RIO DE JANEIRO, BABY!

Finally I can write about spring break. So on the bus from Iguazu Falls they showed the film Taken, the movie about the girl that gets kidnapped abroad. As we were 7 girls traveling to a foreign country, this was quite scary. When we got to Rio we had the other girls we were traveling with come to the apartment with us, so that we were 7 of us, not 2, in case anything went wrong. As it turned out, everything went right! The apartment was right on Copacabana beach (we sang the ENTIRE trip). We had a kitchen, a bathroom, a big ol' bed, and a GREAT view of the beach. It wasn't as sunny as I would have liked it to be, so we spent a lot of days checking things off from the great list of activities I got out of a guide book in the hostel in Iguazu.

The beaches of Rio are amazing though. The city is surrounded by mountains and beaches, and when it is sunny the beaches are PACKED. You can shop from your towel with all of the people walking around, and the beaches just have an awesome vibe. Lots of naked tooshy! I even got a Brazilian bikini and rocked it for a week.

But, there were a lot of cloudy days, so I can tell you about all of the activities we did. We went to the top of the Sugar Loaf, this really high thing that they have cable cars to. You get to see the entire city from up high, and it's just really cool. I have tons of pictures. We went to Museu H Stern and Museu Amsterdam Sauer, where they got us drunk, showed us all about gems, and let us try on EVERYTHING. A great way to make the most of a rainy day!

I wanted to go on a Favela tour through the rougher areas of town, but the drug cartels are at war, so that seemed like a bad idea. We went to a music store called Modern Sound where they have a live music place called Allegro Bistro Musical and we saw a Brazilian Jazz group and had a few caiprinias. 

Nights were VERY interesting. The two main places to be at night are called Lapa and Barra (pronounced ba-ha). In Lapa we went to a street called Av. Mem de Sá that is lined with great bars. On that street we went to a Samba club called Carioca da Gema, where we danced our pretty little asses off. Around the corner from Mem de Sá is a street lined with liquor stores. The stores put a table out in front and sell booze over the tables while they blast music out of huge speakers. The street just fills up with young people dancing. SUCH awesome vibes.

We also went to this bar called Calndestino in Copacabana that I really enjoyed. And, we went to a place called Bip Bip where locals jammed with instruments. At Bip Bip we got to hear live samba and bossa nova, which I clearly loved.

Other fun facts:

The meat in Brazil is just as fabulous as Argentina, except in Brazil they have all you can eat meat places!

Everyone in Brazil thought I was Amy Winehouse. At the beach they once surrounded me and took pictures.

Rio was pretty dull on Monday and Tuesday. Thursday through Saturday it was NUTS!

If I think of anything else I will let you know!!