Rio!

(Rio! requires an exclamation mark. I don't know why It just does. I guess its the city's vitality.)

Our entry to Rio was met with a flurry of activity on board. Initially it was because we had been at sea for five days and everyone wanted off…

Our arrival was not met by fanfare, but rather stray bullet fire upon the ship. (Mom… since this has been written by me, I am most definitely not shot dead.)

Rio is a strikingly (perhaps not the best word choice) gorgeous city contrasting sky with mountain ridge in sharp lines, and mountain ridge with buildings of eclectic styles, including my favorite, art deco.

The trees overflow with their own leaves and those of vines wrapping all the branches.

For as bad as Italian drivers are, I think the Brazilians are far worse. Green lights mean race the car next to you to squeeze through the next narrow area and red lights mean honk so the people traveling with the green lights know you are coming.

Red lights are merely a suggestion.

And unfortunately, there is a reason other than eagerness. People are afraid to sit stopped in a car. It makes them a target. So at 3 am, while we drove home with a former shipmate and a Brazilian, there was no way he was going to stop at the red lights.

I don’t know how much of this is reality and how much is fear. However, I mentioned this practice of not stopping at red lights to another Brazilian on the ship and he said, “Of course not. You never sit at a red light late at night. Who knows what could happen?”

The night life district was the usual packed group of twenty-something’s wearing 80 degree weather appropriate wear, spilling into the streets from open air restaurants and clubs, except in Rio all the streets are lined with the luscious trees. Plus, there are little kids selling goods out of old cigarette vending style trays wrapped around their necks and protruding from their stomachs. The trays have gum, candy, cigarettes, etc.

It did not really seem much different from Westwood, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica or Miami in terms of night life.

I definitely plan to return to Rio, and not just for a day next cruise. The natural beauty of the dark jagged ridge against sky, water and man’s creations is awe inspiring, riveting and utterly magnetic. The plant life is so lush as if to incite you to live.

There are at least ten crew members going hang-gliding tomorrow.

I desperately wish I did not have to work!

The crime, as my Brazilian friend Edson says, “Is a shame.”

It is nearly five am. I must sleep for work is at 8am and more importantly to prepare for dodging additional small arms fire. (Mom! It is a joke… I hope.)

Stupid: What ever it is in man’s nature that propels us toward violence.

Cool: The gorgeous beauty of Rio’s exquisite ridge line.