Copacabana

Max and I went to Copacabana beach for the first time today! And we took the scariest bus ride of my life to get there. I'm not sure how a large, packed city bus can weave in and out of cars and speed near winding cliffs, but it happened. I'm still not used to the Brazilian drivers and neither is my motion sickness. The high point is that we got there in about fifteen minutes, and the drive can easily take an hour during traffic.

It looked like it was going to rain all day today, but the clouds meant that the beach was less crowded. The beach right in front of our hotel is never crowded, but it's also mostly used by people from the favela. However, Copacabana is one of the most famous beaches in the world, so it's usually full of people. The people watching beats people watching at Walmart tenfold on a normal day. For New Years, Copacabana is crowded with over 2 million people throughout its 4 km stretch!

Looking NE

 Looking SW

 My new conga!

I had a swimsuit on... for real.

Max and I in our new swimsuits!

Sand castles line Copacabana beach. This one had Christ the Redeemer, the Olympic stadium,

the 12 disciples, some favelas, and Pao de Açúcar!

#selfie

Max doing hand-to-hand with me!

He's got skills, y'all.

And he can do pull-ups... on the beach.

Also, we saw that Rio 2 is coming out!! Erin and Brandon,

please tell our nieces that we saw Blue! :)

Copacabana Palace AKA celebrity central

It might have been cloudy, but we had a great time. We will definitely be going back on a sunny day to catch some rays and drink some agua do coco by the ocean! As for tomorrow, I return back to work. It's been an incredible week off, but I'm (kind of) ready to get back to the show! Max will be adventuring into the Tijuca rainforest, cliff diving, and who knows what else while I'm back at work, so don't feel too sorry for him. And on our days off, I'm sure there will be plenty more excursions in Rio!