Brazil, Day 3

Before we left, several people said, "You´ll want to spend as little time as possible in Rio." After being here for three days now, the truth is, I wouldn´t mind spening a few more days.

It has been an action packed 48 hours.

My travel companions and I hired a Brazilian/American travel guide yesterday. It was kind of spendy, but he was excellent. Using the public transit system, he led us to the Christ Redeemer statue. Then, we went to some lookout caled Sugar Loaf. It´s on a Brazilian Navy base, but it´s open to tourists. It was exciting to take a sky cable car all the way to the top. I loved seeing the monkeys that looked like squirrels that climb trees and feed from trashcans. The view of Rio was pretty amazing, too.

Last night´s highlights include participating in a Samba concert and dancing Samba, attending a copierra (sp?) class (traditional Brazilian slave dance/martial arts), and eating out at midnight with Nobl´s Brazilian cousins Mari and Andre.

The parts of Rio I´ve visited are stunningly beautiful, clean, and safe. I think the other travelers I spoke with didn´t have a guide to show them the finer things around here. I feel super lucky to have had a few inside experiences because of our guide and local contacts.

I want to write about so much more, but I got to go.

Ciao