Relaxing in Rio
Rio has been fairly different from Peru in that it’s been almost exactly what I expected. And, to be fair, that probably boils down to what I’ve done here: food, hotel, write, beach. Rinse and repeat. I mean, I took the Rio day tour and saw the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Selaron Stairs, but besides that I haven’t exactly been trying a ton of small things that might surprise me. Not like in Peru.
To be honest, I’m completely fine with that right now. Having finally kicked my stomach issue, it seems worth it to play the next week by the book. It’s still plenty for me, it just means not covering hundreds of miles every day. I think I’m finally getting a good feel for how quickly I can move around. It feels like you have to get that right if you want to consistently fire on all cylinders.
Speaking of firing on all cylinders, it seems that’s exactly what people are doing out here because the rumors are true: the butts are big and the muscles are massive. I’d say that 1 in 5 people have washboard abs here. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is. And it’s really no wonder considering that people here need beach bodies 24/7/365. You can’t take the winter off around here because there is no chance to snuggle up by the fire sipping hot cocoa and eating the day away staying away from the snow. There is no snow and there are no excuses out here. The women wear the famous thong bikinis and the men wear what’s essentially a banana hammock with a little room for the legs. It’s tight, and why not? It looks good. On them. But I’ll be perfectly content in my Nike board shorts.
A few short notes:
-Chris the Redeemer on the exterior looks like it’s made up of a bunch of smaller stones formed into the statue. It’s a bunch of triangular stones set together like this:
-Pastel de Camarao is essentially shrimp bisque in a hot pocket shell. Absolutely delicious.
-Brigadeiro is a chocolate truffle and they’re pretty damn good. However, I was served a melted brigadeiro in a bowl and it was a sugary delight. If you can imagine something with the consistency somewhere between pudding and thick icing, that’s brigadeiro. It’s also heated up and some crystallized sugar is sprinkled in. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.
-After researching flights for my trip in July, Skyscanner auto-filled my flight dates to the rainforest to July, so I’ll be able to get refunded for the flight, but tickets are about $600+ and a little out of my budget right now, so I’ll be staying in Rio to enjoy the sun and keep writing! I was bummed at first, but I’m enjoying my stay here, so I quickly got over it.
-When I was in Peru, I thought I was in completely over my head with my lack of Spanish. It wasn’t until Brazil and my actual complete lack of Portuguese that I realized how much Spanish I actually knew.
-After Brazil, it’s on to the European leg of my trip first starting in Belfast to see my friend Eric!
‘Til next time
-Vagrant
This entry was posted in Photo Dump, Update