Old pictures, Summer 2001, Rio De Janeiro

[urbpan]

In the spring of 2001, my marriage had fallen apart, I moved in with my friend Alexis, and my Dad called me one day: "How would you like to come with me to Rio De Janeiro." I was almost angry at him: "What kind of a question is that?! OF COURSE I want to go with you to Rio De Janeiro!"




One of the days of our trip (totally orchestrated by tour companies) we were sent along to a small island. Here's my dad enjoying the ride. On almost all of our subsequent trips we had boat rides, I'm not sure why, but we really enjoy them. Pretty much all the pictures in this set are by my dad, unless he's in them, and then they are by me. Quality varies wildly, but can get pretty bad, since this was before either of us was shooting digital, and was essentially guessing and hoping that the picture was decent. It was a dark time--you kids have it so easy.


This guy played music on the boat ride. Look at his face. I love Brazilians.


Once on the island, the tourists fed bananas to the marmosets. Oh wait, that's for the picture above the cut. I was reluctant to get near the things, frankly. I like monkeys, but this was my first trip overseas and they were my first wild monkeys. Then we napped in hammocks.


This also become something of a tradition with us.


Back in the city, we went to the Jardim Botanico, establishing another pattern of going to the city's arboretums and botanical gardens. This section is named for Carlos Antonio Jobim, samba legend, and writer of "The Girl From Ipanema" which should be the Brazilian national anthem.


Soil in tropical rainforests is so thin that the big trees have to have these ludicrous buttresses on their roots to keep them upright. I'm hiding in there.


It was before I was taking good notes on vacations, so I don't know what this pointy tree is.


This is some kind of tyrant flycatcher.


These obviously aren't in the proper order, because I think the moment after we checked into our hotel we headed immediately for Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.


Hello south Atlantic!


The man behind my father is a member of Rio's fitness enthusiast community, which was a conspicuous presence.


Along the beach there were stands where you could buy coconuts, and the vendor would expertly open them with a machete. The picture I took of my dad with his coconut is on my desk.


This shar pei was also eating a coconut when I encountered him. I stopped to say hi and was soon soaked in dog slobber and coconut milk.


Feral cats sheltered in the shade of the rocks along the beach.


At one point I saw birds in this canal, and we went over to investigate. We found ourselves in what was probably not a good neighborhood. My dad and I were several feet away from each other involved in our own photography experiences, when I heard him talking to someone. I looked over and a guy was holding his camera strap saying "no police!" My dad didn't really understand what was going on and thought the guy needed some kind of help or something. I walked over to him and said, "Dad, he's trying to mug you!" The guy got discouraged and left without the camera.


More touristy stuff! We took the cable car up to Pao de Acucar, the famous rock formation along the coast.


Great view of the city up there (a little smoggy). Judging by the sign, I guessed that there were sometimes monkeys.


This was 9 years ago and my dad actually looks much healthier now.


We also took the cog railway up to Rio's most famous landmark. This was our first view of it.


It's Christ the Redeemer. Just a big statue to me, but there were some people there who were very moved. Also a lot of tourists.


Who were kind of more interesting than the statue, frankly.


May as well put my dad's sunset picture at the end. Good job, Dad!