Spring Break

Writing this during my last few hours in Brazil, listening to the pouring rain and booming thunder outside, thanking my lucky stars that I'm escaping this soggy beach town just in time!

These past two days have been fabulous, though. We began our Tuesday with an "early" wake-up around 10:30 AM and walked over to Copacabana Beach. I was sporting my new, revealing, very nerve-wracking Brazilian bathing suit, slightly anxious but excited to show off, when--because it's me--my bottoms came completely undone.

I stood there frozen completely mortified, and Jenn, after taking a few seconds to practically pee her pants laughing, rushed to my side to hide my white booty while I quickly retied my suit.

Minor setback, though, because I determinedly relaxed and settled onto the sand to soak up the sun while munching on an acai bowl (aka the definition of heaven).

While Copacabana was more picturesque and quainter than Ipanema Beach, the water was frankly disgusting. Tons of debri and trash and dead plants swirled in the crashing waves, and I desperately swam way out into the ocean attempting to escape the nastiness. This, of course, worked until I had to wade back in, and I got covered in all of the blech. But the crisp coolness of the water was too seductive while laying in the +90 degree weather, so I took the dirtiness in stride.

yay, sunshine!

After multiple hours of tanning (burning) and relaxing, us ladies headed back to our apartment to get ready for the sunset at Sugarloaf Mountain! Unfortunately, I was distracted by this ridiculous situation with a restaurant that double-charged me, so I was on the phone with Portuguese speakers, using google translate to attempt to communicate my problem and understand their responses like,

My bank, on the other hand, was like "lol ya sorry, not our prob," and I literally was shocked at their inability to help me in my one time of need.

But I got assurance from the manager that the refund would be coming by the next morning.

So, I jumped in the shower to rinse off all of the ick from Copa, ran to a Mickey D's for some nommy picnic food (and dealt with unbelievably awful customer service I may add), then hopped in a cab with the four others to enjoy Pao de Acucar, 

Stupidly, I didn't bring my student ID to the mountain so I paid twice as much as everybody else for a ticket and gave the quite strict ticket lady a *subtle* look--

Then breathed deeply and rode up the mountain in these cool glass gondolas. We reached the top right as the sun sank into the water, which allowed us to watch the lights in Rio lazily twinkle in the hazy dusk. It was breathtaking--dreamy and far-away and lovely.

We roamed around the mountain for about an hour, then we rushed back to Ipanema Beach for a Rio-style bar crawl. We dropped by three bars and one very empty club that was playing super sick music until a random Brazilian folk band came on stage with a banjo and what looked like a cheese grater to make some music.

Today, the five of us IHPers met up once again to take on Rio via bicycle. We rented some bikes, and I swore to them all that I was going to eat it and fall, but they refused to listen, ugh. We saw some STUNNING views, including a beautiful lake--

The mansion at which Snoop Dogg filmed his music video "Beautiful"--

And Jenn!

hi, Jenn!!!

While Sally, Michael, and Takudzwa visited Rio's botanical gardens, Jenn and I marched back to the double-charging restaurant, because, despite the promises, I had not yet been reimbursed. I barged into the classy eating establishment wearing only Spandex and a sweaty bathing suit top, like--

They quickly got me on the phone with their manager, and I got slightly aggressive, but appropriately threatening.

This time, she really promised it'd be taken care of, and sure enough, within a few hours, I had a *driver* drop off two hundred fifty reals and 55 cents at my doorstop. It felt slightly illicit...

But I rolled with it.

After biking, Jenn and I walked home to relax and shower while the other three continued their adventures. Jenny from the Block and I gorged ourselves again on the most delicious burger in the world along with frieds, guava ketchup (better than it sounds), and thick, creamy milkshakes. Sally met up with us, and we walked to the beach for a street market. Just as we were in the midst of shopping, the sky opened up and poured rain (surprisingly not helping to abate the smell of rotten fish) while giant lightning bolts flashed above us, illuminating the storm clouds.

We hurried home (after finishing scouring the market for souvenirs) and took refuge in our apartment. We are currently packing up and cleaning up (recalling my housekeeper days, throwback to 2013) and, of course, watching VEEP and listening to JBiebs. It's a pretty classic spring break.

Tomorrow, we head to one of the natural wonders of the world, Iguassu Falls! I couldn't be more excited!!!

Tata, Rio, you've been good to us! Thanks for the sun!

~~Red and Tan Aubs