(Post 1/2)
The riots in Rio have made international news and drawn a number of concerned emails from my family, friends and blog readers. I expect my family and friends to worry about me, but it's nice to know that my writing has inspired empathy and concern. I'm just not sure if the concern is for my personal safety or the safety of my blog.
Regardless of what motivates your concern, let me assure you that I am safe and as usual the news is blowing up (no pun intended) the events to make them seem worse than they really are. Are there really riots in Rio? Yes. Are a lot of people getting hurt and killed? Yes. Are the events keeping people from being able to live their lives in Barra? No.
Thankfully the violence has been contained (mostly) in the favelas and I have not witnessed anything out of the ordinary. For those of you who do not know what all this violence is about, the ciity of Rio is trying to clean up the streets in preparation for the World Cup and the Olympics. They realize that their city is going to be front stage for the whole world during this time period and it is their turn to shine. The plan was to crack down on the drug dealers, illegal weapons and other forms of obvious crime that has been taking place since the 80's. Over the last 30 years the police, government and the population have turned a blind eye to the crime, so as you can imagine it's difficult (and a little bit of a shock) for the illegal activity to stop overnight.
Fear, ignited by the drug dealers and spread by the media, has the world scared of Rio and, thus, Brazil. I assure you it is not as bad as it sounds, and in my view it's something that needs to happen in order for Brazil to prepare itself for upcoming events. From what I have seen and heard at the academy, there is more a sense of shame than anything else. My instructor and a few other team mates at the academy have personally apologized to me about the riots, as if I had actually been the victim of some of the violence.
Avoiding the violence hasn't been particularly hard. I try and stay away from areas that would draw the attention of either the police or the drug dealers. I keep my senses sharp, stay alert and stay alive...basically I operate as normal (hyper vigilance is actually one manifestation of PTSD).
Changing subjects...
Kathy decided to take me, Megan and Igor to a secluded restaurant called Don Pascual's. This is a pizza place out in the middle of the rain forest. It took about 45 minutes to an hour to get there and we had to drive down a bunch of dirt roads, littered in potholes, to get there. There were a couple of moments where I actually questioned her sense of direction and accused her of being lost. It was totally beyond me how a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere could be popular, never mind profitable.
Apparently I should stay out of the restaurant business because when we arrived I was blown away. The atmosphere at this restaurant is, by far, the best out of any restaurant I have ever eaten at. Don Pascual's is actually in a converted house and I can only speculate on how much this house could have cost because not only was it huge, but it was beautifully crafted and the layout was AWESOME!
We took a seat on a deck overlooking some lush green vegetation and watched the fireflies blink in and out of the night. There were leather couches, hard wood tables and massive chairs. The lighting was a mix of candles and soft yellow bulbs and all of this had a back round of crickets and other forest creatures. This is not something that you can take a picture of, it is truly something that you need to experience. Any photo that I can show you would not do this restaurant justice, so instead I took a photo of the menu.
There are a couple of dinning traditions that transcend continents, religious views and ethnic differences. One such tradition is the after meal coffee. From my experience, people around the world love coffee. They wake up in the morning and drink it, they stop off on the way to work to drink it, they drink loads of it to stay awake at work or make that last couple hours of that car ride livable. Drinking coffee is so universal that both old and young alike use it as a form of social interaction or to extend a pleasing interaction already in effect.
It is for this reason that I can understand how Starbucks, Caribou Coffee and countless other cafes can stay in business. I can also understand that the default coffee at many of these places is pretty large (to get a major hit of caffeine and give you enough liquid to actually make an event out of drinking it).
It is for these reasons that I was, and still am, shocked at the size of the brazilian coffee. When they place the coffee in front of you it looks like they robbed some little girl of her tea party set and then shrunk the cup further. I still don't understand how anyone could be satisfied with the contents of one cup of Brazilian coffee. I do not personally drink coffee, so maybe someone can explain it to me, or my international readers, why the coffee is rationed like you're going to run out. Here is a photo of me holding a coffee cup in Brazil (please take note of it's size in relation to what a normal cup is).
Food, in general, has been great over the past week. In addition to eating at an exclusive pizza restaurant, I've had a professional chef cook for me. Part of Megan's speech to convince me it was a good idea for her to come down here was a promise to cook me breakfast in bed every morning. I don't typically eat breakfast in bed, but it is nice to take advantage of it two or three times a week.
Twice this week I had egg, cheese and sausage made for me while I laid in bed. I get to wake up, eat some yummy food, then go train, come home, relax for a little while and then go train again. Then I come home, eat, and spend some time with Megan before I go to sleep...you cant beat that with a stick!
I decided to take it a little over the top and see what it is going to be like having a chef as a spouse. On Thursday I woke up and asked for Filet Mignon and rice with Chimmichurri sauce ( I know it's not typically breakfast food, but I'm not a follow the food rules type of guy). Not only did she make it, but it was awesome. Here is a photo of me freshly awake getting ready to eat my meal fit for a king.
