Day 4 in Rio

[ahka]

Today, as I planned, we did pretty much nothing, just were resting, napping, walking, and shopping.  The weather was better then yesterday.  It was much warmer and there were only two times when it was raining.  By the afternoon it cleared up and we could even see the blue sky.  It looks promising for tomorrow’s tour.

 

Three times we attempted to go to the H Stern headquarters for which we got invitation. Stern is a gemstone jewelry manufacturer.  Their invitation said that if we come they would give us a tour around their jewelry making store and they would give us a gift.  Of course, they hope that we would buy something there.  Since we had nothing to do, we wanted to go there.  Three times we walked in that direction and then for some reason couldn’t find the street that we had to turn to get there.  The last time we tried to go there, it was getting dark and we were very tired from walking a huge distance.  We actually walked from our hotel in Copacabana area to Ipanema area and walked from one end of Ipanema beach to another and back.  At the Ipanema sidewalk we set down to rest and had a coconut drink.  It was pretty refreshing.

On the way, we stopped at some shops and got some gifts.  We always have difficult time figuring out what gifts to get.  So, we got some Brazilian coffee and chocolate, Rio’s soccer team jersey and shorts for Mishka.

In the evening we went to the market.  The weather was good, so there were a lot of vendors.  On our first night in Rio, when we found this market, we got to know one artist who was selling her handmade beautiful carnival wall masks made out of wood sap.  The masks are decorated with different gemstones that represent Love, Passion, Friendship, Family, etc.

Her name is Krisna.  I asked her about the name because it sounded like Indian name and not Brazilian.  She is Brazilian and she told us a story about her mother who gave her Indian name.  She was born in 1970s in city Brazilia.  At that time, her mom was a Hippie, she was in love with Indian Hari Rama Hari Krishna beliefs and decided to call her daughter Krisna.  Krisna explained that she was the first person in whole Brazil with this name.

 

She was very pleasant and knew several words in Russian.  So, today when we went back to that market, we met Krisna again.  She was not feeling well and complained about the cold and rainy weather in the past few days.  She told us that market vendors many times don’t come when it is raining and cold as she did not yesterday.  We chatted with her and I asked Boris to take a picture of two of us. 

Also, I asked for her e-mail.  I was wishing that she also has a website where she sells her masks but she explained that she does not.  She explained that she tried to sell her masks on e-bay but no one even asked her a question.  Krishna also told us that she is very bored working at the market.  She sells her masks and her friend’s oil paintings that are not cheap, so she hardly ever has any buying costumers.  So, when we saw her, she was doing crossword puzzle.

Also, this evening we met a group of Russian tourists from Moscow.  They told us that it took them 28 hours to get to Rio from Moscow.  That is long time!!!  I could do something like this only if there would be a day break somewhere.

This time we also got a lot of purchases.  We got a lot of different jewelry, a tank top for Michelle, a doll for Alina’s doll collection.  Some of the vendors were accepting credit cards and we tried to do purchases only there since we are almost out of the Reals and Dollars to exchange.  We can do bank withdrawal, but will try to avoid it since they would charge huge fees from all ends.

Tonight we will try to connect with the kids through skype.  I miss my Mishkas.

Tomorrow is our all day city tour.  I hope to make a lot of beautiful pictures and see all of the important sights of Rio.