It is a New Day in Brazil

January 5, 2011
Wow! What a great and needed sleep! Wake up at like 9:50 ..10 minutes before the free breakfast ends. Mom runs down to grab some food from the buffet and tells the staff she will take it to the room. Immediately a young man appears with a tray. She loads everything on it, and he carries it up to the room for us. We really love this hotel and Rio and Brazil today, and still sitting in the room in bed in our pajamas at 12:30, we believe we are now acculturating to the pulse of this place.

Still tired and still rainy but full of gusto for the adventure ahead. But first…turn turn off the computer and lock it in the room safe. We have been told by books and travellers that it is dangerous here, after all, although it is not our experience at all so far.

We had a great, long walk to the end of Copacabana Beach. All along there are funny work out stations with fun things to work the muscles. We tried a few and laughed with the locals as we fumbled (mostly mom). We had a full conversation using gestures with the cutest little inquisitive Braillian girl-child about Cyndi's hat and Mom's tattoos. At the end of all this we had our second treat of fresh coconut water. YUM.

Off to Ipanema Beach in search of food and drink! Crowded restaurants but we found an awesome Japanese eatery with wonderful hostess (Dina) who gave us tips on where to go for vegetarian food and good bars. We wandered the streets and found a hopping bar, but by then it was 11:45 pm and there was a R$ 30 cover for all you can drink until midnight, so we hung out outside and met the cutest young man who told us the best places to go for all you can drink bars ...

home, tired and to bed. We are slowly finding the real Rio and we love it. So cosmopolitan. It appeared at first to be very Westernized and lack interesting culture, but appearances are deceiving. The deeper we go the more fascinating it becomes. And we've not yet left the touristy beaches.