The Girl From Ipanema: A Cruise to the Muse

At Last, to the Shrine

When the boat docked for a final time it was in Santos, a 1 1/2 -hour ride to the third-largest city in the world with the worst traffic in the universe by a mile. I fell hard for Sao Paulo: the smartly dressed men sipping espresso on bar stools on the Avenida Paulista, where newsstands sold everything from magazines to porn to Emily Dickinson; the grungily efficient subway system that stopped mere steps from the MASP museum and its unparalleled collection of Latin American art; and especially the enormous Mercado Municipale.

At night the restaurants replenish their stocks there, but by day Paulistanos of every stripe wander its stalls, buying fruits you've never heard of and eating pork sandwiches made from parts of the pig you never eat. Whole rows devoted to spices, cinnamon sticks sold by the bundle, ropes of tobacco coiled like snakes and everywhere men pressing strange cherries into your hand knowing you won't be able to resist buying a bag -- Sao Paulo is unceasingly exotic, where everything is strange and new and Starbucks has yet to make any serious inroads.

And then, at last, it was time. The taxi rolled over a hill and we were there: Garota de Ipanema, a closet-size boutique on a nondescript street in a district far from the glitz of Rua Oscar Freire and its monuments to Versace and Ferragamo.

Inside, I was greeted warmly by Fernando, a former star volleyballer who beat out Jobim for Pinheiro's heart all those years ago. (The musician apparently wanted to marry her as soon as they finally, actually met.) An old man but still vigorous enough to spike it if necessary, Fernando led me upstairs to a small fitting room that appeared to double as an office and a shrine, with giant posters of Pinheiro in her glory days staring down at us. Twenty minutes later, a woman in an aqua blouse strolled in, golden-haired, tall, tan, as young and lovely as it is possible to be at 62 or 63. Her smile hadn't lost any of its wattage. Clearly, obscurity had been good for her.

"I am the first one that used the two-piece on the beach," she said, by way of explaining her unlikely path to Musedom. "But it was so big" -- the pair of bottoms, that is, which Pinheiro confirmed by showing me an old black-and-white photo of herself wearing what looked like a Sears catalogue girdle. But it hadn't hidden that body completely. You could still see writing a song to that body. And to this one, for that matter.

"I had a simple life," Pinheiro said, remembering the day she turned on her radio and first heard a tune called "The Girl From Ipanema." She was in her bedroom, already aware of the rumors about having inspired the song. "But it's not for me," she recalled telling herself. "I didn't believe it. I [thought] it was so beautiful, so beautiful that it's not for me."

Meanwhile, in the absence of any announcement, girls all over Rio started staking claims to the title, which is why, Pinheiro said, de Moraes finally went public with the news that there was only one girl from Ipanema, at which point photographers from all over the world descended on the small flat she shared with her mother -- "it was snap, snap, snap" -- and the offers began pouring in.

"The secretary of tourism in Brazil, he told me, 'Go to the United States in an open car and stay in the universities because the students want to know you.' "

But she couldn't leave her beloved Brazil, right? Uh, no.

"The American people came to Brazil . . . and they asked my mother, 'Please, we want your daughter to make a movie.' And my mother said, "No, no, no, it's impossible!' " Pinheiro's mother was convinced that Hollywood would lead to drug use and other loose conduct, and so she kept her teenager under house arrest until all evidence of photographers had passed.

Pinheiro was crushed. Later, she would suffer the indignity of having to judge one of the annual Girl From Ipanema pageants that Rio began having. She watched from the sidelines and cried and cried, eventually marrying Fernando, having four children and dreaming the modest dream of opening a dress shop called Girl From Ipanema (at which point the heirs of Jobim and de Moraes actually sued her for copyright infringement, although the suit was eventually dropped).

It hasn't all been anonymity, of course. Pinheiro tried TV journalism for a while, gave out a clue in Season 2 of "The Amazing Race," posed nude in Brazilian Playboy with her daughters a few times. She watched again from the sidelines as her youngest girl, Ticiane, became the star of Brazil's "The Simple Life" and eventually married Roberto Justus, a wealthy ad executive who now plays the Donald Trump part in Brazil's wildly successful version of "The Apprentice."

Still, it has been mostly anonymity . . . until now? It is, after all, the 50th anniversary of the bossa nova, which Brazil is celebrating this year -- and the photographers may once more descend.

We talked for an hour, going back and forth over the story of her miraculous luck and how little she'd made of it, wondering whether being a Muse really is enough of a reward, comparing notes on how hard it is to leave home, no matter how desperately you want to. Then the sun began to set, a nearby McDonald's fired up its golden arches and I told Pinheiro I had a plane to catch. We walked outside and I took a few pictures of her in front of the store.

"Have you liked being the Girl from Ipanema?" I asked.

"When I die -- this is good for you to put in your article -- I think I am eternity because the history exists and you can't wipe it out."

I couldn't help but smile. "That's true, you know!"

She nodded.

Snap, snap.

"I like all the time the United States. I always wanted to live there."

Snap, snap.

"I think in the life before this life I was an American."

Snap.

The cost for my four-night, Brazil-only cruise in December was $586.65 per person based on double occupancy for an ocean-view cabin (taxes included). The Victoria has availability on longer South American cruises of various itineraries through February, with prices starting at $1,189 per person. Round-trip flights from Washington to Sao Paulo start at about $770, including taxes and fees. For more information: Costa Cruise Lines, 877-882-6782, http://www.costacruises.com.