Sad Goodbyes and Off to Rio

Monday November 29th.

The pictures: two beautiful butterflies from Iguacu, one large ugly moth in our house, the mango tree on the front yard with Christmas lights around the trunk and the outskirts of Rio as we came in for the landing, I thought this was interesting because of the sharp dividing line between green and city.

I went with Murilo and Marizetta this morning to FISK to try to burn my pictures to dvd, and it works. I burned four discs this about 1200 pictures each. Then I packed them in the box along with the broken laptop and a few other items and Murilo and I walked over to the post office. He helped me with translation and for thirty five dollars I mailed about 3.5 kg of stuff home.

Then Kristian picked me up and we went and did the routine of opening his two businesses and then returned to the house for the last lunch. Then we said our goodbyes and they returned to work.

I finished packing and the taxi that Kristian arranged arrived and took me to the airport. The flight to Rio was short, two hours, and the bus ride from the airport to Ipanema was long, an hour and a half. I am in a grotty little sweatbox hostel in Ipanema Village. It's a tiny street with seven hostels and is only two blocks from Ipanema Beach. Great location. As soon as I arrived the other people in my room were heading out to dinner and asked if I wanted to go along. So, hungry and suddenly with seven other English speakers (English, Irish, Scottish and American), I headed out for pizza and a couple of beer. Afterwards they all went pubbing and I headed back to the little sweatbox. The temperature outside is thirty and humid and in the room it's hotter than that! There is an airconditioner but it isn't doing much.