note: location is rio de janeiro, brasil

despite the weather not cooperating with us (it rained/drizzled most of the day), we still found some great things to do today, first, we went across the bay to the contemporary art museum of niteroi, which is housed in a cool building designed by oscar neimeyer. the art itself wasn’t spectatacular, but the location and architecture were very nice.

then, back to rio to gorge ourselves with another huge lunch — this time at porcao (a churrascaria rodizio). the restaurant is in a beautiful location right next to the water…with sail boats and windsurfers. the food is also as great as the view. to give you an idea, the waiting area has tables/chairs plus a small buffet with quality olives, breads, quail eggs, etc…..i originally thought the waiting area was the restaurant! the food was very good quality….from delicious meats to the best palmito (heart of palm) i’ve ever had. i’m still a bit drunk from all the good food i ate.

later this evening, we hung out with the daughter of one of simon’s good friends — it was a lot of fun, and (as always) it was great to see another side to rio that we wouldn’t have if we were just tourists on our own. carol took us around town and, with a group of her friends, we ended up at a club which is normally a swingers club (…yes, that kind of swinger…but periodically it becomes a normal club). it was a bit shocking how many people in the club were kissing each other. there were many exotic pieces of furniture….i think the shower with a transparent glass door may have been the cleanest part of the club.

another aside: so far, the largest concentrations of nissan sentra’s has been in lima, peru — we could not walk a block there without seeing one. brasil still has some, but they tend to be the newer models….which are huge compared to ushi.