Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Brazil flag

Rio de Janeiro is our starting point

We left Las Vegas at 2:00pm for the 4 1/2 hour flight to Miami.  After a two hour layover in Miami and an eight hour flight, we arrived in humid and sunny Rio.  We quickly cleared passport control and grabbed a cab ($60, yikes!) into the city.  You have to be really careful with cabs at the airport.  The minute you leave the customs area, cab drivers begin to annoy you with asking if you need a cab.  They quote you one price and then once they deliver you to your hotel, they want more money and won't release your luggage unless you pay.  We opted to pay a little more by hiring our cab from an official kiosk near the airport terminal exit.

As we drove into the city, we were expecting to see major construction projects for the 2016 Olympics.  We did not see one construction project in progress.  The city better get in gear soon.

Our hotel, the Sofitel, is located right where Copacabana and Ipanema beaches meet.  We had booked a room on the club floor and at check-in, they upgraded us to a one bedroom suite.  We were very surprised since Carnival starts on Sunday and every hotel room in the city is sold out.  The hotel is quite nice and the club lounge has a beautiful view overlooking Ipanema beach.  Our room looks out over Copacabana beach.  The beach is filled with thousands of red umbrellas and scantily clad bathing beauties.

















We took a short walk along the beach promenade before heading to a vertical mall containing antiques.  I left Jeff there after an hour and headed back to the room to take a nap.  Jeff came back with several bottles of wine but no antiques.  He tried to buy a small horse statue but the gallery owner could not get the display case open and the owner didn't seem particularly interested in making a sale.

We enjoyed some wine and pastries at the club floor lounge and then headed back to the room to take a bath and try to catch up on our rest.

Here are some not too shabby views from our hotel balcony: