Long thought of as the pinnacle to our deployment, Rio de Janiero was a port that truly lived up to its billing. A multi-million person city, its crowded streets reminded me of New York City, but its culture reminded me of Southern California. With so many days (6) in the city, I’m finding it hard to pare down what to write about. I conned the ship into the port underneath a huge bridge that spanned the bay. On our left was the famous Jesus Christ statue with his arms open wide over the city, on the right was the naval station we pulled into.
In port, we worked with other navies during the day, and they held receptions at night. On our first night out on liberty, we ate dinner and bought bottles of champagne before roaming the streets in search of nothing in particular. We stumbled upon a hostel that had the same name as one we had visited in Salvador and decided to stop in. I met some Americans there, as well as some locals and a girl from Canada. It was 25 Reals for all you can drink (about 16 USD) so we camped there the rest of the night.
The best day was Saturday, where we went to the beach during the day. The beaches here are great. Beautiful sand, water, waves, and yes, women. (Side note, Brazilian women in Rio really did live up to the billing as the capital of supermodels. I honestly have never seen such a population so attractive in any of the places I’ve lived.) We went out into the 71-degree water and body surfed in the huge waves for a while before heading back to the ship in the afternoon. We went back to change into our summer whites uniform and go to the Argentinean ship for a reception. The only drink they served was a special red wine made only in Argentina. It was amazing how good it was. It was hard for me to use my limited Spanish to bridge the language barrier, but we got to talk with some other navies. For the Argentinean navy, this is the highlight of their year—the only time they ever leave Argentinean waters. It’s a stark contrast with America, who thinks of these exercises as relatively insignificant. The wine ran out quickly, though, so our Captain and Executive Officer (the “XO” is #2 in command on the ship) decided we needed to go downtown in Rio to party, since it was a Saturday night.
Rio is famous for its parties. Beginning around midnight and going until 5 a.m., the bar scene is pretty fun. Up until that night, though, we hadn’t had time to experience the city nightlife, as we had to catch buses back to the ship at 11 p.m. But this night, we had the opportunity to get a hotel and stay out overnight, so we took full advantage. We went to the bar strip downtown known as Lapa. If you’ve ever been to Beale street in Memphis, that’s Lapa in Brazil. It was a Mecca of bars and clubs and people, and it was a really neat experience to take in.
We’ve been underway for a couple of days since leaving Rio, and they’ve been tough. We’ve been busy with exercises between the different navies, as well as catching up on all the work that piled up in Rio. We have 9 civilians onboard to shoot off airborne drones off giant launchers we put on the ship, and we’ve been shooting them off and using them as target practice in firing exercises.
Early next week, we pull into Rio Grande, Brazil—our last port in Brazil and the end of our work with the South American navies who have coastlines on the Atlantic side. Pretty soon, we’ll transit back to the Pacific side and begin operations with the South American Pacific countries. It’s strange that 50 days into deployment, we already are nearly done with half of our exercises, and about to come through the straits of Magellan to head back to the States.
(Side note, we just fixed our TV system on board. Now we get 3 channels-- sports, news, and miscellaneous. I got to see the Sox get spanked by the Angels yesterday, but I didn't care... It was worth it just to see baseball!)
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