The Girl From Ipanema
Hello folks, last week my wonderful parents came out to visit and we had an absolutely cracking time, but to tell you about it I'm gunna pass the mic to my Mum and you can hear it from her point of view.
Enjoy....
A photo was here; it wasn’t in the backup.
The power of love and a hug 🤗
For those of you who are following Marco’s blog you may be surprised to see that he has given his mum a guest blog I suspect as a one off !
If you are expecting me to tell you tales of falling asleep in a manger then you may as well stop reading now as you will be disappointed. 😁
However if you want a heartwarming tale of how Tonino and I flew 11 hours on a plane just to give Marco a hug and see how he lives his life then please read on or pass it on to your parents to read and they will understand.
Firstly if we believed all the advice we were given about Rio de Janeiro before we went we would have never have gone, but the power of the hug awaiting us from Marco was too strong to ignore and in truth I wanted to experience the vibe of Rio for myself.
It did not disappoint as after a very big hug from Marco we set off on an adventure in Rio.
A photo was here; it wasn’t in the backup.
What we weren’t prepared for was the hottest January temperatures in 90 years and it was indeed hot, 34c! It felt like walking into an oven but that didn’t stop us as over the week we saw all the tourist attractions including; Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Santa Teresa, Lapa Steps, Maracana (if any of my friends are reading this it is a football stadium😁) Parque Lage, ate in the restaurant that the Girl from Ipanema was written in and of course Copacabana and Ipanema beach 🏖.
3 photos from this gallery weren’t in the backup.
Christ the Redeemer bought a tear to my eye as I had seen this iconic statue in pictures but seeing it for real made me realise I really had made it to Rio. The views were stunning and I wasn’t prepared for the fact that you could see the statue almost everywhere you went in Rio and it was spectacular when it was lit up at night.
A photo was here; it wasn’t in the backup.
My imagination ran wild at Sugar Loaf Mountain as I pretended to be in the James Bond film Moonraker as we went in the cable cars where they filmed the iconic scene with Jaws 👍.
We had the honour to meet Jose, Marco’s landlord, who took us out to see parts of Rio that only locals would know about and made us the most amazing chocolate dessert to celebrate Marco’s birthday before we went home!
Everyone we met in Rio was very friendly and we felt completely safe which is not something that can be said for some of the other cities we have visited.
What was lovely to experience was how well Marco has settled in Rio and he spoke very good Portuguese which was fab as we couldn’t speak any. He was even greeted by a kiss by 2 of the waitresses in a cafe we visited so he clearly is mixing with the natives 😁.
We also tried to act like the locals and I drank coconut 🥥 water and tried the local cocktail Caipirinha 🍸 on several occasions while Tonino sampled the table beers with Marco to help the local economy (that’s our excuse anyway!).
3 photos from this gallery weren’t in the backup.
Singing in the rain️ ☔
Marco and I are not known for our common sense so when we set off for a drink at Ipanema beach and we heard thunder we paid no attention thinking it would pass - how wrong were we. The rain was torrential and we were stuck under an umbrella in the beach for over an hour without a drink! Eventually we made a run for it but that was a bad mistake as it started again and by the time we got back to the hotel we were soaked - Marco tells me it hardly ever rains in Rio!
Sensible people I am told would have heard the thunder and thought let’s go to a bar nearer as we might get wet!
Before I finish my first guest blog, because I can, I am going to give you my Top 5 moments of my visit to Rio
- Seeing how Marco lives and meeting his friends
- Paddling in the sea in Copacabana beach
- Seeing Tonino and Marco’s faces during the Maracana tour
- Christ the Redeemer - I really am in Rio
- The delicious meat I ate in Rio it really was delicious but I stopped at trying the chicken hearts!
Well that’s me finished, we are home now and I can honestly say I will never forget my visit to Rio and if you are reading this and thinking about going just go - it really is fabulous darling 😁 💃🏖 just like my son and that hug 🤗
