Poor Cow

People have been asking how I managed to survive Brazil, and so I figured I'd update.

I traveled with a pack of astronomers (several of whom read this here blog and can chime in if they so desire...), and we all stayed down at a hotel in Copacabana.

Yes, Copacabana. No, I did not see Lola, or Tony, or Rico.

Anyway, the hotel was pretty nice, but of course we were hopping the subway up to the center of Rio and attending the meetings like good astronomers. The meeting was fine, there was interesting stuff going on, but perhaps the most amusing thing was watching hundreds of astronomers go through internet withdrawal when the net in the conference center went down for a whole day.

I did take one afternoon off, and sat out on the beach at Copa. Was pleasant and warm, even though it was of course midwinter down there. I sat on the beach and read a book, and all was fine. Then I went up to the beach bar and ordered a beer and sat down at a table -- and the local beach vendors were on me like flies. I ignored them as best I could, but after a while fled back to the hotel rooftop bar, where there actually was a heck of a view:

(picture courtesy Pat Durrell)

While at the bar, I tried a caipirinha, which is evidently national cocktail of Brazil. A very tasty little drink, kind of like a margarita but w/ cachaça -- a sugarcane alcohol -- instead of tequila. I was impressed. If I could find cachaça up here in the US, I'd be game to mix a few up on a regular basis.

So then that night we went to carnivore heaven, a Brazilian charruscaria called Porcao de Ipanema. Porcao is pronounced "Poor Cow", and I would have to agree, that poor, poor cow. Basically it's an all you can eat meathouse, where they keep coming to your table with meat on a spit, and cut it onto your plate. Beef, chicken, lamb, pork, sausage, you name it. They just move from table to table cutting meat, until you finally flip over the little happy pig tile on your table from a green "feed me" to a red "no mas" symbol (or however you say it in Portugeuse). And on top of that, there is a huge seafood and salad bar -- sushi, shrimp, greens, etc, etc.


To prepare, I had skipped lunch that day, and we walked the two miles to the restaurant. Needless to say, I pigged out. And happily, I'm told that there is a churrascaria here in Cleveland -- The Brasa Grill. I'm looking forward to that!

The next day was our last day -- we were flying out that night -- so we had time to do something touristy. The decision was made to take the cable car to the top of Sugarloaf. (This is the cablecar ride featured in the Bond film Moonraker). That was very cool, and here's a shot (again from Pat) looking up at Sugarloaf:


And then finally, here's a shot of the four of us travelers up on top:

(me, John, Pat, Robin)

(For some reason, I look rather emaciated in that picture. Perhaps I needed to return to Porcao.....)

Anyway, after that it was a long flight back to Atlanta, followed by an flight to Cleveland that got turned back to Atlanta, a long wait, and a second, more successful flight to Cleveland, and then sleep.