Rio de Janiero, Brazil - Day 3

So today, I walked around the downtown area, rode the subway, rode a local bus, talk to locals, viewed a couple street performances, hung out on the colorful tiled steps where Snoop Dogg filmed the music video “Beautiful Girl” and got robbed. Oh and ate every version of empanada possible – boy those things are tasty…I don’t know where they get all the different combinations of dough (corn, wheat, and stuffing combinations but they are amazing.

Oh so the robbing story…well I’m ok thanks for wondering. It actually was a blessing in disguise as I got a good lesson. I was waiting for the bus and had my money out and some guy just grabbed it and ran. By the time I realized it, he was half way down the block and I wasn’t about to chase him over cobble stone for $15 dollars. So it was very opportunistic, nobody got hurt, and I had more money in other pockets. That being said, I’ll just be more aware of my surroundings and careful while traveling. No worries mom :)

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 3

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 2

Today I took a city tour with some of the highlights being Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain, and a huge cathedral. The views from the top of CtR and SLM were quite impressive. I also saw my first Asian in South America but unfortunately they happened to be Korean tourists so I don’t think they count as locals. I guess they don't have too many Asians here because two different groups of people stopped me at Sugar Loaf and CtR and asked to take a picture with me. Kind of funny.

The amount of diversity in Brazil is amazing with every shade of white, black and in between. Everyone seems unique but no one is really exotic in this melting pot. It seems like as long as you can speak Portuguese that people welcome you as Brazilian. Unlike in other countries, Brazilians don’t seem to view race as a factor in discriminating which is good; however, social class and background do appear to be a factor here.

I took a nap after getting back from the tour and I guess someone left the window open and it was raining so the mosquitoes were out in full force. For some reason mosquitoes like me. I go camping with my friends and I'll spray on a bottle of OFF, sit in a middle of a circle of Citronelle candles, and spray some Raid on for good measure and I still get the most bites out of all my friends. I think I got about 40 (no joke I counted them) bites in about 1 hours. Luckily on my last trip to South East Asia my aunt in HK too pity on me when I came over for dinner with a ton of bites and gave me this ointment from Japan that does wonders on mosquito bites and I brought it along. Thanks Aunt Evelyn!

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 2

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 1

So I made it after 16 hours of traveling. First day was rather uneventful as I walked wandered around the area trying to get a feel for the area and gather my bearings. One thing that I noticed was that were gyms on every block on the second floor of stores. You can also purchase protein and work out supplements in 2 or 3 shops per street – I guess in case you have a sudden craving mid block.

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 1