Jesus Christ, Captain Morgan and The Festival of June

Christ the Redeemer or Cristo Redentor is quite an attraction here and a pretty impressive monument to Jesus Christ. Taxi to the base - Tram to the top - pictures - prayer - tram down - taxi back. It was a beautiful day and the entire view of Rio from the top is at times breathtaking. I felt privileged to get the opportunity to be there.

The rest of that day, I spent at the beach which is as advertised - packed with bikinis on women and MEN. Great waves - intense surfers and boogie boarders - the undertow is only possible for the strong. I rented a chair for 3 reales, opened my book The Celestine Vision and relaxed. A few of the hostel inhabitants were with me and we conversed in intelligent conversations about everything - one was a PHD - looked just like Captain Morgan.

One annoying thing about the Rio beaches is you will feel like you are at a Yankee game. There are thousands of vendors selling everything from bras to pineapples. From Sunglasses to ACAI. And they are agressively in your face. But, I did need sunglasses! I called the Jamaican looking dude over and the negotiation begins. EVERYTHING HERE is a negotiation lol. They start at 30 reales, I tell them I only have 12 on me. Then it drops to 25. I tell him I only have 12. He drops it to 20. I show him I only have 12. He sticks hard, must be his lowest. I borrow eight from Captain Morgan and the sale ends at 20 reales.

I think of my brother as the surfers begin to take long beautiful waves down the coast. The sun beats hard through the lotions. Hunger sets in and off with Captain Morgan to the Sushi place here (which by the way, if they recreated this one in NYC, those investors would be retiring within 2 years. First off, its phenomenal and second the way they prepare it with these random hand rolled conelike structures - just WOW!)

I say goodbye to my new friend - it always feels like forever. You feel lonely a lot on a trip like this because you are always making new friends and then leaving them. But its so hard to detach everytime. I hope this skill is a positive one that I am developing because right now I don't like it. Just being in the new hostel today as I write this is hard as I am lonely. Its smaller, less interaction. Thank God for Marcello!

I had to get back to the mango tree to check out and meet my friend who is brazillian and lives in Rio (connected through friend of my brothers fiance). Marcello - close to impossible to describe. Maybe best to say it as quiet, unassuming, 25 year old entreprenuer on Crack? He has just a tad of ADD:). From the moment I meet him we are off. Somehow we are dropping off Sothebys packages to gatehouses with hazards on in between our errands of getting me a local cell phone, eating ACAI with granola and some pastries at the same time as getting him ready to go on a trip by plane somewhere else in brazil. Conversations of The Power of Now and Celestine Prophecy - BROUGHT UP BY HIM! made me feel like we were supposed to meet.

Somehow we make end up in a class of Yoga at 7pm. If you didnt read correctly, YOGA! First off, I have never done yoga and probably because my body clearly isnt for it. Second, the instructor is speaking portuguese - Come on here! I grab a mat, some blocks and start to follow. HOLY (insert). Not only is it hard, sweating ensues and so does this random breathing. They always talk about the spiritual aspect and breathing but now I fully understand what this is all about. Just describe Yoga as breathing and we will get it. You are placed into positions that are extremely difficult - your muscles never have been in the situation so it feels like your whole body is lifting weights. The only way to stay in these positions is in the heavy breathing focus that starts to commence because you have no choice. What a workout! Shower in the gym (some high class BodyTech). Marcello hands me off to his friend and business partner Pedro and we dont see him again, crack is an understatement.

Pedro and I bounce on some errands of his to eventually pass along to me that we are going to the big Festival de Junho. As he casually mentions 110 reales entrance fee, I spit up my Coca Cola Zero (huge over here). I try to recover as he says, is that okay? I find a happy medium between, are you nuts? and you only live once.

How annoying, Im on the computer here in the hostel and the people who own the place are smoking right here. Im coughing - GET THE HINT!

Anyway, pre-gaming here is huge and we go to a liquor store to buy Black Label. A stop at Pedros parents place for a few things (Marcello and Pedro are coming from upper-middle class of rio so you should see the apartments overlooking the oceans). We make it to the base of Sugar Loaf where the streets are massed with people. Feels like a Penn State Tailgate but at night. Tons of 20's and 30's drinking in the street before getting in a huge cable car to take them up to the first level of Sugar Loaf - where the party is overlooking the Rio Lights. You can see the fully lighted Cristo across the whole lake. It is worth every cent of 50 dollars, especially since I didnt pay anything to drink. Pre-gaming!

Unfortunately the party ends at sunrise and you feel like you are in a casino - never know what time it is. I was quite shocked when I saw my watch. As great of a time it was, waking up in the hostel at 230pm and realizing you had a double cheesburger of drunk food at the random dohickey shack - nothing can be more maddening. I am quite happy I didnt drink anything at the actual party - no headache!

Todays plan is to meet up with Pedro and give him the list of the things I want to accomplish before I leave Rio. One of them is going to blow everyone reading this blog away - well that is - if you know me well...

PS - The esophagus problem went away the moment I stopped the malaria medication - Thank you Christina (my cousin) who figured out it was the side effect of the drug! Im out of the amazon so I decided to just stop.