If you had told me at the beginning of this year that I would be going away with a bunch of people I’d never met, I would never have believed you. If you had added that it was to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, with my work, I would have thought you were losing your marbles. But, as it is, that’s what’s just happened!
It all started in August. I had been working for the company for about 2 weeks, when the email came through, saying the company’s end of year party was to be in Brazil this year and we had 10 days to confirm if we were in or out. I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil and so excitedly, I said yes!
Fast forward four months and the date finally arrived! It started with a 7pm flight for me and a long wait in the airport. After 7 hours of waiting, all parties travelling from Argentina had arrived and off we went!
The next few days were a whirlwind of activity! We arrived on Saturday and went straight out to lunch since we couldn’t yet check in to where we’d be staying. Despite all being on about 1 hours sleep, we chatted and ate and the drinks started flowing! Eventually we were able to get into our place and whilst the others went off to the beach I took a nap which did me the world of good. That evening we went out for dinner, samba music and dancing.
Sunday- we made our way to the docks and onto a boat for our end of year party! There was asado (bbq), games and of course more drinks, as well as woggles for those brave ones (me included) who wanted to take a dip in the sea. The afternoon passed by in a blur of sunshine, dancing and laughing and was an incredible way to start getting to know my new colleagues without being under such a haze of tiredness. That night we stayed in and had pizza (and I confess that I tried the Brazilian thing of chocolate on pizza for pudding and… I’m shocked to say I liked it! The base was super crunchy and tasted like biscuit. I’m sure I’m getting judgement on this but go to Brazil and try it and let me know what you think! haha).
Monday- time for some coworking, in the same actual room as our colleagues! I can’t begin to explain how bizarre it was, to put faces to names, only seen before on emails. With 22 people it was no mean feat remembering everyone’s names! But anyways, so Monday we worked and then in the afternoon we went to Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf mountain in English), which included 4 cable cars to get there and back. Ya gal Nadz is a big fan of cable cars so I was buzzing! The views at the top were absolutely stunning. Rio is absolutely immense. Sea, mountains, rainforest and a huuuuge city all in one place. Never seen anywhere like it. Then that evening we had a free evening. One of the big departments of the company were having a team dinner so some of us who weren’t in that team decided we’d go out for dinner, a toast and the first round of “Happy Birthday” for Juan’s birthday!
Tuesday- day two of coworking. That afternoon/evening we then spent on Ipanema beach (somehow quite different to Copacabana which we went to on a previous day though I can’t remember when) and chatted, had yet more halloumi-like cheese (I made the most of this being a thing in Brazil as we don’t have it in Argentina and it’s just SO GOOD) and something called acai which looks deceptively like chocolate/ice cream but is actually a fruit! Anyways, we chilled on the beach, sang happy birthday to Juan about 10 times in all different languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, another Spanish version, Romanian, Polish..!) and then went back to the accomodation to have an asado (bbq) and sing happy birthday to poor Juan another 5 times.
Wednesday- I had the day off work. After much trying, I hadn’t been able to find anyone to go up to see Cristo el Redentor with me, however it worked out for the best as it was a cloudy day and I wouldn’t have been able to see anything! So after a decent lie in, I headed off to the beach to spend some time with some of the gals before going back to the penthouse for some lunch. After lunch five of us went for a lil hike. It took about an hour and at the top we were rewarded with such a beautiful view! As well as a friendly monkey who literally started smiling at us (more like a grimace if I’m honest), in the hope that we might have some food for him. We also saw a toucan with a black beak! Didn’t know you could get toucans with black beaks. We then got very lucky and were able to jump into a big adventurey jeep car and got to travel back to Ipanema beach in style. It was so weird, one minute being in the rainforest, then being in the city and then five minutes later on the beach!
We hung out on the beach for a bit and then since I had some reales left, popped into a few shops and got some bits and bobs but nothing terribly exciting. Got Noly’s Christmas present though so that was a score! Then we had to rush off to our goodbye dinner. It was in a “churrasqueria, and there were waiters constantly circling round with different types of meat that had been cooked on the BBQ as well as a huge buffet section with delicious food! More drinks were had and we all ended up absolutely stuffed. Soon enough it was time to head back to the penthouse, pack up our bags and prepare ourselves to leave at 6am the next morning ready to catch our 10 am flight back to Ezeiza, and then eventually back to Salta for me.
So there you are! There’s a quick summary of my time in Rio. Since I’m so new to the company it was somewhat overwhelming to begin with- a whole load of new people to meet all at once in a new place all whilst chatting in Spanish, but as soon as I’d had my nap on Saturday afternoon I soon got into it and honestly had such an incredible time. Such an amazing time, place and people. Now I will be sleeping for the next week to recover! Merry Christmas one and all xxx
Nadia's Adventures 