The girls from Ipanema III

Can you find me in this picture?
Afterwards we went to a Brazilian art museum. It was very small, but also very inexpensive, so no complaints. It seems that the painting in South America evolved very differently from European painting. Realism has no value, and everything is very brightly colored. Here's my favorite piece:

After that, we were off to the beach. We got our things at the hotel, and walked across the street to the beach, where we uttered the magic words to an attendant, "Caesar Park." Before we knew it, we were set up with two cushioned beach chairs on the beach (we could have had an umbrella too). From there we were free to lounge to our heart's content. The only distraction are the millions of vendors that wander the beach. I quickly learned to close my eyes when they were coming and pretended to be asleep.
On Sunday we went to the Hippie Fair, which might have been my favorite thing we did. I didn't hear anyone haggling, and while it might have saved me a bit, I was relieved not to feel that I had to.

Also, the vendors didn't try to pressure you at all, which was so nice. We did about two laps, and then we made our respective purchases. Very fun. After that we walked around downtown for a bit, and then went back to the beach.

Monday, our last day, we went Botanical Garden which was very fun. Oh, I'll take this moment to also tell you why Brazilian buses are better than the mta. For one thing, there seem to be hundreds of them. It also doesn't seem to matter what bus stop you're standing at (or even being at a bus stop for that matter). You just wave at the bus you want, and they pick you up. Most of the fares were about the American equivalent of 90 cents, and you don't have to have exact change, there's a cashier on the bus. I think NYC should change to this system because it would create more jobs, and be safer because the bus driver just drives, he doesn't have to argue with anyone. Editorial over, the gardens were fun to walk around in, and we saw some more monkeys. They had a very nice grotto that I enjoyed.

After the gardens we went to the other big tourist attraction in Rio, Sugarloaf. It's a large peak from which you can see all of Rio (the most exciting thing to do in Rio, apparently, is to climb up high and look down on the city).


We rode cable cars to the top of Sugarloaf, where I found a new boyfriend (please disregard his wife standing behind us). At Sugar loaf we gazed down on the city of Rio, much like we had at Corcovado. And guess who else was at the top of Sugarloaf that day? You guessed it, our waiter from the first night. Erin recognized him, but did say anything,and then he recognized us! I know that people are allowed to be tourists in their own city's, but it was quite a coincidence that he chose to be so the same day we did. He asked us when we were coming back to visit him at the restaurant, and then told us to be careful what we said in front of his wife! Weird. Sadly, we told him we'd be returning to New York later that day, so we would never see him again, but it was delightful to see him twice.

And thus ends my tale of our adventures in Rio de Janeiro. My last words on the subject are about the soda. I was told that Guarina Arctica was the best drink ever, and we had to try it. We immediately bought two bottles of it, but alas, I did not like it. Luckily, it wasn't the worst so we drank it, and I found a drink called Soda which I liked very much; it was a lime drink. I also ended up with some Brazilian money, but maybe we can use it on our next visit; after all, our visas last for five years, and it would be a shame not to use them...
Stay tuned for film reviews of the movies we watched on out 10 hour flights to and from Brazil.