Watch Out For Those Caipirinhas…
The ultimate Rio experience!! If there is such a thing… today we had ours.
A sunny Saturday in Rio is reserved for a little time to play on the sand of Copacabana Beach. We already felt like we were late to the party when our alarms went off at 11am. The beach was dotted with umbrellas and people soaking up that Brazilian sun, so we did our best to hurry up and get out there with them!
Every girl from sixteen to sixty is rocking a thong. Pitbull is on point, “In Brazil… their thongs, blue, yellow and green.” Soooo, when in Rio… Yes, our first thong bikini experience is in the books.
But nobody was topless. I’m just curious… why is it fully acceptable to show only boobs in Spain and only butt cheeks in Brazil?!?!? Let me know if you come up with a good answer on this 🙂
Brittany and I decided if we were going to do this right, Caipirinhas were a necessity… so we ordered two from the vendor who was conveniently set up right next to us. Man, these drinks pack a punch. We were feeling pretty good after about three sips.
Next thing we know, a group of people were sat right next to us by our hotel beach attendant. We weren’t really sure what was going on, but it appeared that two of the guys were famous and were traveling with their own mariachi band (or the Brazilian equivalent). One of the two came over to say hi, but didn’t speak English. The only thing he was able to communicate was, “I’m made in Africa,” lol. Yes, and we’re made in America. Cheers!
We had no complaints when the “mariachi” band started playing and we enjoyed the live music for the rest of the 
afternoon…Sooo we decided to go for round two of the Caipirinhas. That was a mistake. I’m not sure what they put in those things, but damn. Both of us were beyond drunk when the sun disappeared over the hills and weren’t sure if we were going to be able to make the walk back to the hotel, which by the way, was about 100 meters straight ahead of us, haha.
After some R&R to regroup, we headed downtown to Rio Scenarium. A trip to Rio isn’t complete without a visit to this samba institution housed in a 19th century mansion and featuring live bands playing Brazilian rhythms from Rock to Choro, to Musica Popular Brasileira and Samba. Even though tons of tourists fill the three floors, the locals still frequent this venue to show off their samba moves on the dance floor.
Coming home in a cab, the taxi driver kept slowing down as we approached a red light, but would then inch through the intersection and continue without stopping. The first time this happened, I just thought we had a wild driver who liked to get where he was going quickly… But this has been a common occurrence during all of our cab rides after dark and I quickly remembered hearing that at night drivers in Rio don’t stop at red lights because of the frequency of carjackings that occur. Scary!
But then you come around the corner to a view of Cristo Redentor spotlit high above Rio as if he’s floating in the night sky and you quickly forget about these negatives because this city is truly spectacular.
This blog entry was originally posted on www.MayerTwinsTravel.blogspot.com