Que Saudade!

I spent the afternoon with my Rio family and we discovered how little is open for business on a Sunday. Flavio also mentioned that they have too many holidays, three last week and two this week [actually only one this week but it is a Thursday and when that occurs everyone “burns” Friday]. We were supposed to go to a very old and well-respected restaurant called Colombo but it was closed. We might make it there tomorrow before the airport. Flavio has kindly offered to take me. Check out is noon but my flight isn’t till 8:30 so we can just keep the luggage in the car. Since we were in Centro anyway we went back to CCBB because I wanted them, especially Caue to see the plant thing. Its official name is The Dream of the Office Plant. There is a desk with in-and-out trays, a phone and such and a lowly potted plant. Out of that pot grows this horticultural fantasy I described in the last post. We also found on another floor an exhibit of photographs by the Ferrez family. The images cover the 20th Century and are mostly devoted to Brazil, especially the construction of buildings, highways and public works. Gilberto, Julio, and Luciano also photographed Salvador, Recife and other Brazilian locales as well as Senegal, Portugal, England, Switzerland, Italy and France.
We had lunch in the teahouse on the third floor of the CCBB. It’s called Colher de Pau [wooden spoon] and it is an elegant little dining room where most everyone was drinking tea and eating toast or biscuits.
From there we drove to the Feira Hippie da Ipanema, a craft market that operates on weekends and holidays. Had I any room in my luggage I would have been a spendthrift. I should throw out half the stuff I am carrying but I chose to bring my favorite clothes. I can’t throw them away. I picked up a few mementos, a book or two. I am going to leave the guidebooks with Flavio and Renata as well as the unused DEET, lotions and such. I am going to try to ditch my carry-on satchel as well. The overhead compartments are now so small that it is a struggle to stuff it in. I can use the cloth HAL bag we all got as a gift on the first day at sea.
On the way back to the hotel driving along Flamingo there were hundreds and hundreds of white crosses lining both sides of the road for several miles. It was part of a demonstration/installation decrying the number of murders in Rio already this year. It is only April and over 2000 have been killed. It is almost entirely in the favelas but also in the outlying areas. I wonder what the world record is. I seem to remember when 300 murders in one year in Oakland was considered outrageous. Well, life is cheap and getting cheaper by the hour.
I don’t think you’ll get another post until I’m home safely at my big fast desktop computer that is always online. It has been a wonderful experience made more wonderful by the participation of my lovely friends. I can never thank you all enough for making this happen. Que saudade!