After months of waiting the time had finally come to embark on the long journey to Rio. Of course we had to eat one final meal at Sanraku, a Neumann family tradition, but this time we were joined by Moreno, Dre, Kyle and Conor. We celebrated by drinking some delicious Saki infused with gold leaves for good luck.
7:30 PM (PST) – Depart for Ft. Lauderdale with a short stop in LA. Virgin America was awesome, from the new Terminal in SFO, to inflight live TV and GoPro channel!
5:30 AM (EST) – Upon arriving in muggy Ft. Lauderdale, we decided to rent a car for the day for only $20, because we had 12 hours to kill in Miami. It totally beat lugging our backpacks around during the rainy season.
After cruising down Miami Beach in style in our Fiat 500 we kicked it and swam at Nikki Beach for a couple of hours. It was already getting hot, even though it was only 8 AM.
As the day progressed an endless stream of beautiful cars began lining up along Miami beach for the Gumball 3000, an annual British 3000 mile race on public roads. This year the race goes from Miami to New York City, then the cars are flown to London and driven again to the finish line in Ibiza.
12:27 PM (EST) – While exploring Little Havana, we just happened to run into Santino, Moreno’s former coworker. So the only person either of us knows in Miami, was randomly in line for the same ATM, what are the odds? Next thing we know, we were at his house smoking bowl and listening to old school rap.
Two things stood out to me in Miami. All the drivers are crazy and its the only place I’ve been in America, where everyone expects you to speak Spanish. English is a second language in Miami.
5:30 PM (EST) – Depart from Miami, stop for a short time in Santo Domingo and chatted with a former Marlins pitching prospect. Tiredness was setting in. Next stop Rio.
5:00 AM (BRT) – We finally arrived in Rio and waited in the airport till the sun rose figuring out how to get to the place we found on AirBnb, although still not completely sure if the place really existed. Luckily our taxi driver was awesome, not just because he was honking at girls the whole ride, but because he found the exact apartment in a three story building on a random side street in Zona Norte. Without him we would have been so lost.
Quick Travel Tip: Upon arriving in a new city or country for the first time tell people, like taxi drivers, that you’ve been before. We learned this the hard way upon arriving in Delhi a few years ago totally discombobulated and our taxi driver from the airport ‘couldn’t find’ our hostel ‘because it had closed’ and took us to an expensive hotel owned by his relative instead. It’s easy to take advantage of people who have no idea what they are doing, so just pretend you do.
In the next post we’ll tell you all about our host here in Rio and our adventures to Copacabana and Ipanema.
Peace