Brazil - Birthday party for Gilberto

Returning to Rio

It was a long trip back to Rio and the bus was running late, we should have been back by dawn but it would probably be noon before the trip was over. We didn't knew if the others had made any plans for the day, so at a restroom-stop we managed to call Erik and tell him of our delay. This was good since the others wanted to go and enjoy the view from top of the Pão de Açúcar. If we were that late they would leave right now.

He also told us that we were invited to participate in the birthday party in the evening for Gilberto, one of the brothers of the bride, if we had the energy. Of course, we hadn't come all the was to Brazil to miss out on a party and a chance to meet the locals.

We returned right after noon and went straight to the apartment of Erik and Consuelo. Sverre was to fly home the next evening and I had a room waiting for me at Hotel Debret, booked and paid for, well because of the bus-mixup it would first be vacant from tomorrow. We all agreed that it would be easiest if we stayed in thier guest-room for the night, so this was settled. Well, I stayed there the rest of the holiday to be exact.

In the afternoon Sverre and I walked the 20 minutes to the cable-car station to also go and enjoy the view from top of "Pão de Açúcar". While we waited in line, images entered my mind from the 007 "Moonraker" movie. I could see Jaws and James Bond for my inner eye fighting on top of the cable-car.

From the top of the first rock there is a heli-port where you can get a flight down the Copacobana, circulating round "Cristo Redentor" and a tour round Rio for 200$US as far as I remember. Well, we had seen all that so we settled for the view from the rock. An other cable-car go to the top of the highest rock, and there you have a good view of Copacobana

If they haven't painted the fence since '95 you can probably still see my name carved in the railing with large letters "WANDEL", well we sort of cheated. Someone had already written "ANDERS" so add a 'W' in front and make the 'RS' in to a 'L'. Look to the right of cablecars, counting the third reiling section from the left.

Birthday party for Gilberto

At six in the afternoon we all went for Gilbertos Birthday party. On the way we picked up a present. The CD with "US 3", the album "Hand On The Torch". At the party a huge bowl of the drink "caipirinha" (little peasant girl) was prepared, ahh..

The caipirinha is a traditional brazilian drink which has got a very refreshing taste and is pretty easy to prepare. You only need 10 Lime fruits / a bottle of cachaça (Brazilian sugarcane liquor) / Brown Sugar to taste / Ice cubes. To make a caipirinha, wash the lime and roll it on the board to loosen the juices. Then you have to cut the lime into pieces and place them in a glass. Sprinkle with the sugar and crush the pieces (pulp side up) with a pestle. Now add the cachaça and stir to mix. Add the ice and stir again. That's it! Well, if you can't find cachaça use a good vodka. Then the drink will then be called caipiroshka. And if you can't even get a good vodka it's also possible to use white rum and you will have a caipiríssima. But it will never taste as fine as the original.

There was dinner as well, traditional Brazilian food. Tasty and plenty and his friends were nice and interested in having their spoken English tested on us. Best of all was that Gilberto had a Internet account, an excellent chance to get some Emailing done. Unfortunately the telephone line was down but Gilberto promised he would send the mails when the line was working again. Well, I had fax'ed my parents the day before so I declined my position in the line that was forming by the PC.

Instead I talked to Gilberto, he was very eager to tell me about his work, tuning BMW's by making/burning new chips (EPROM) for the gear-changing logic, motor-fuel-injection what have you. He had made a program on his PC to do the job and the EPROM-burner was his own so he showed me how easy it was. But he wanted to make his PC-Program more fashionable. I knew of some modules he could use to spice up the graphics and I agreed to mail him the URL's when I would return to Denmark. I don't know if he made any use of them though.

The girl from Ipanema

Sunday, October 22'th

Sunday and no plans. Sverre was leaving in the evening and we agreed to go to a Churrascaria close by the apartment and put Sverre in a cab when it was time for him to go to the airport. What about the following days?

But what about this afternoon? Every Sunday there there is an arts and craft fair on Praça Generel Osóario in Ipanema and we decided to go there. The square is just next to the famous beach, take a look, Rasmus got a nice hammock and

We were there for a long time, definitely eating too much. All of a sudden Sverre had to leave. But the remaining four of us continued with consuming the delicacies. It was late when we returned to the apartment and then we had to get up early in order to catch the Parati-bus.