The weather hadn't been cooperating entirely for the past few days, but that didn't stop me from heading to the beach with my book. On Wednesday I sat down on the beach at 3:00 pm with a very overcast sky and only a few dozen other hard-nosed beachgoers (read "tourist"). I used the time to finish reading Wicked. Great book. Very deep. Much darker than the Broadway show that followed.
Yesterday, the weather cooperated and the sun was shining strong throughout the day. I was in the middle of my morning routine (wake late, check the news online, hit the gym, home for lunch) when I was crossing the street in the middle of Ipanema and ran into a good friend from DC. Alan is originally from Brazil but I have known him in DC for years. He and his friend Christiane (also Brazilian) are back here visiting family and staying for Carnival. I am very excited that they're here as it adds more members to our group of friends.
A few months ago, Daily Candy had one of their regular columns on new words. One of my favorites was PUI -- planning under the influence. It describes all those great plans you make with friends usually late at night, maybe at a bar or club, after everyone's been drinking. Well, I will admit to having a caipirinha or two on the beach, and we definitely fell into PUI mode w/ Alan and Christiane. But, I'm excited that we were all making plans.
There's tons to do here in Rio and Brazil, and in my first week in town I haven't even begun to scratch the surface. All of us are ready to check out the local attractions (Cristo Redentor: the statue of Christ that overlooks the city; Sugarloaf Mountain; hang gliding) as well as heading outside the city (Buzios and Arraial do Cabo: two beach resorts about 2 hours north of Rio).
They're also talking me into marching with a Samba School in the Carnaval parades coming up at the end of my trip. I'll have more on that in another posting because it deserves much more time than I'm going to give it right now. It's 12:15, the sun is out again today and I have a very busy schedule to get to this morning. ;-)
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