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| Hotel balcony in Rio at Copacabana Beach |
The Olympics make me remember my time in Rio in 1983 on a government trade visit (we were selling Brasil Canadian wheat). It was so foggy you could hardly see anything. The hotel warned us to always carry $50 to give to robbers, because if you didn't have enough when they robbed you they might kill you.
The other thing I vividly remember was the drive in from the airport. The 4-lane highway had 5 or more cars driving across. No one paid attention to lines. The result was the cars often "touched" at high speed, bounced off each other and all kept going. The driver told me they had highway cars and "good" cars because if you drove on the highway, you were going to get dents. No one stopped - they just merrily honked after a hit and kept driving. In town people rarely stopped at stop lights for two reasons - one, they didn't care, and two, if you stopped at an intersection you could well be set upon by robbers.
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| Embassy party, wishing I had brought my bathing suit. |
Still, a beautiful country, and I can report I was never robbed once, although the car I was in was merrily bumped several times by other drivers who honked, waved and drove off.
And where else are you addressed as "The Illustrious Doctor..."?
