Music and Passion Were Always the Fashion

What happens in Rio stays in Rio.  Eh... and in this blog, apparently.  

The first thing one notices is that Rio has incredible natural beauty.  There is a unique combination of mountains and beach - intermingling in an interesting way.  I'm not sure what kind of geological event lead to the dichotomy, but its definitely cool to see.  Buildings tower high at the beach, but the mountains dwarf them.

The first evening there we were invited to a get together at a brother's house.  We had dinner and then studied the material for the Congregation Bible Study.  It was really nice to meet some of the brothers there.  As always, the brothers were a highlight of the trip.

That night and the next we stayed at the "Girl from Ipanema" hostel.  However, staying in a hostel is like eating a hot dog for dinner.  You can do it once in a while, but its not good for you and if you keep doing it you'll get sick.  So we moved to a hotel soon, thanks to help from my sister.  Thanks, Behroz!

The hotel had a pool on the roof (27th floor) with an awesome view of Ipanema and Leblon beaches.

Most of the rest of the trip consisted of going to the beach, hanging out with brothers, going out to eat, seeing the tourist stuff, oh, and of course, Caipirinhas!  The tourist sights were cool.  The giant statue of Christ on Corcovado was awesome.  At first we were in a cloud (its really high up) so visibility was terrible.  But then it cleared.  We also got the opportunity to witness informally to a Brazilian woman there.  Sugarloaf also had some great vistas. 

The food and drink in Rio is excellent.  We went to the "Garota de Ipanema" for lunch one day.  There I order the Picanha.  Awesome.  Its basically two tenderloins of beef served on a mini grill.  There are also many restaurants where you pay for food by the kilo.  Its like a buffet, but you weigh your plate and pay accordingly.  Some are a pretty good deal for a good selection of food.  Of course, these places have "meat on a sword" which is just plain cool.

They also have some all-you-can-eat pizza places.  They just keep bringing pizzas around and you take what you like.  I must say, I ate a lot.  Including some dessert pizzas: strawberry and chocolate, banana and cinnamon, banana and chocolate, and guava and cheese. 

Another highlight of the trip were the juices, which are known as "sucos" there.  Brazil has a tremendous variety of fruits.  Suco stands are everywhere, and have on the order of 20 or so different types of fresh fruit.  The juices made from them are fantastic.  I had some excellent juices of mango, pineapple, strawberry, coconut, acerola, acai, grape and others that I don't know the name of. 

Pablo and I each had the privilege of giving talks in the English congregation there.  It was nice to be able to help them out.  I went out in the ministry one day.  We were doing Portugese street work on Copacabana beach.  Man was it hot.  I was out for about 15 minutes when I was like "ok, I need some water."  I learned a very basic presentation in Portugese. 

After our stay at the hotel, we spent a night at a brother's house.  Thanks, Gilson! 

We were invited to stay longer, but Pablo had to get back to work.  And I didn't want him to drive alone.  It was very tempting, though.  My next post will describe the way home.