Journalled on Friday, 17 January 2025 | Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 29 degrees, hot, sunny, and slightly overcast.

It’s Friday, and this week has felt like a marathon, mainly because it’s Julie’s last week in Brazil; she will be returning to England next Monday.

Since she’s returning to England next Monday, we’ve packed a lot into this week.

On Monday, we went to CCBB, Rio’s most important cultural centre, with Yasmin, visited four very nice exhibitions, and had a coffee inside.

Tuesday, we went to Sugarloaf Mountain and Urca.

Wednesday was spent organising things at home on a day of rest.

Thursday, we visited Christ the Redeemer, which was a bit chaotic with lots of people and queues in the scorching sun, slightly spoiling the visit. However, afterwards, we had a nice lunch at a quaint restaurant, almost opposite the train station, to go up to Christ.

And today it is Copacabana!

I have a meeting with an IT consultant at 10 a.m. in Copacabana. I will meet with Rodrigo to discuss how to improve the long gringo blog, etc. I feel that the blog is very good, as good as my first attempt, but it needs to be improved to another level, and because of this, I need to contract a professional, someone to help me. There is a limit to how much I can do by myself at this moment.

Talking to Julie about my meeting, she automatically volunteered to come with me, and while I’m having a meeting with Rodrigo, she would go window-shopping around the neighbourhood.

Allowing her to walk around alone in Copacabana during the summer months, when it is crowded with people and tourists who attract many less well-intentioned individuals, worries me greatly.

She is certainly not foolish, but Rio is a large city, and Copacabana can sometimes be a haven for wrongdoers; it’s almost like a no-man’s land in Rio. You have to be very careful.

I tried to persuade her to leave her cell phone with me or at home, or at least to stop her from taking it, but she refused, which made me angry, nervous, and worried. She’s a very intelligent and capable woman; however, her fair hair and her tendency to stand out among a crowd of dark-skinned people make her noticeable and attract attention.

What concerns me even more is the prospect of the whole trip being spoiled due to an isolated incident of her being mugged or hurt on the last days in Rio, in Copacabana.

Her holidays have been amazing so far, and that’s not me saying it, but her repeatedly, and I am afraid that if something happened today in Copacabana. In this isolated incident, maybe she loses her phone or something, it would spoil everything else good that has happened while she has been here.

Nevertheless, she insisted on coming and staying with her mobile phone. We arrived at Copacabana by metro, then walked to a central point, coincidentally, the gallery where I attended my school in the past.

We arranged to be back at the same meeting point in two hours at 2 p.m.

I left her and went to a nearby coffee shop to meet Rodrigo. The meeting went reasonably well; nothing spectacular, but besides discussing potential future consultancy to improve the blog, he gave me a couple of tips which I thought were valuable. What disappointed me most was the terrible coffee in the upper-class coffee shop; besides the poor coffee, the service was terrible, too.

Just before 2 p.m., I was already back at the entrance of the gallery, our meeting point. I had finally had my meeting with Rodrigo, which I had been trying to arrange for over a month, and now it was done, but I was more worried about Julie and whether she was OK in the sea of sharks that swam in Copacabana.

The clock was almost striking 2, and I could see her approaching from a distance. When she arrived, we kissed. I asked her if everything was okay, and she said she was fine and nothing bad had happened, which made me feel relieved. I checked to see if she was all intact, arms, legs, and so on, and she was, thank God.

I then suggested we go for lunch.

The idea was to return by metro the way we came, so we had to walk towards the metro station, which is about two or three blocks from where we were. I know a number of restaurants that are on the way, but we ended up at a new restaurant I had never been to before.

It is a typical carioca restaurant where you can sit and eat inside or outside on the pavement; we chose to sit outside at a nice table under a large awning, which provided shade to protect us from the harsh sun.

We ordered chips and Julie’s favourite: a large hot plate with various meats, side dishes of rice, molho campagnha (Brazilian vinegar sauce), fries, and more, plus two fried eggs. Brazilians love fried eggs with a steak, and Julie does too.

We stayed for at least two hours, if not longer, eating and drinking Chopps-light Brazilian beers, and it was very enjoyable.

The meat was perfectly cooked, and the Chopps’ were served at the perfect chilled degrees. It was a truly nice and special lunch; our company together is always very pleasant. This has always impressed me. When we are together, we don’t need much to be happy and enjoy each other’s company.

We paid the bill, walked to the metro station just around the corner, and were home in 45 minutes. I think we both loved the lunch; it was a nice time for us to spend in her last days in Rio. Looking back, it was special, and Julie loved the food, the place, the Chopps, and us together, and probably being alone, walking the streets of Copacabana.

I was worried about her, but thank God nothing happened to ruin her stay. I’m grateful nothing did, and I also feel relieved. There is nothing worse than one isolated incident spoiling everything and anything for everyone.

We watched the film and slept.

In bed by 11 p.m.