I have been neglectful, my day cruise and NYE

My dear blog readers I do apologize for keeping you hanging for so long it´s just that I have been living a very unhealthy lifestyle in Rio and by unhealthy I mean fun as hell. Where do I begin...

Firstly, I will say that I am very disappointed that no one as asked me about the rotisserie chicken. I really can´t write it on here and I am dying to share it with someone- perhaps I will add it to my NC-17 edition.

Now onto other things such as the weather which just about stunk up until my last day. Can you believe I was not able to have one day at the beach because of all the rain. This NEVER happens in Rio... my friends joked that there is a black cloud following me on this trip... but I beg to differ!

I will admit I was feeling a little blue with the disappointment of not being able to travel up north- had I planned poorly or was it really due to New Years vacation book-ups, crappy weather and too much boozin´?! I decided to treat myself to a hotel room for my last three days. I had a BLAST with Angela for all of the reasons I had explained before but was ready for a little privacy as I am sure she was to. I booked myself on the Copacabana beach in hopes of some sunny weather and beach time! On the day of my hotel arrival- no sun. Angela, her friend and I stumbled upon a restaurant to lunch in. (Buffet- so not a fan of the food in Rio, its all frozen and re-heated). We later window shopped for a few minutes and please keep in mind the mood that I had been feeling, basically like the weather. All of a sudden a man's tshirt grabbed my eye. IT COULDN´T BE... it was like seeing a ghost!

I thought I was seeing things and was going to let the moment pass as either a crazy coincidence or me hallucinating. But in that split second, what I had seen really sunk in. The man was wearing a MONDO CANE BLUES BAR tshirt- "Where Every day is New Years Eve". For those of you that don´t know, that was my fathers bar. We closed it 10 years ago. This Brazilian man made the shirt himself by scanning in a flier from the place- which he used to go to many times on his travels to NY. He just happened to be wearing it on the day I am in that neighborhood, on the very same street corner as me at the very same time. If that is not a sign of my dad being around me... well maybe this is...

Feeling overwhelmed with joy and finally being at peace with my decisions (I was sure I was on the right track now) I was sitting in my room alone. I browsed the menu for some room service, still thinking about what had just happened. The menu like all of the other food in Brazil seemed fried, frozen and unhealthy. I saw Chicken Parm on the menu... but it was spelled ParmiGIANNA. Now you're thinking no big deal an extra N to spell my name and misspell that culinary delight, but my dear friends, this was a big joke between my dad and I. As a kid, for very many years I would beg him to change the menu's at the restaurants to this spelling. I wanted a dish named after me and to an 8 year old this seemed so clever- perhaps I should have given up at 15... but clearly it was a great idea! This was the only typo on the menu... and once again made me feel a greater presence around me.

One more sign or delusion... on my last full day in Rio I booked a day excursion- a boat ride to some islands of the coast. Rain or shine... I needed to see something Brazil had to offer other than a great night life! I woke up and to my surprise the sun was shining through some clouds... but it was visible for the first time in days! I boarded the bus very early in the morning and we were off to a town about an hour and half away from Rio to board a 'cruise'. Well when we got there the boat was a crickety crackety old thing. It reminded me of old fishing boats in Sicily. What charm though! They packed about 30 of us on this boat and we were off! There were lavish green islands all around us. It truly was beautiful and I finally felt like I was seeing some of Brazil's rich land.

There was a three man band on the boat; you know with a hand drum and some other crazy hand held instruments. The very first song they sang was Volare... an Italian song my dad used to sing all the time. The band only sang about 8 songs the whole time, this being the first and only non Brazilian song. Strange! So once again I felt like I had my dad and my Uncle's around me. I barely ever feel their presence and this was three things in less than 48 hours... it freaked me out in a good way!

Back to the island cruise... we were to dock at an island for a half hour of swimming, re board and then off to another island for a typical Brazilian lunch. amidst all the surrounding beauty, clearly was the water we were flowing through. It was a rich green color; never had I seen water that color before. As I was lost in thought gazing at the water, enjoying the scenery, serenity and breeze I saw the most enormous jelly fish in my entire life. I kid you not this thing was the size of my head...bigger! I couldn't believe it... and there were tons! As soon as I saw the first one, 20 more seemed to appear! We soon docked the boat... or just stopped about 200 meters from a tiny sandy area and were told we could jump off the boat for swimming...this was stop 1. So much for tanning... there was no way I was going to jump out of this boat, in the abnormally sized Jelly Fish infested water. Their tentacles were longer than my hair! So I sat in the boat and laughed to myself about yet another wacky mis-adventure I was on. I had hope for island two though, after all we were having lunch there.

Off we were and on to the second stop. We docked at yet another tiny sand splotch of a beach. The water had a very odd orange liquid floating in it, still a mystery, in addition to the massive Jelly Fish. We seemed to come to an abandoned hotel. The island was all rich green forest- a beautiful mountain of green. You can only develop on the very little coast, in this case it was only a block long if that. So, this hotel seemed to be the only human presence on the island. The hotel could be nice, it probably once was. But it was abandoned. The pool had about 2 feet of yellowish green water... some other liquid came to mind... not water and not lemon lime Gatorade! People actually got in it. I felt like I was in the twiligth zone... where was I and who were these crazy people around me not fazed by the obscurities that were all around us!

Lunch was surprisingly delicious. It was the best meal I had in Brazil. I ate with a very sweet Argentine couple who had the same sentiments as I about this experience. We laughed alot. If anything this cruise was worth it for the entertainment factor alone.

That night, my last night in Brazil I went out with Angela, Diego and Diogo. It was a great last night... we were up all night as many of our other nights in Rio.

Back tracking to New Years Eve...

We went to the famous Copacabana beach for the celebration. unfortunately I did not get to meet up with Sjoerd who was also there, but I had a blast. We were at a party filled with friends of Angela's and their family. It was a very nice intimate gathering. They hired a staff so our glasses were never empty, there was food (but we all know how I feel about Brazilian food at this point) and lots of Samba. I got to practice though I wasn't as good as the last time- but I still danced my heart out and had a blast! Like every great family gathering there was a letch of an uncle- and me being the token American, he was hooked. He barely spoke English and what he did speak was dirty! It was all in good drunken uncle letchy fun.

We walked to the beach for midnight and watched a beautiful fireworks show (no Macy's 4th of July though). We were among two million people bringing in the New Year on the beach- plenty of music, booze and beautiful people! It was great fun but very crowded so we headed back to the party about an hour after. I got to speak with the fam and friends in NY though... and that was what really made my night!