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Here
are the PICS from my trip to Brazil and Argentina. I
spent December 26th through January 5th in Brazil.
If you haven't had the chance to visit I strongly
suggest that you do. Brazilians are very friendly
and the food is delicious. You can trust me on that
as I do know good food. This was my second trip to
Brazil though my first time to Rio de Janeiro. I
stayed at the Meridien Hotel on Copacabana beach
which is the largest beach. The smaller Ipanema
Beach is actually walking distance from Copacabana.
I was very pleasantly surprised at cleanliness
of the beaches. They are very wide and well
maintained. Ipanema is considered to be the gay
beach which pretty much means that there is a
section with mostly gay men. I have to say that Rio
is filled with knockout looking men and woman. Very
sexy people. Everywhere you look they're there. WOW!
I took
one of the helicopter rides over the city. It's well
worth it. Most of the PICS you see are from the
helicopter ride. It really helps give a birds eye
view of the area. The pilot was nice enough to fly
around the Christ Statue twice. The statue is very
impressive and worth visiting.
New
Year's Eve in Rio is great. You are supposed to wear
white for purity, red for passion and yellow for
prosperity. Everyone gathers on Copacabana beach
where they put on the best fire works display that I
have seen so far. It's just amazing. There were 4
very large barges out in the bay where the fireworks
were launched. The entire evening is amazingly
festive. Plus a lot of people light candles and give
thanks to "god" and throw either white or red roses
or white gladiolas into the ocean. There is a strong
pagan element to it all. So the shore was filled
with all of these flowers washing up. Plus I was
told that one should stand on the beach and let the
waves crash 7 times after which one should make a
prayer/wish. The whole water ritual is about
starting the new year fresh, clean and pure. I
figure that every bit counts so I let the waves
crash at least 10 times for good measure.
Once the
spectacular fire works display ended, the Meridian
Hotel lit up in an amazing cascade of
sparklers/flares/fireworks. As you can see from
the 10th photo it looks as if the 38 floor hotel is
ablaze. Due to fire ordinances here in the USA you
would never see anything like it. It was truly
amazing.
It was
great to mingle with everyone as I got to smoke one
of my very first Romeo and Juliet Cuban brand cigars
and drink caipirinhas. This is a traditional
Brazilian drink which is prepared with cachaça, an
alcohol made from sugar cane. Delicious, delicious,
delicious. I got turned on to caipirinhas when
I performed at a club down in Sao Paulo, Brazil a
few years ago. Tasty and strong.
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