A one piece swimsuit is not necessary, but board shorts are a must

October 29, 2011:  Today was a full day of giving money to the caged trolls in the ticket booths so that I could visit some heavily marketed tourist sites.  I must say, the ministry of tourism did an amazing job, making me feel that I “HAD” to visit whole slew of places when here.  Jesus Christ and Sugar Loaf is just a few of the long list of places.  The rest of the international tourist must have felt the same due to the large numbers that flocked at each site.  Here I seemed to inadvertently have shooting competitions with the Japanese, on who could take more photos – I clearly kicked there pale arses.

I have always seemed to prefer mountains over beaches.  But after visiting the ever so popular Copacabana and Impanema beaches…I must say that lounging around on at a beach is not all that bad.  There was an uncountable amount of bodies here; baking their skin to various shades of brown and in some cases, red as they lay sprawled out on the beach.

Sitting here on my temporary piece of real estate, I was quick to notice something extraordinarily beautiful in Copacabana that I have never remembered seeing or perhaps never noticed before on any other beach.  It was that every female seemed to be wearing a bikini no matter the age, waist or cup size.  From beached whales to grandmas in g-strings who were almost ready to tag and bag…they were all enjoying the beach to the fullest. 

I will not go into detail about the plethora of male Speedos being worn by men of all shapes and sizes - which continues to be truly hard for me to digest.  It looks as if they are just walking around in a skimpy pair of underwear.  It is even more amusing when they are wearing the Speedo in combination with a t-shirt and tennis shoes.  Too bad I cannot temporarily loan them my eyes so that they can see what the mirror doesn’t show them.

On the beach I hesitantly but clearly needed to take off my shirt - not just because I was the only one wearing one – which is usually the case, but because it was a first step toward a feeble attempt to one day put an end to the unsaid “Powder” thoughts by others (A film from 1995).

With a list of place to see and things to do while here in Rio for the next 12+ days…I am going to be busy.