twyanie

He made it! Early...but he made it! Woken from sound sleep to our phone ringing, @ 5 am! We weren't expecting him until 08:00! After introductions were made, Craig and Paolo became fast friends! We took Craig to explore Copacabana and ended up at our favorite beach bar, Pizza in a cone! There was a live band, we got caught in a rain storm, so we drank some more! Paolo got ripped and was doing keg stands. Stephanie met a boy, but he was just an infant. Althought very cute, she couldn't be bothered, so we left for some awesome pizza, at Vespa Pizza. We went home, but we weren't finished yet...We moved on to Ipanema and partied at Banana Jack's. We got to meet Jack, himsef! We weren't ready to end the night, but we ... read more

Whoo-Hoo!!! Finally a sunny day! We rolled out of bed and made our way, two blocks to Copacabana Beach! In the background, you can see the world famous Sugar Loaf Mountain.... read more

What an experience! We celebrated Reveillon like Cariocas...white dresses w/ accent colors. White clothes are supposed to bring you peace, harmony and stability (some say luck) for the new year. You are supposed to wear accent colors to wish for other tidings: Red-passion/love/desire, Yellow-money/business success, Green-health/new beginnings/positive energy, Pink-love/understanding/attraction. Blue-power/action/force. We chose to accent w/ green and pink. Paolo chose to accent with green. It rained like crazy, but it didn't seem to dampen anyone's spirit! The firework display wasn't the best this year, per the locals. The rain probably had something to do with it...we couldn't see past the low clouds. A few more traditions we observed: We jumped 7 waves for hope and new beginnings. We offered flowers and champagne to Iemanjá, the goddess of the sea. Our flowers d... read more

Copacabana has been fun. It hasn't been too sunny, but we're making the most of it. Grocery shopping was hysterical. It took us 2 hours to pick up our goods-very difficult w/ everything in Portuguese. Selecting mik, for example, took 10 mins...not sure which was the skim milk. We were quite amusing to most and everyone was very helpful, even though we could not communicate. Someone even took Stephanie by the hand to bring her to the whipped cream. We were looking for cottage cheese! We will learn Portuguese yet! Groceries are very expensive! $40 for a turkey breast! We will be living like poor college students/vegetarians for this portion of the trip, at least!... read more