“Beautiful, I just want you to know, you’re my favorite girl.” Just got to Rio and for some inspiration, check out an old school Snoop and Pharrell video:
You’ll notice the guys are sitting on a pretty cool staircase, which just by chance happened to be our first sight. More than 20 years ago, a Chilean artist started “tiling” his front steps and it became an obsession such that he tiled the entire staircase. We met the artist himself and Ken had to ham it up (unfortunately now he can’t be CEO of Yahoo!).
Rio, the Marvelous City, is a mix of astonishing cityscape and urban destitution. White sand beaches everywhere (although we’re here in winter so the bikinis aren’t in full force), surrounded by stunning mountains, the people inhabit a paradise unlike any other we’ve seen in South America. This is by far our favorite place! We’re renting an apartment on the world-famous Copacabana beach; the seduction and energy in the air is palpable.
Atop the Corovado mountain overlooking the city is none other than Christ himself [insert Catholic joke here].
On our first night we watched the sun set over Ipanema Beach and watched locals play volleyball without their hands (basically playing soccer on a volleyball court), while we drank caipirinhas (rum with sugar and lime).
Ken unknowingly ordered the feijoada - a Brazilian favorite of black beans with mixed meats, including ears and livers. When it arrived Ken burst out, “What!?!? is this for one person?!?!” Needless to say, he couldn’t finish the jumbo meal and we now have leftovers sufficient for the next few days. Unfortunately, we’re not doing very well on the language front: Portuguese is close enough to Spanish that we’re getting by but we’re resorting to finger pointing and head nodding much more than before. If it weren’t for the language, this might be the perfect place for us to live!
On our first night we watched the sun set over Ipanema Beach and watched locals play volleyball without their hands (basically playing soccer on a volleyball court), while we drank caipirinhas (rum with sugar and lime).
Ken unknowingly ordered the feijoada - a Brazilian favorite of black beans with mixed meats, including ears and livers. When it arrived Ken burst out, “What!?!? is this for one person?!?!” Needless to say, he couldn’t finish the jumbo meal and we now have leftovers sufficient for the next few days. Unfortunately, we’re not doing very well on the language front: Portuguese is close enough to Spanish that we’re getting by but we’re resorting to finger pointing and head nodding much more than before. If it weren’t for the language, this might be the perfect place for us to live!
The next day we ferried over to neighboring Niteroi, where Ken bought his THIRD pair of pants... a real pair of blue jeans! WE LOVE RIO!!!!!
"Round up the usual suspects"
ReplyDeleteLOL! You two are awesome in these photos. I'm living vicariously through your posts! Thanks for brining us along via your blog
ReplyDeleteA third pair of pants.......Did you have to get rid of some electronics?! ha ha ha.
ReplyDeleteYou mean the Copacabana we went to wasn´t the world famous one!!!!.....i´m a broken women now.........
Keep having fun, loads of love from the better of the many English couples you have met.xxx
Ken, arn´t you due a hair cut! Bx
ReplyDelete