Rio de Janeiro

I am in Rio now. Well it's been quite a while since my last post. Mainly because I haven't been doing too many touristic activities. Also, over the last two days I have been having troubles uploading my pictures. I do not have anything exciting to report but I will post some pictures I have taken here over the last week. Rio is a beautiful city.

Fran (Francesco Barillaro)and Nany, have been kind enough to let me crash at their place while I am here. He lives in a burrow of Rio called Santa Teresa. It's quite a beautiful area, full of artists, quaint restaurants, pubs, and many old homes, many of which have been converted into apartments.


Fran's the man


A room with a view

I suppose the only thing I can really do is explain how I have spent the last week here. Let's see...

Saturday, the 22nd: Fran plays soccer on Saturday so Nany and Carol took Mike and I to a local surfers beach, Grumari. We met up with Fran for lunch and that night we went to a bar called Melt.


First Beach we went to... wait, there's no beach.


I think my white skin scared the people away.

Sunday, the 23rd: Did someone say beach? This time it was Ipanema. Nany was baby sitting Maria, which for some reason I have no pictures of her. However, I was the only one besides Nany which she allowed to carry her. Fran tried and made her cry! I also bought my first pair of Havianas.


Right near da beach... boeeeeey!

Monday, 24th: Corcovado and the Christ statue. Instead of paying R$15 each we decided to walk up.


View from Corcovado


Camera stand off

Tuesday, 25th: Hey don't they have beaches in Rio... maybe I should check one out while I am here. It's amazing that I can go to the beach for three entire days and come out just as white as I started. After the beach, Fran took us to a Brazilian BBQ. It's an all-you-can-eat for R$20 which includes salad, sushi, deli meats... oh and people come around with platters of piping hot meat and cut a portion off for you at the table.


Beach Feet

Wednesday, 26th: No Beach?!?! Instead Mike and I ventured off to a local park, Parque do Largo. A very beautiful park complete with old mansion, castle turret, caves, aquarium and waterfalls.


Humid


Turret

Thursday, 27th: In an attempt to know Rio better I decide to follow the LP Guide's walking tour of downtown. However, not wanting to take the entire book with me I wrote down the important street names and sites. We did not find half of them.


A Cathedral?!?


Teh Libary!1!

Friday, 28th: Did almost nothing during the day. At night I went to the burrow of Lapa. There you drink on the street, buying beer off vendors while you hop from bar to bar. Good times.

Saturday, 29th: Apparently, I could not be woken up so everyone headed off to watch Fran play soccer and left me behind. sniffle. Did nothing because I did not feel like site seeing in the rain.

Today I am taking a tour of Santa Teresa. Will probably post that either tonight or tomorrow. Should be some nice pictures.