Monday/Tuesday.....Rio

Monday was a really weird day for us.  We got here, spent minimal time waiting for our room to be ready and then took a nap for a few hours.  It was cool, rainy and overcast so we didn't feel like we were wasting an entire day by sleeping and just getting acclimated to the city.  Monday night we ventured out on a little walk to a restaurant recommended to us by our travel agent called Shirleys.  In short, it was amazing.  But first, I want to talk about the walk there.  Ryan and I looked up the address to the restaurant and decided we would walk there.  It was maybe about 2 miles down the beach but we´d been sleeping all day so what the heck.  We headed out and figured if we couldn't figure it out we would just ask for directions. 

The first thing that we noticed is that the coast of Rio is so much like Lake Shore Drive its scary.  Seriously, 6 lanes of traffic, 3 in each direction, and the beach to the one side.  You've got everything from the hot bodies, to the muscle beach, to volleyball and handball happening.  The surf is crashing...and I mean CRASHING onto the beach.  We are talking 6-7 foot swells, so large that I refuse to go in. 


Lake Shore Drive look-a-like.  The black and white sidewalk is all individually laid tiles. 



We walked a few miles and magically found Shirleys.  It was perfect.  3 walls, waiters in white suit coats, good fish and good wine.  I ordered Shrimp in Garlic sauce (seriously...shrimp on steroids) and Ryan ordered Sea Bass with Garlic mashed potatoes...typical.  I ate more in one meal than I eat on most days.  Even Ry commented on how surprised he was that I ate so much.  A perfect meal for our first night here!!

This morning we woke up relatively late....9am Brazil, or 7am Chicago and headed to breakfast.  Breakfast is free in all of our hotels and its quite lovely.  Fresh fruit, bread, sandwiches, eggs, bacon.  You ask for it and they've got it.  The weather was beautiful today so we decided to head to the huge Christ statue for our first `tourist` thing to do.  It was expensive but cool and I´m glad we did it.  We hired a driver to take us there and back....he waited there for us while we explored.  We walked around...took the normal touristy pictures and headed back to our hotel after an hour or so. 

The weather was perfect so we got our suits on and walked across LSD *smile* to the beach.  We watched a body board competition, a helicopter rescue a swimmer in over her head (literally) and the waves crashing.  It´s beautiful but a little scary.  No South Carolina waves here!!  I finished my book and Ryan built little sand castles out of our beer cans.  Typical.....


Ryan saw this and of course he couldn't resist a picture.....heck....it is Brazil right?



Tuesday night we decided to try a bar that Ryan found online called Mud Bug.  It´s supposed to be an American Bar with what we would call normal food and normal beer....that is, if you call $8.00 for Budweiser normal.  It´s funny....we flew thousands of miles to get away from the US but we find ourselves smiling and pointing when we see a McDonald's, and a sense of relief when we find an ´American` bar.  Ry and I found the only English TV station and we could care less what its playing....its in English.


The beer menu...note the prices!


Sadly we are having problems uploading pictures for you all but hopefully we can figure it out shortly.  There is so much to show you all and I hope that we can figure it out. 

The hotel we are staying at is very interesting, every floor is decorated differently.  There is no real communal pool area which would have been nice, but it forces us to get out of the hotel and explore. 
http://www.hotelportinari.com.br/en.us/

More on Wednesday´s adventure later....but a little sneak peak for you all....it involved exploring the city a little on foot.  We found some amazing views!!  Sad, I can`t upload pics/movies for you all.


A little taste of what's to come.  This is one of my most favorite pics from the entire vacation...