– Maybe it is the weather or time of year, but beach culture here seems a lot like…beach culture in a lot of places. Ipanema and Copacabana are great and all, but I was led to believe that life on the beach was everything here, and that it was quite a bit different from other places. To me, it is quite similar to places in Mexico, Florida, and the French Riviera. I would love to come back at carnival time and see what effect it has on the beach life.

– It is shockingly difficult to find a restaurant for breakfast in areas that should be crawling with them, like Ipanema. There are several dinner places, just not very much for breakfast. I guess people are still recovering at that hour or making something light at home.

-Speaking of restaurants, there seem to be mostly three kinds: Italian, sushi, and stand up at the counter snack places. Outside of that, we have seen exactly one all you can eat meat place.

– Although I have always heard that Copacabana is not as nice as Ipanema, we took a walk over there today and found it to be every bit as pleasant and in some ways better served than Ipanema.