Hello Friends and Family!

Tim and I have landed in Brazil and we’re checked in to the beautiful Belmond Copacabana Palace. We flew overnight which means as soon as we landed I took a two hour nap and now feel anxious and dizzy – go figure. At least I caught the stomach flu the day BEFORE we left this time, so even though the last few days were fairly unpleasent the next few ones should be pretty incredible.

 

The entire hotel is full of people from NBC and Comcast. There is a hidden magical room that is full of food all day connected to a terrace with a view of one of the most beautiful views in Southern America. (Wow am I really this bad with Geography? Yes, yes I am). It’s kind of like a Brazillian Hogwarts, without the annoying Cursed Child addition.

Our itinerary is determined each morning the day before, but tonight we’ll be going to the Gold & Bronze women’s volleyball tournaments. Tomorrow we have our shore excursion, (Or as our guide Anddy from Hong Kong fishing willage always said, “source excursion”) to Christ Redeemer, and then tickets to see the men’s triathalon final and vitory ceremony. The schedule here seems pretty intense – our day trips go from 8:30-2p, and the main evening events go from 9-2:30am. As most of you know, I have the sleeping habits of a sloth, so we’ll see how this whole thing plays out. So far the only meltdown of the trip was when I freaked out because I forgot all of the dog food and toys when we went to drop the dogs off for boarding and we didn’t have enough time to drive back home and get everything. So I scrambled and begged Danielle to go on a huge pain of an errand to get into our house, pick them up, and then drop them off at the airport. Then we got to the airport, parked, and I found everything in the back of the car because I HADN’T forgotten them I am just losing my mind. So then we drove BACK to the boarding place (luckily it was close) to drop them off and then had a panic attack as we rushed to our gate in just under 30 minutes. Security was compeltely backed up so we cut it pretty close. I’ve never seen Tim get nervous about missing a flight so I consider the whole thing a personal victory as well as an epic failure. Anyway what would I write to you guys on my blog about if I remembered things and was calm and collected.

I think between morning and afternoon events I’ll be able to check in and post a few pictures everday, and it should help me enjoy the whole trip a lot more to be talking to all of you throughout it. We took a quick walk down Copa Cabana Beach to walk to the gift shop after my nap and it was like “A Taste of Colorado” meets Christmas at Disney. I have come a long way from social anxiety but the number of people on the boardwalk, the Philadelphia like smells, and the men standing around with assault weapons was just a little much to handle for my first few hours. It’s not exactly first world here, maybe second world – especially if you’re in the Shantytowns, but it’s definitely beautiful. Almost time to go to the magic room for dinner, here are a few first impression photos with many more to come. I brought my DSLR so hopfully I’ll have time to get some good shots!

Até logo!