My Trip to Brazil 1

I never really quite understood why people love champagne so much, but hey, whatever rocks your boat eh? Not being a big drinker, and I insist, not being a big drinker, (one half glass of coconut punch from my country twice a year) I decide to “let my hair down”, which is a weird thing to say when you are a shaved hair black man like me! Anyway, after dinner and two, yes, two small bottles of champagne, I head for the small “stretching legs” area at end of the plane and now, wow, I finally get the feeling of Rio de Janeiro. There were about 20 people standing around, dancing, chatting and even playing some Latin jazz on a small radio brought by one of the passengers. I let a great looking brunette tempt me to do two steps and I am happy to see that my salsa skills are not as rusty as I would have thought! 4 hours later and we are all acquainted. There is a large group of retired people (including Bernard) crossing the Atlantic for the first time, there is a small group of backpackers who plan on spending 4 months in all the countries of South America and of course the rest are made of various people, mostly Brazilians who are just going back home after “buying half of Europe”, according to them. I bet those ones are not going back to the favelas eh?!

When we finally land, we exchange emails and phones numbers, knowing that we probably never going to see each other again, and we all go our way. I am a bit surprised of the state of the airport, for a big town like Rio, I was expecting something a little bit more “upscale”, but hey, how long do we really spend in an airport really? In the landing part of it, mind? 20/30 min tops? So why fix something which isn't broken?

As I am slowly walking out of the “controlled area”, I am getting assaulted by about 20 men, all dressed casually shouting: “I speak English, I speak English” to me expecting that I would pick them to get me to the hotel. They must be thinking that all black men are from USA. Funny that! I decide to go from the less dodgy looking one, a 40 years old looking guy, who gave me a great smile and who seems to weight far less than me. It is very important when you arrive in a new country and you are about to get somewhere with someone you don't know, to always pick someone that you feel you can “take”, in case they get any weird ideas! And this one did not scare me one bit, so…

As we are heading for the well lit car park nearby, he asks me if I need an ATM, another tip, wherever country you are going to, always travel with a reasonable sum of money which you can either use first hand to take a taxi to the hotel or that you could afford to lose in case you get mugged! And of course, always go for American dollars, the only currency which is accepted worldwide. I decline politely and tell him which hotel I am going to, which he seems to know; as we step into the car, I ask him if we will pass the statue of the “Corcovado”, the huge Jesus Christ which is overlooking the bay of the town. He smiles, nods and then asks me how come every time someone arrives in Rio, this is the first thing they wanna see? And I tell him: “the same way people go all the way to Paris to see the Eiffel tower, it is the landmark of the town”. What did he expect me to want see first? Pele? Gisele Bundchen? Or the transvestites?? He smiles but doesn't answer.

Just before we drive off, he asks me what the purpose of my visit in here was: business, pleasure or the usual; which is sex. Having recently ended a relationship, I don't feel any desire to get “back on the horse” that quick, so… I decide to pass on the sex bit, which he finds odd. After telling me that the national sport in Brazil, beside football is to have lots of girls, in a row, I realize how close they are to the “national sport” of Martinique, my country.

The night is warm, but moist with humidity, he talks me through most of the places we are driving through, the hypermarket named “Rio Sul”, the Sugar Loaf, the big night clubs, etc, etc, After seeing how I frown when we passed some of the trendy places, he asks if I was here on a budget, to which I nod. This is when he started to tell where the best places to have fun for, for cheap, including eating out. Again, another one who speaks my language and again, he isn't French!