Brasil: Warning this a long one, but there is a few pictures

I apologize for taking so long to create this post, I've been some what busy and I've just been lazy.

So now I am going to tell you all about my experience in Brasil (In Brasil they use a s instead of a z, don't know why though). I was there for 17 days and for those of you who don't know, my brother is currently living in Rio with his wife.

Getting to Rio was a complete mess and that probably had something to do with the fact that I bought my flight ticket from an airline that just went bankrupt and was in the process of being bought by another company. So to start things off, my original flight was cancelled, it was on a Tuesday, so then they told me to come back on Wednesday for a different flight. Wanting to make sure the flight was on time for Weds night I called the airport and they told me that the flight has been delayed until 11:30 at night; originally it was suppose to leave at 7:30 pm. However, there was another flight that I could catch, which was leaving at 8:30, so I decided to hop on that. But then I didn't board that flight until 11 at night, which forced me to spend about 2 1/2 hours at the airport bar. Once we boarded the plane, the weather started to get really bad and we had to wait that out, so at about 1 in the morning on Weds my flight finally took off. The flight sucked, I didn't really sleep and my buzz that I had going, wore off pretty quickly. Just about every flight that goes into Brasil stops at Sao Paulo to re-fuel and what not. Sao Paulo is only like a 45 minute flight away from Rio, but I had about a 3 1/2 hour layover there. So finally at 4 pm on Thursday I arrived in Rio. And let me tell you arriving there was a thing of beauty. Besides the fact that I was off the plane, it just felt great to be there. When I got to my brother's apt (it's about 45 minutes away from the airport), his maid had this gourmet meal all ready for us and damn did this food taste good. It wasn't anything too exotic, it was a chicken and onion dish, with carrots and beans and rice for the sides, it was a solid home-made hearty meal and that was exactly what I needed.

Since Brasil is south of the equator, it was their winter time when I was over there, but you couldn't have guessed that from the weather. It was 85 and sunny just about every day I was there. It only rained for 2 days and those were my last two days I was there. So I definitely spent a lot of time at the beach. The beach was only about a 3 minute walk from my brother's apt. The beach was great. You would go there, set up shop and then just soak up the sun all day long. On the beaches you can practically buy anything that you want, if you want it, they are probably selling it. All throughout the beaches are these stands where you can rent chairs, buy water, beer, etc... Buying beer was great though, first of all it was only $1 (when converted to American dollars) and you never had to get up out of your chair because the workers at these stands would always be ready to bring you another one. Majority of the beers were light beers because nobody wants to be drinking a thick, heavy beer in that type of weather. Also you always had something to look at on the beach because there were women all over the place and let me tell you, their bikinis didn't consist of much clothing. Needless to say I spent a lot of time at the beach; you had to because that is what the locals were doing too.

I don't think anybody knew this, I just found out like a week before I was going there, that my brother was going to get married. It wasn't an actual wedding ceremony; they will be having one of those in April next years so more of my family can attend. All it was was me, my brother, his wife (Renetta) and Renetta's mom and dad and basically just stood there and watched as a judge married the two. It was all in Portuguese so I had no idea what was going on. Plus I was hung over like a mother fucker. The night before was the bachelor party, but it wasn't really a bachelor party it just consisted of me, my brother and Renetta's three brothers. One brother is 28, the other is 24 and the other is 17. All three of them were very nice and cool kids. The 28 year old is wild and crazy; he's a lot of fun. The 24 year old is dating a soap opera actress, she's quite popular because soap operas are huge down there, they are the money makers. The 17 year left me a joint on my dresser when I woke up one morning, which was awesome, so that tells you a little bit about her 3 brothers. Anyways like I was saying about the bachelor party, it didn't consist of much, but it did consist of a lot of alcohol. My brother and I first started out with lunch and we both had 3 beers there and then we figured there was no need to stop drinking so it only got worse from there. Then we went back to his apt and he taught me how to make these killer vodka drinks, they are called capivodka. All they are is some fruit (we used strawberries, you can also use pineapple, lime, lemon, whatever), sugar, ice cubes and vodka. Basically you cut up the fruit, put in some sugar and mash the fruit and sugar together. Then you add some ice, pour in the vodka and shake it up and there you go. Ours were definitely a little strong, but they were delicious and needless to say my brother and I killed a bottle of vodka making those drinks. They're really popular in Brasil because it's a nice drink to have on the beach and there are chunks of fruit in it so after the drink is gone, you eat the fruit, which has absorbed a lot of the vodka. Then we ripped about 3 shots of tequila and had about 4 beers in between the shots. After that it was time to go out and as we were walking to the beer we stop at a grocery store and picked up a couple of beers for the walk because like our favorite place in the world, vegas baby, vegas, there is no open container law, which I think is probably the coolest thing ever. Then the bars consisted of much more drinking and I don't remember a whole lot. Eventually, we meet up with Renetta and the girls she was out with too. One thing I do remember is buying the entire party a shot of tequila, I tried to order it myself, but first of all I can't speak Portuguese and secondly I was absolutely bombed and probably was speaking gibberish, but it was great when we got the shots and I said a little toast (probably like the one I said on the bus at the black and white formal) and then we all took the shots. Didn’t go to sleep until like 6 in the morning. I just remember waking up at noon with probably the worst hangover I have ever had. I ended up sleeping till 5 pm then I had to shower and shave and get ready for my brother to get married.

Not being able to speak Portuguese was a little bit of a problem, but much of Renetta’s family speaks and understands a little English so I was able to get by. It was fun to be at the beach and just yell out, “cock, shit, balls, fuck, ass” and not have to worry about little kids hearing me swear because they had no idea what I was saying so I always got a kick out of that and would just swear for the heck of it at times.

One famous tourist attraction in Brasil is the statue of Christ that’s up on a mountain and overlooks the entire city of Rio. In order to get there you have to take a train and it takes you along the mountain and up to the top, it was probably like a 10 minute ride. The view is absolutely fabulous once your at the top I have some pictures to show you. The view was just breathtaking it’s like being at the Grand Canyon except your looking at beautiful blue water. Then after that we went to the local horse track to do a little gambling. You can see the horse track on these pictures, it’s the big dirt ring and then behind that to the left there is a soccer stadiuem and in front of that there is a row of 4 apts and the one all the way to the right in my brother’s apt. From his apt you are able to see the statue of Christ off in the distance, the view from his apt is really nice too. We only stayed for two races because we were hungry, but I won on the first race, won 18 but then I lost on the second race, but it was a solid time. It's best to save the picture and then you can see it bigger and get a better idea of what I'm talking about with my brother's apt.

The food was really good, they like to use a lot of salt on everything and I don’t mind because I love salt too. Went to a few all you can eat sushi restaurants, which were damn good, I’m a big fan of sushi and so is my brother and his wife. Went to an all you can eat meat place, which is I know would be paradise for Dana. All the meat was on poles and they would come over to your table and cut off a couple slices of meat and then you used your set of tongs to grab the meat and put it on your plate. They had beef, pork, chicken, fish, anything. One thing they had was chicken hearts, which is very popular in Brasil, Renetta loves them, I tried one and it creep me out, wouldn’t try another one after that. Their breakfast was whack though. They don’t have breakfast like we do here in the States. Their breakfast consisted of fruit, an assortment of breads with butter and cheese spreads and then cold cuts (ham, turkey) with some cheese, wasn’t a big fan. It’s not that it was bad; it’s just not what I wanted for breakfast. Also since the coffee is very strong, they serve the coffee in this small ass mug, like two sips and it’s finished. It was impossible to get like a large mug full of coffee.

My flight back was no problem. I bought some sleepig pills in Brasil that my brother recommend and I popped two of those in on the flight and I was out for like 4 hours it was great.

Those were some of the highlights from my trip, I’m sure a left a couple things out, but if I remember anything else I’ll be sure to let you guys know. Sorry for it being so long and for taking so long, but here it is so enjoy. Chow,

-Limmer