Down for the Count

7/13-15/14

The night of the Final, I was toast. Whether it was a migraine from all the cigarette smoke or I had finally caught what Nick had in São Paulo, I crashed. Fortunately, Fe had left a prescription with Nick for severe sinusitis (thank heavens we were traveling with a doctor!) and we had enough for the two of us, because the next day was no better. Neither Nick nor I could leave the house, we were both so sick. [Nick: I had wanted to spend the day biking around Rio but we were in no shape for that.] We literally spent the entire day stuck on the couch, watching Netflix in between feverish naps, wracking coughing fits, and painful body aches. I don’t know why the American child in me always feels like I need my mom and a giant bowl of chicken soup at times like these. But alas, we had neither. Just loads of kleenex and bad bar food from down the street to get us through the day.  [Nick: I don’t know if it’s because I was exposed to germs from around the world, but I was sicker in the last month than I have been in years.]

By 6pm I figured it would be good for us to get some fresh air and move our bodies a little, so we went for a walk along Copacabana Beach. It was 70 degrees out and I had the chills, I felt so weak. We tried to find something healthy for dinner and settled on a salad place, completely forgetting that all restaurants seem to use only canned vegetables down here. Ugh, I was done. We went back to the house, dosed ourselves in pills and passed out.

The next day was a little bit better, though a struggle. We had to move locations, as Nick had rented us an apartment in the Lapa area for our last few days in Rio. Plus, a new location would allow us to see a different part of the city. It took all my energy just to make it onto the subway and get into the new place. Less than an hour of movement and I was exhausted; I had to rest. We took it easy, seeing as how we were still pretty sick, and just walked around town a little. We grabbed the commuter ferry to Niterói (across the Guanabara Bay from Rio) to get a beautiful view of the coastline. We stopped in Niterói’s contemporary art museum, which had a less than spectacular exhibit but was worth the trip for the spaceship-shaped building itself. [Nick: If you’re in Rio, I highly recommend taking the quick ferry to Niteroi. The view of the city from the bay was awesome.]

Christ the Redeemer from the ferry

Rio from the Ferry

Cristo Redentor

Niterói's Art Museum

Unable to stomach any food for lunch, I was once again wiped out after very little activity and we headed back to the hotel to rest and make a plan for the next few days. We certainly didn’t want to spend our last few days of the trip holed up in our room, missing Rio de Janeiro. We hoped that the magic of antibiotics would kick in soon.

We rallied one last time that day and headed to Pão de Açúcar. Little did we know that we’d be waiting in tram lines for several hours to make the round trip up the mountain. Oh well, the view was worth it; looking back towards Rio at sunset was pretty spectacular with the coastline twinkling in street lights. The sinus pressure, the cold, and the standing for hours were all taking their toll. [Nick: We were totally lucky in Rio that the days we spent after the Cup to see the city were all glorious and super clear so we could take in all the spectacular views.] A little worse for wear, we were very relieved to finally make it back down and were rewarded with Iranian food and Starbucks for dinner (yay for mall food courts!) before, once again, passing out (with coughing throughout the night, of course).

Headed up Pão de Açúcar

Rio at sunset

Flamengo Beach

Copacabana Beach

Christ at night