suspended lights
we~ve now been in rio for ten days. we~re becoming so comfortable here-it~s strange that that can happen, in a foreign country, with a foreign language, in only ten days. this morning we went to the corner for our daily fresh fruit smoothies, and the guy behind the counter got my order wrong- and the woman who is there every single day went up to him and told him, no, no, this girl gets strawberry with no milk. it was an amazing feeling to realize that she knows me. is used to me. expects me there every morning. here in rio de janiero taher and i are beginning to feel like we are carving out the tiniest of niches. it~s mind-blowing to think that while home is one specific city, ´at home´ is a feeling i am learning to take with me on my travels.
we~ve been busy the last few days- earlier this week, we went hanggliding. this is something i have always wanted to do. and it was great. we stood on a platform on a cliff (called sao corvado), and looked over the cliffs and the city to the ocean. then we actually ran at full speed towards the end of the platform, and even when our feet left the platform, we continued to run on air. and suddenly- flight. it was so much fun. i wanted to stay up there for hours. i was in a tandem flight with a pilot, who said he once did a marathon flight on a hangglider for 8 hours. i can only imagine how amazing that would have been. just floating through the air, high enough to understand what a bird~s eye view really is. and having enough time to gaze and think and daydream. i totally loved it. the pilot did some tricks, too- such as pushing the bar far out in front of him, so the glider soared upwards, and then pulling it back quickly so it did a sudden nose-dive. oh! it was awesome. seemingly headed straight into the water and then SWOOP! up again. i loved every minute of it.
the next day we hired a big, wide jeep and were taken deep into the tijuca forest. we just hiked around, breathing in the unmistakeable smell of forest and enjoying the scenery. rio is so multi-faceted; forests and cliffs and beaches and city. it is, to put it simply, fun to explore. my favorite part of the tijuca forest was the spleunking-we had to hike up up up to get to this cave, and then squeeze through this tiny black opening to get inside the cave itself. but stepping through, i found the cave to be immense- huge and high and cavernous. it was so sheltering- i felt like sitting down and building a fire and setting up camp.
yesterday, we took a boat to the ilha grande- big island. basically, this place was paradise. outside of rio, it~s just ocean and islands and gorgeous backdrops of cliffs and greenery. of course, the water was a dark blue. of course, the sun was shining. of course, there were idyllic little homes on the islands, sheltered by trees, that caused taher and i to seriously ponder giving it all up and living in paradise. i am quickly running out of words to describe the vistas i have been taking in the last two weeks.
it~s so strange. we~re finally getting the hang of it and we will have to leave soon. not that we have it all figured out- not at all. there are still a thousand surprises a day. on the bus last night, driving past the neighborhoods built on the sides of cliffs, the lights from the houses were on, but the cliffs themselves were not visible. all we could see were thousands and thousands of suspended lights, rising high above the ground. the kind of thing you can never capture in a photograph- something magical for us to just take in and appreciate, a little gift as we sit on a bus like any other, on a night like any other.
we~ve now been in rio for ten days. we~re becoming so comfortable here-it~s strange that that can happen, in a foreign country, with a foreign language, in only ten days. this morning we went to the corner for our daily fresh fruit smoothies, and the guy behind the counter got my order wrong- and the woman who is there every single day went up to him and told him, no, no, this girl gets strawberry with no milk. it was an amazing feeling to realize that she knows me. is used to me. expects me there every morning. here in rio de janiero taher and i are beginning to feel like we are carving out the tiniest of niches. it~s mind-blowing to think that while home is one specific city, ´at home´ is a feeling i am learning to take with me on my travels.
we~ve been busy the last few days- earlier this week, we went hanggliding. this is something i have always wanted to do. and it was great. we stood on a platform on a cliff (called sao corvado), and looked over the cliffs and the city to the ocean. then we actually ran at full speed towards the end of the platform, and even when our feet left the platform, we continued to run on air. and suddenly- flight. it was so much fun. i wanted to stay up there for hours. i was in a tandem flight with a pilot, who said he once did a marathon flight on a hangglider for 8 hours. i can only imagine how amazing that would have been. just floating through the air, high enough to understand what a bird~s eye view really is. and having enough time to gaze and think and daydream. i totally loved it. the pilot did some tricks, too- such as pushing the bar far out in front of him, so the glider soared upwards, and then pulling it back quickly so it did a sudden nose-dive. oh! it was awesome. seemingly headed straight into the water and then SWOOP! up again. i loved every minute of it.
the next day we hired a big, wide jeep and were taken deep into the tijuca forest. we just hiked around, breathing in the unmistakeable smell of forest and enjoying the scenery. rio is so multi-faceted; forests and cliffs and beaches and city. it is, to put it simply, fun to explore. my favorite part of the tijuca forest was the spleunking-we had to hike up up up to get to this cave, and then squeeze through this tiny black opening to get inside the cave itself. but stepping through, i found the cave to be immense- huge and high and cavernous. it was so sheltering- i felt like sitting down and building a fire and setting up camp.
yesterday, we took a boat to the ilha grande- big island. basically, this place was paradise. outside of rio, it~s just ocean and islands and gorgeous backdrops of cliffs and greenery. of course, the water was a dark blue. of course, the sun was shining. of course, there were idyllic little homes on the islands, sheltered by trees, that caused taher and i to seriously ponder giving it all up and living in paradise. i am quickly running out of words to describe the vistas i have been taking in the last two weeks.
it~s so strange. we~re finally getting the hang of it and we will have to leave soon. not that we have it all figured out- not at all. there are still a thousand surprises a day. on the bus last night, driving past the neighborhoods built on the sides of cliffs, the lights from the houses were on, but the cliffs themselves were not visible. all we could see were thousands and thousands of suspended lights, rising high above the ground. the kind of thing you can never capture in a photograph- something magical for us to just take in and appreciate, a little gift as we sit on a bus like any other, on a night like any other.
...Natural is the static
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