Rio Day Two

By design we did pretty much nothing yesterday (Thursday). Wednesday we were all pretty wiped after 20 hours of travel (and for me at least the travel started following a full work day) so prior to bed (which came at 8:30 PM we all agreed that Thursday was designated a "do nothing" day.

We interupt this blog for the following important message: Google seems to have thought of everthing. They thought I would tell you stories so they made a blogging site. They thought I would need an editor to work in so they created a set of tools with little words to help me with my tasks. They thought I suck as spelling so they gave me a spell checker. They thought they could look at my internet address and know where I was so they made all the labels and tools and spell checker work in Portuguese. Oops!

Now back to our exciting blog. (and Lexi - why aren't you printing these and taking them to my dad)

So the day started at about 6:10 when I woke up. Loretta was quietly snoring out a rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema" as I went to the window to watch the early morning beach joggers. I got my book and started reading.

After a couple of paragraphs Loretta work up. "Why are you reading your book out loud" she asked. "Sorry. I didn't know the words to the song so..."

Next was the morning "gee you smell - maybe you should take a shower ritual" followed by the "Let's eat strange things for breakfast" required "Papia good, mango bad" montra. Unfortunately my little sister got it wrong and decideds she likes Mango. Go figure.

We sat in the executive lounge for an hour or two. Ate things, watched folks on the beach, drank coffee (actually I drank coffee, Loretta made me explain why I drank coffee because I typically don't)

Did I mention that the coffee here is the best in the world (as judged by someone who virtually never drinks coffee)?

Anywho the next thing we did was go upto the roof (where the pool lives).

(Time for me to take a shower - I'll turn the keybord over to Loretta for a different perspective)

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The hotel is awesome, we had breakfast in the lounge and it was great....well, I tried Brie cheese for the first time and that was disgusting, but everything else was good. I also tried fresh Mango for the first time and I think I like it quite well.

We are on the 16th floor so we have a great view and I watched a group of people do their morning yoga on the beach. We can also see ships coming in and some just wait out in the harbor, waiting to be loaded or whatever.

We've done alot of walking which is good because you get to see a things you wouldn't normally see if you we're riding in a car. One thing I've noticed is very popular here is "buffets", they have them everywhere and you go in grab a plate and load it with food and then they weight it and you pay by the Kilo.

Jim and I tried Beef Tongue and it actually was quite good. They also have a lot of juice stands/shops called Sucos and Jim and I had an Abacaxi (which is pineapple) It was yummy. Oh, I also tried Papaya and it pretty much tasted like cleaning fluid. I have to say the pineapple here though is probably the best I've ever had. Well gotta run for now...

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I'm back. I'm out of the shower. I'm free of sand and salt water after the beach but that's today and today is tomorrow from the perspective of yesterday which is where we are in the blogsphere...but I digress.

So Loretta and I went to the roof to sit by the pool and read our books. First I sat and Loretta read while I read and Loretta sat. Next we both sat and read. Finally I sat, Loretta read while I read and Loretta sat.

I suppose the high point of all that was when the hang glider went over not too far above us and we captured the picture of the day. Unfortunately we got it with Loretta's camera and currently have no way to get that picture to a computer. Go figure. An adapter will be part of our quest this afternoon.

Shane and Cassandra showed up a bit after noon and sat with us by the pool for a while. When sufficient time had passed so someone could claim hunger we went on a quest for a resturaunt. We ate in one that sold the food by weight. It was a bit over 3 Reai per 100 grams. We tried cow tongue (first time for me and Loretta tried it too). It scored a double thumbs up. Loretta did a big thumbs down for Papia. We both ate some vegatable thing that was completely unknown. Imagine an okra that was about 50% bigger around than a banana. That was this stuff. It wasn't gross but I don't think either of us will seek it out again.

Finally I got up and scored some coco e abacaxi cake that was good enough that Cassandra went on the same quest and got some too (after sampling mine).

Next we went on a quest for two items. Cassandra wanted a futball jersey and I was looking for a boogie board (yesterday we learned that they wanted $50 reai a day to rent one - I wanted to compare).

I found (and bought) a boogie board in the jersey shop for $80 (about $40). I figured this way I could practice all week for less than two days rental. Cassandra came up dry on the shirt.

Later that day Shane found (and purchased) a futball shirt for Cassandra (it said Kaka on the back so I can only assume the number belonged to a crappy player).

That was about it for the day (I told you the goal was to pretty much do nothing - I think we pulled it off)