2/11 I am amazed at how different it is in this big city. For one thing, if I saw a half dozen people on a cell phone today that is a lot. No one has ear buds in either. Fabio says it is because Brazilians are respectful people who love life. They prefer speaking to those who are around. When we met his friends at the parade, we got kisses from everyone. They are very much a friendly people culture.
The bike rental thing had a rough start. Seems you need a cell phone to get the rack to release the bike, but first you have to register on line. We could not get on line this morning, so on to plan B. We walked down to the beach (only a 5 minute walk) and found a local woman working at the gas station who had a couple of bikes. Very non descript-good for a couple of tourists. Let me clarify gas station... 2 pumps at the side of the road.
The best way to describe today is to list our observations
1. For the most part, Brazilians are pretty fit
2. Speedos are the fashion for men
3. Not sure why most women wear a bathing suit top, since they are all WAY too small
4. All along the path and on the beach there are tons of vendors selling snacks, beer, ice cream, one even had an umbrella with at least a hundred swim suit tops.
5.  We now know why everyone has an umbrella-the sun is HOT. There is not enough sunscreen to put on to block out the extreme rays.
6.  We ran into another parade...surprise.  They are everywhere.
7.  They lay out soaker hoses from the sidewalk all the way to the water because the sand is too hot too walk on.
8. The guys playing futvolley hose down the courts too.
9. The waves are really big here, about 6-7 feet. Lots of fun to play in. (Its the Atlantic)
10. We narrowly avoided a second parade for the day by going around it. That meant riding our bikes on a very busy bus route. Kind of scary.
11. Dressing up for carnaval extends to the beach as well. We even saw a little one about 2 dressed as a belly dancer.
12. Brazilian parents bring little blow up kiddie pools for their kids. The one in front of us was about 2ft. in diameter and the baby was about 1. Great idea except she had to keep putting cold water in it so the kid wouldn't boil.
13. On the way back we noticed a few cool off zones that spray out a mist.
14. The whole trip was about 12 km.  We rode the whole thing from end to end and stopped to swim at all 3 beaches.
15. It is impossible to carry enough agua and the vendors know it. 3 ($1.50) reales for 250ml (less than a can of pop)
That about sums up the trip, once back home we needed another nap. Dinner was Brazilian. We ate at a restaurant where you pay by the weight of what is on your plate. Very common here. Its buffet style with a diner atmosphere. Very good. We headed to the beach for an evening walk and guess what? Yup, another parade. We learned that they don't cross neighborhood lines. That's why they are called block parties.
We read outside in the park for a while. Easy to do since everything is lit up. We could see the Christ statue all lit up from there.
Tomorrow it's off to Santa Tereza.  Seems the best way is by taxi. Terry is a little disappointed about that.
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