O Rio de Janeiro continua lindo

I'm back from Rio, and I loved it! I don't have any pictures yet because I didn't take my digital camera. I was concerned that it would be stolen, so instead I played it safe and used a disposable camera. I will post pictures as soon as I get them. In the meantime, here are some observations I made about a cidade maravilhosa:

- Brazilians are very friendly and open people, and even more so when they discovered I speak Portuguese. I once read somewhere that Brazilians are some of the happiest people on the planet, and I believe it. People were smiling and laughing everywhere.
- Rio is a very laid-back city. People wear flip-flops a lot, and I never felt under-dressed, even when going out for dinner in jeans and a t-shirt.
- Cariocas (inhabitants of Rio) are beautiful people. They also seem to be very focused on looking good. I saw people jogging, cycling, and rollerblading everywhere. Along the beach there were exercise stations set up. As my travel partner Christy remarked, "I've never seen so many six-packs in one place at the same time."
- Rio is expensive. I suppose you could keep to a budget if you didn't go shopping and didn't have dinner in a restaurant every night, but after 9 months of bland Chilean cuisine and fashion that is stuck in the 1980s, Christy and I indulged ourselves.