1981 - Family Trip #1 - Rio de Janeiro and Home

Wednesday 15 April 1981 -  Rio de Janeiro and Home

Matt and me atop Sugar Loaf

We were due to go on a bus tour this morning, but decided to go our own way. We had a nice breakfast of fruit and rolls and then caught a taxi to Sugarloaf. It was a bit hazy when we got there, but it cleared by the time we got to the top and the view was as splendid as we remembered. We had a nice ice cream up there, although not as good as the ones we had yesterday off the Rua Branco (mango and banana). We bought a lot of T shirts etc at a shop at the bottom and then took advantage of a free ride to Copacabana to Desiree Jewellers.

Bath time at a public fountain

A very nice chap there showed us his selection of stones with infinite patience until lunch time, when we went to a very nice restaurant around the corner and had feijelado, which was good. The special drink which comes with the meal is cane spirit and fresh lemon with a bit of sugar - very potent. After a coffee with Patrick (the jeweller) and another long chat, we left without buying anything and trekked up Avenida Copacabana to seek out a shoe shop. It was an interesting walk and we got some nice shoes when we got there. Matt, listening in, learned that the shoes were all genuine leather or puro cuoro. The phrase captured his imagination and he repeated it joyously for the rest of the afternoon. We caught a cab back to town and went to a toy shop off Ouvidour, where Matt had spotted some very cheap Playmobil.

We had intended going up Corcovada tonight, but the haze did not lift and there seemed no point in going up there if we didn't have a view, so we just had a meal in the room and my two fellow travellers are now fast asleep. We are off tomorrow at 09.30 for Johanneburg and are all looking forward to getting home.

Here endeth the journal. The trip back to South Africa was not as good as the one down from Miami. It was a public holiday in Brazil the day we left - Good Friday, as a matter of fact - and clearly the crew felt that they should have had the day off as well. The service was abysmal and they were a truly sulky lot. The flight itself was good and we landed in Johannesburg in good nick, to be met by Jennie Lee with whom we spent the weekend, as I recall, before heading for home.

This was our first overseas trip as a family. Both Rab and I had travelled individually before we met and then we had a cruise to South America before Matt was born. It was also the first time any of us had been to the USA. We all had preconceived notions of  what the country was like – wall to wall cities across the country, bright shiny behemoth cars driving on wonderfully smooth and wide roads. So the reality was something of a shock. That bump-bump-bump along the Van Wyck Expressway amidst rust buckets of cars was the first. The amount of open land around New York City was the second; The third and best was the extent of the forests and bush land, even near New York and the major  cities.

We used to read American comics when I was young and the advertisements were always fascinating – ant farms, glasses that enabled you to see through clothing. And what about the candy - Tootsie Rolls, Crackerjack, Hershey Kisses, Reece’s Pieces, M&Ms- finding these in the shops and tasting them was amazingly exciting.

We returned to the USA many times over the years – as a family with Matt, together as a couple and a couple of business trips on my own. We found it to be a wonderful country, with very nice people. Only once in all our travels did we meet a man who was rude to us – but who could blame him? We were trying to catch a bus out of New York on New Year’s Eve and didn’t have a ticket – but we did have a deal of luggage.

We visited thirty five States over the year, driving thousands of miles over the smaller roads and avoiding freeways as much as possible. It is one of my few regrets that we never made all fifty. 

More journals will follow there are thirty two in all and I have only transcribed fourteen. Did I hear an OMG groan?