My Latest Route

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This is a slight variation on a route that I had previously planned. It eliminates around 40 miles of road that I've done before. I highly suggest the Terrain View as pointed out by the lovely Miss Alison.

Cooking

I just purchased a pressure cooker of the 1.5 liter variety and have tried it out several times now. Food that comes out of this darling little pot has never tasted so good. Cook pasta in two minutes, cook rice in three! Want some beans? Soak them in a spare bottle for a couple of hours and they cook up in 5 minutes!

Why hadn't anyone told me of this before?!? Thanks Ira and Andrea over at BikeTour2K6. Until then I had never heard of anyone taking one of these puppies anywhere but from the shelf to the kitchen.

As it turns out the one from GSI is quite expensive (for me) and it's made in China anyway (not that it's necessarily a bad thing but does Chinese cuisine require a lot of pressure cooking?) and it's pretty big (around three liters). Perfect for a pair but not so perfect for me. I mean a cup of rice and beans will feed me after the longest of days until I'm bursting with nutritious goodness. So I opted for a much smaller (1.5 liter) and I'm assuming, more efficient (in terms of weight and size, cooking capacity and fuel efficiency). The made in India model A00 from Hawkins. It's a bit awkwardly shaped for stuffing into Pannier but I think I can work it out considering it's not that much larger than my original cookware and replaces both pots. I think I may still take the frying pan for things like bacon, eggs and pancakes (mainly breakfast I guess).

Anyway, I haven't taken it on a ride yet but I can definitely recommend it for your kitchen for one and definitely goes on my desert island gear list for it's quick fuel efficient cooking.

Rio Trip Part one.

So, I caught a bus to Rio at midnight last night and have no idea how I mad it on. After the Corinthians match we (the gringoe, gaucho and paulista) walked home from the match to the paulista's house and on the way, (this one's for you A.Kos) had a hot dog (no picture because you're supposed to be scared of bringing your camera blablabla) in the street and got caught in the mother of all rainstorms! I mean 5 inches or so in an hour. Flooded streets and three idiots laughing and drinking in the rain trying to make it home without being totally flooded out (which is ridiculous because 5inches in an hours is like pure water coming down we could have drowned) so we get to the paulistas abode and in true Brazilian style, take showers and change into his clothes. So, now there are three paulistas that are no longer soaking wet standing in his house and we decide to watch a film, and drink. Keep in mind that this is around 1930 and I need to be at the bus depot on the OPPOSITE side of town at 2400. So the film we decided to watch was called Tropa De Elite which is all about Rio and it's dark seedy underside. Great I thought, I'm going here. If you can get your hands on a subtitled version I highly suggest getting it and watching, very good, as good, if not, better than City of God.

So that's done, I'm a bit toasty and I need to go to the Gaucho's apartment and get to Terminal Rodoviário Tietê which is about an hour drive, oh and we need to get gas, so it's 2330, and I'm at the Gauchos house and we decide it's better to go to the Metrô and so I rush through the tunnels and lo and behold, I make it. I'm safely on the midnight bus to Rio, and fall directly into a drunken slumber. Only to wake at 615am in Rio De Janeiro. I promptly hit the first bus I see to Copa, Copacabana/Where music and passion are always the fashion, yes I know that song is about another place but that place was named after this one. So there I am, on the beach, looking up at beautiful mountains and gorgeous blue ocean, but I'm too tired to take a picture. What a mess. I have my bag, so I can't go into the water, there's no locker anywhere and I don't have a place to stay so I just walk up and down the beach loving my life a little more every moment. I can't believe I'm here. The thing that I notice the most, is how similar the beach here is to the beach in Los Angeles. In fact the whole city feels like this.

So after a walk up and down the entirety of Copacabana I receive a call on my mobile that gives me the address for the place where my friend is staying, so off I go to the Lagoa neighborhood and immediately I am saddened by the distance from the beach. I want to live on the beach! but it's a quick-ish bus ride so I didn't complain too much. After all I'm in paradise right?

More later, I need to get some work done.