While I’ll be posting a more thorough summary of my trip to Rio, here’s the rundown of my crazy last day…

Despite the fact that I do get to travel to many interesting cities around the world, I don’t often have much time to be a tourist. Of course, these are work trips, so most of my time is spent in meetings, at conferences, going to official receptions, etc. So, I half-jokingly refer to myself as a “2-hour tourist”since, obviously enough, I often only get two hours to see some quick sites.

Luckily, I had a bit of extra time in Rio de Janeiro. Here’s how my last ~9-hours in the city went down:

  • …sleep in a little to recover from several nights of 5am, uh, social outings…

  • 9:30: wake up call, struggle to get out of bed…
  • 9:45: jump out, brush teeth/etc, through on some clothes, run down for free breakfast (which ends at 10)
  • 10:15: catch up on some email, do a bit of work, call home…
  • 11:30: hit the beach! Walk the 4km of Copacabana, then the 3km of Ipanema

  • 12:45: realize walk took longer than expected, and crap!, check-out was at noon
  • 12:46: buy/drink fresh coconut juice to refresh from 7km walk in 30 degree weather. I jump into a cab to hotel

  • 13:00: beg for an extra hour, on top of the already extra hour of late check out
  • 13:05: run up to room, change into swim shorts, run across the street to the beach and finally go for a swim, ride awesome waves for 25 minutes
  • 13:30: run up to room, trying not to look hotel folks in the eye, take shower, finish packing up, etc
  • 14:00: dump luggage with bellboy, jump into taxi to Corcovado
  • 14:20: get to base of mountain, realize tram up has massive queue (Monday was a holiday), and takes a long time to get up, jump into a somewhat sketchy van service instead
  • 14:25: make friends with some Australian tourists, and try to determine what’s actually going on. They suggest I get off the van now if I want any hope of making my flight!
  • 15:00: we get to the top portion of the mountain. Two options to get to final summit: wait in a massive line for another van, or a 2.5km walk. I opt to walk. I say goodbye to the Ozzies cuz they’d just slow me down in their flip-flops.
  • 15:05: already sweating as I run/walk the steep incline, watch the Ozzies zoom bye in a car from a worker (they kindly tried to stop, but the effing van I didn’t want to wait for was honking…). I keep heading up
  • 15:35: get to the top. I’m breathless! (in more ways than one). Take some photos of the spectacular view. Bump into the Ozzies - we laugh…

  • 15:50: this time I wait in line to take the summit van down to the mid point. Manage to subtly jump in mid-queue (sorry, not usually a jerk, but clock is ticking).
  • 16:05: get to mid-point, and get into another massive line for the sketchy van to the base of the mountain. Line ain’t moving fast enough. Bump into Ozzies again, they encourage me to jump the queue. I go plead my case to the van dudes, and they let me jump into a full van. I sit on the floor. I make friends with Brazilians visiting from Florianopolis. They tell me how to say “I’m late. Fast please!” in Portuguese…
  • 16:30: get to base of mountain, I jump into a taxi back to hotel. I tell the driver “eu estou atrasado, rápido!”
  • 17:00: get to hotel, get bags from bellboy, run into the bathroom, to change clothes (and apply some deodorant!)
  • 17:10: ask concierge if taxi will take credit card since I’m low on cash. No. Need a town-car, but those take ~20-minutes to order!!! I ask if they can exchange my last US$20 into R$, and if that would be enough to get to the airport. It is, with R$3.00 to spare :)
  • 17:15: jump into taxi: “eu estou atrasado, rápido!”
  • 17:50: get to airport, legitimately jump queue since I’m a frequent flier, check in, etc
  • 18:20: plane is boarding…
  • 19:00: take off!

Was a wonderfully productive and enjoyable day for any experienced 2-hour tourist :)