Doing Rio DeJaneiro

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We began the morning high in the sky, arriving in Rio De Janeiro around 11 a.m. We departed from Toronto yesterday with a two hour stop in Houston. It was a long night but were two good flights. We had previously arranged for a shuttle pick up at the airport to transport us to our hotel. The van arrived as scheduled with two personnel that only spoke Portuguese. the girl had an app on her phone which she used to translate and communicate with us so it all worked out well. It was about an eleven mile trip to our hotel and I was sure glad I wasn't driving. There is a great deal of traffic here and driving a little chaotically for me but then they are used to it and know where they are going. We checked in but the room wasn't ready so we went exploring in the surrounding neighborhood. It's a combination of clothing shops, restaurants, jewelry stores, mini markets, hotels, and other businesses. All along the streets there are also vendors selling food, juice drinks, and fruit. The streets are very crowded. We made our way to Copacabana Beach. The beach stretches for several city blocks and had many beach goers enjoying the warm weather. Temperature was in the mid 80's. The walk along the beach was lined with vendors selling beach blankets, jewelry, nicknack souvineers, sunglasses, hats and flip flops. The waves were huge, around 12 foot in height, so even the the beach was very crowded there weren't many swimmers. We then returned to our hotel to rest a bit and get out of the heat for a while. Later in the evening we went out for a delicious meal of steak, chicken, potatoes, a rice mixture with rice, beans, sausage and spices and a salad. We returned to the beach area to check out the activity. Many of the sun bathers were gone but had been replaced by several volleyball games being played. The vendors were all still out and there were more people strolling about. It was still bustling with activity. We made our way back to the hotel since we were really ready for a little relaxing time.

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Comments

[Pearl]

Wishing I was there
Off to a great start on what will hopefully be another trip!!! Stay safe