Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cruise Day 14
Rio is absolutely gorgeous. The streets are lined with trees, and the people are beautiful also also very nice. Today we toured inside the city. Tomorrow we head out of town and view the panorama.
For every tourist here, shopping for colored “semi-precious” stones is an absolute must. However, everyone cautions NOT to wear the jewelry here because there is so much robbery.
As you know from yesterday’s blog, we have a fan/friend who insisted we visit his store (with no obligations) to see unique items at a fraction of the normal price. The first “fun“ item they showed us was $55,000. It was very awkward. We were thinking more like 5% – 10% of that. This is just supposed to be fun stuff.
We found a terrific unique and wonderful piece. Tune in tomorrow for the outcome. We still need 25% more discount. You may be surprised to learn that I’m not a big fan of negotiating, especially for retail items. Here, I had no choice.
I hate their sales skills. My wife tells me that I should not stress over other people’s poor sales skills. This reminded me of the time I wanted to buy a pair of Bally shoes in New York circa 1979. I walked out because even though the shoes were exactly what I wanted, I could not stand to see the salesman get a commission on my purchase.
Sorry for the deviation. We had a super dinner at a deluxe non tourist dinner house, Antiquarious in the elegant Leblon area of town. One of the main course dishes we ordered had the boring name of duck rice.You can guess the primary ingredients. It was outstanding.
