Rio de Janeiro Brazil

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After a night at sea we arrived in Rio de Janerio. Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer statue greeted us. Our travel companions, Larry & Lisa Ingraham, choose to visit Mt Corcovado and the iconic statue of Christ which overlooks the city. Barb and I chose to hit the beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema. While the temps were only in the 80's, the humidity was the hardest for us to adjust to but, hey, we're in RIO!!! Barb got to see many hard bodied studs in their speedos and I got an eyeful of butt floss and nipples.

The day we were there was a national holiday so the crowds were fairly large. We observed a march by a group of people, half clad in bright orange T-shirts with language that we could only partially interpret. Portuguese is similar to Spanish but not entirely. Behind each of the orange shirt people was a person clad in all black with a hood. They marched down the promenade to an open spot of beach where each orange shirt knelt in the sand with the black hooded person behind them. A strong statement of ISIS symbolism. Once they were in place banners were unfurled revealing their protest of ISIS and demanding freedom for the Brazilians held by them.

On our return bus ride to the port we passed the stadium bleachers where they hold Carnivale. We also passed preparations for the 2016 Olympics. Overall Rio, like Sao Paulo, is a huge city with the benefit and detriment each offers. We were glad to have visited them but have no plans to return to them.

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