Day 31: Rio - Speedos, thongs and turkey

Thanksgiving.  We had talked about what we would do today, to celebrate a holiday that is difficult to celebrate outside the US.  This was Olivia´s first holiday away from her family, and oddly enough, it was Chris´ second thanksgiving in a row spent in Latin America.  We wanted to celebrate the day without being absurd.  We´d discussed making a meal in our apartment.  This was eliminated primarily because our kitchen is the size of a postage stamp, ingredients like turkey, cranberries and stuffing are very difficult to find and the utensils, pots and pans in our kitchen are minimally useful.  We also knew that the Marriott down the street was having a Thanksgiving buffet (we´d posed as guests a few days before to glean some tourist info from the English speaking concierge), but that seemed a bit expensive and a bit of a cop-out.  So, our plan for the best holiday in the US was to strut our stuff on the Impanena and Copacabana beaches and eat only food we could buy on the street.  This may sound like a small meal (or a way to get sick) but we´d been craving all the coconut and hot dogs and beer and peanuts and popcorn and corn on the cob and tapioca and cheese-steak on a stick and who knows what we´d seen for sale on the street in the last week (full disclosure: we´d also sampled our fair bit of ´street meat´in our week in Rio with no sign of GI troubles).  Because of the threat of rain we went to the beach immediately in front of our apartment (one block away), laid out our towels and sat on the beach in our recently purchased speedo and thong (or what Olivia believes to be at least a version of a thong).  Both of us felt quite liberated to be on the beach and so comfortable wearing so little.  And we were able to sample capirinhas, small puff pastries, freshly grilled cheese, cashews, peanuts, a sweet coconut dish, stay fully hydrated with water and beer AND buy some souvenirs all without leaving our towels.  It was wonderful.

 

It was also cloudy, but, it turns out that when you expose parts of skin that have never seen the light of day even to a very cloudy sky, you can get a very bad sunburn.  Even with sun screen.  Our plane ride to Belo Horizonte will be fun tomorrow.  Ouch!

 

We went back to our apartment and took care of some business and realized that the street food did not cut it for Thanksgiving.  We were hungry, and we missed our families.  So we broke down and went to the Marriott.  We stuffed ourselves with turkey and mashed potatoes and filet mignon and salmon and salad and cranberries.  We did not eat the mushy bread crumbles that was masquarading as stuffing.  We did eat the tasteless tough orange triangles that were masquerading as pumpkin and apple pie.  We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and also enjoyed some very nice amenities offered by the Marriott that we haven´t had for a long time. Like hot water. And the use of English with people other than each other.  And $12 bottles of water.  Yes, 12 US dollars for a bottle of water.  Oops.

 

Thanksgiving was fun, but we miss our families, though we hope to start a tradition in our family of always having a capirinha on T-day to remember our first married Thanksgiving together.

 

Deep thoughts from full bellies: We are thankful for...

eachother

our dear families

our fabulous friends

this trip

not getting sick on this trip (yet)

grilled meat, gelato, fresh tropical fruit

burritos, pad thai, and pizza

our great memories of Madison and the other places we consider home

our cats

our cat-sitters

 

Optional essay question: Define "thong swimwear" in 50 words or less. Any language is acceptable although English is preferred.