Time to fly!

My doctor told me not to move around too much so as not to break stitches after having some spots removed from my chest and back yesterday. So I’ll sit here this morning and blog.

Peaks of Gávea - set for hang-gliding!

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them. I've found that some will enlarge and some won't, but it's still cool!)

Three weeks ago about this time, we’d found Natali at the airport in São Paulo and were heading for Rio. We arrived at the airport just as her plane was landing. But we ended up waiting in the wrong terminal for her. Finally, realizing our error, we made the long walk to the other terminal to find her waiting and worried for us. In the end, it was a happy reunion for all of us!

From São Paulo we had a short flight down to Rio de Janeiro, I watched out the window as more and more clouds gathered the nearer we came to the coast. We landed in a downpour with a forecast of rain for the next couple days.

After checking into our hotel, I asked about hang gliding (which was my main reason for going to Rio). By phone, I talked to a guy named Hilton and told him that if the weather cleared at all and was good for gliding to give me a call on my cel.

Within an hour, the weather cleared and stayed sunny the rest of our trip. Hilton called back and sent a guy to pick us up at the hotel.

By three that afternoon, Natali and I had pretty much signed our lives away and were jumping off a cliff at Gávea, and gliding – tandem, of course, with someone who knew what he was doing - over the Tijuca forest and golf club, continuing on out over the ocean and finally landing on the beach. The flight lasted about fifteen minutes, but wow…was it worth it! An unforgettable experience!!

Sue met us on the beach where we landed. Hilton gave us a ride back to the hotel where we cleaned up. By then Natali was wearing down after all her flying of the past twenty-four hours.

We celebrated our anniversary – as well as surviving hang-gliding – with pizza at a sidewalk café by Lido Park on Copacabana beach. Walking back to the hotel, we picked up some water and snacks. After tucking Natali into bed early, Sue and I meandered back along the beach and wandered through some of the shops.

The following days, we toured around Rio.

We took the cable cars up Sugar Loaf Mountain.

That was where on a visit years ago, when Natali was only two years old, she ran under a chain on the ramp to the cable car (not much thought for safety back in those days) and almost fell off. My sister Jewl, who was visiting us, went under the chain and caught her at the very edge.

The views were awesome!

We went along Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Enjoying the sandcastles and the scenery.

We had lunch by Tijuca beach at a churrascaria – a steakhouse where they continually bring around different types and cuts of meat on skewers which you can eat to your heart’s content. There Natali got to eat her favorite, chicken hearts.

Finally we took the train up on Corcovado with the huge Christ the Redeemer Statue (now a Wonder of the World).

All too soon it was time to fly back to São Paulo, pick up the car and drive back to Bauru.

Kind of spur of the moment, we considered staying a night in São Paulo so Natali could see the old homestead and maybe some old friends. I called around and got hotel prices, and then got stuck in traffic, and decided it was time to just get out of town.