Copacabana

As much as I dislike the song and the artist, since I've been in Rio, I can't shake the earbug out of my head.

We're staying in Copacabana and, of course, every time I see the name of our neighborhood written on a sign, my inner voice immediately starts singing that insipid little ditty. God help me, I have to endure two more weeks of this!

Other than that one annoyance, Rio has been most enjoyable so far. As Brenda says, it feels like we've arrived in a completely different country since leaving Salvador. It's a lot more cosmopolitan, everything seems to be better maintained and definitely it's more affluent. Unfortunately, it's been either overcast or raining almost the entire time we've been here, so we haven't done much other than scout out our surroundings, eat and plan the rest of our stay here. On the plus side, we left the oppressive tropical heat and humidity behind us in Salvador with the temperature here hovering around the high 20's. Next week it's supposed to warm up considerably so we'll take in the sun and sand on the Copacabana (At the Copa,....) beach.

We also feel much more at ease here than in Salvador as there are always throngs of people everywhere. Of course, we're still on our guard and will not be doing anything that could result in another mugging. As such, I haven't been strolling the streets with my camera and the photo on this blog is a stock internet photo. Sorry.

The fruit here is equally as good as in Salvador, but prices are much higher, although still a far cry from what we'll be paying back home. I'm kind of dreading heading home and leaving behind all this ripe and juicy tropical fruit.

One of the most popular treats here is Acai. The pulp of the acai berries is frozen and blended with different ingredients to make a sorbet style treat that's loaded with antioxidants. We've tried two versions so far: a R$8.00 version and a R$22.00 version, that claims to be the best in the world. It was excellent, but I'm not certain it was worth paying 3 times the price for it. I'm sure we'll experiment with many more versions before we leave here.

Yesterday we walked the three kilometers to Ipanema, but despite looking for her, I never saw the girl. It was nice and a little more affluent than Copacabana (...the hottest spot north of Havana...), but overall we prefer our neck of the woods.

All in all, I'm certain the next two weeks are going to whiz by and we'll be back home before we know it. We're very heartened to see the warm temperatures Ottawa has been experiencing and hope they'll continue on through January. Please!Read more