Rio de Janeiro...

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We only planned on staying in Rio for 3 nights and ended up staying for 7...When we went to the reception to extend our stay that offered us a free night because we had been there for so long...Once again we traveled for like 20 hours and got into the city pretty late and decided to get to bed...The next day we got up and headed for the famour Copacabana beach...Immediate observations...We are really spoiled because they are a lot like beached in California and there are a ton of thong bikinis...really no shame at all...you could be overweight and 65 or 14 and all were wearing this skimpy little numbers...The wind picked up a little so Elizabeth and I decided to walk to Ipanema...The walked ended up being like 5 miles so we took a nap after our trek...That night we decided to get dressed up and treat ourselves to a nice dinner...Upon the recommendation of our hostel staff we walked to a Brazilian restaurant by the famous Copacabana hotel...It seemed pretty nice and we were greeted by two hosts dressed in suits who brought us a cart of drinks to choose from and directed us to an all you can eat buffet....Now, looking at the buffet we were just flirting with food poisoning...It was all salad bar, seafood and sushi...Everything looked okay so we served ourselves and sat down...Quite pleased with our decisions we chowed down...Then some waiters brought us a plate of rice and french fries...and some bread...Elizabeth and i looked at each other sideways, shrugged and continued eating...But, it gets better...A man with a skewer of meat comes to our table and asks us if we would like some filet...Once again we nod, he shaves the meat and we continue feasting...at this point we are both getting pretty full...but 6 more waiters come aroung with different types of meat...by the end we had had filet, ostrich, sausauge, beef ribs, pork and lamb...Then they roll over the dessert cart...one brownie sundae later, I think they had to roll us out of the restaurant...That night we had a few drinks at the bar and fell asleep early...The next day we decided to be touristy and visit the Christ Statue...The Brazilian bus drivers are fearless...and after an hour of heat palpatations we ended up at the base of the statue...we took a tram up through the jungle to the top...unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we didn´t have a clear view but it was a really cool experience...That night we went out with a few people in our hostel to a bar called House...For the next two days we decided to hang out at the beach and work on our tans...Who leaves Rio without a tan???...The next we went on this tour through a favela which are really poor areas of the city...There are over 300 favelas in Rio alone and we visited the largest one with about 300,000 people within 1 square km...It was a really awesome experience...There are motorbike taxis that whiz you up to the top on the only road through the favela...from there you walk down through...the extreme poverty is hard to grasp especially since they are in such close proximity to some of the richest areas...Since it was Halloween and we are those American girls from California, we decided to dress up...Elizabeth was Ginger Spice and wore a sequined british flag mini dress...and I was a flapper with pearls and boa...Everyone in our hostel went to a street party that they have every Friday in an area called Lapa...It was crazy...There were street bands and vendors and tons of clubs playing loud music...The next day we went to a Flamengo Futbol game...The atmosphere in the futbol games in South America is insane...We sat in a really good section with tons of fans dressed in red and black...They were playing loud music and chanting and clapping...Elizabeth and I just wanted to know the words so we could sing along too...That night we went to a club close to our hostel with some English guys who are staying there too....It ended up being a really fun night and we were sooo sad to leave Rio...the next day we layed out for a bit and then caught the bus to Florianopolis....It was 18 hours...This seems to be a common theme with our connections from place to place...but Greyhound has nothing on Brazilian buses...We are settled now in Florianopolis and we write soon!!! Miss you all!!! K and E

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