and secure feeling. It's nice to have a place to put down your bags. We dropped of four bags and hit the streets. We found a grocery and picked up some food and water and such. Then we headed back to the apartment and met up with the rest of our party. They dropped off their bags and we all got dressed and walked down to the beach to find some food.
From dinner we headed to a club. Clubs, in general, are almost all the same. They have the same types of people. This one was no different, save for the music sucked. It was stuff that we would have heard on the radio in the US years ago. Another interesting thing, it was all in English. That was fun to sing along with. We were out until 2'ish and then we headed for pizza.
I have to say that I enjoy not being single. But it can also be annoying. When the energy of the group is devoted to finding and meeting guys it can take away from the fun of dancing and hanging out with friends. Tying your self worth to the chance of meeting someone in a club is a risky bet. in my experience it is usually the people who are there to have fun who tend to get the attention. Something about people having a good time and not worrying about making eye contact or standing over in a certain part of the bar in order to try and get the attention of someone just seems to be a waste of an evening. I do also realize that I view things a little differently. My looks are not something that I've ever leaned on in order to make friends or meet people.
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