South American Adventure: The "Marvelous" City...and numero uno arrives!

Sorry about the formatting peeps...weird internet cafe computers again...!
We are officially back on the beaten path. Rio is a major city, with conveniences just like home (and prices too- double any other place we've been in Brazil). For the record, it's pronounced "Hio", not "Rio". Yep, the "r" and "rr" are both pronounced "h". And don't forget all the "sh" sounds that they have here, from the "ch" to the "x". Oh, and "Mexico" is pronounced like the biggest gringo from the states, "Me-ji-co"! It's amazing...

So it turns out that Rio de Janeiro is a mix of Los Angeles and San Francisco. It's a gigantic city with five million people, with a very small part of the city interesting to tourists (the Southern zone) and over 600 favelas (the infamously poor neighborhoods) spread out around the rest of the city. It's a city of major inequalities, from the mall with Starbucks to the poor favela neighborhoods without electricity or running water.
Rio has a lot to offer tourists for a few days. You know most of the major sights, from the Christ the Redeemer statue to Sugar Loaf mountain, to the beaches of Copabana and Ipanema. We think that Rio would be a good city to live in, but it was far from our favorite city. Maybe we just don't like huge cities anymore, or maybe it's just Rio, who knows. Just for the record, our favorite neighborhood was Santa Teresa, an old architectural gem in the hills, and Copacabana was the most overrated. Talk about a has-been beach full of 70's high-rise condos! They've recently renovated the whole boardwalk and beach bars, so at least the beach looked slightly refreshed...
And by the way, winter isn't really winter here...it's still flip-flop weather (unless it's raining, then it's chiiiiilllly...or maybe we're just used to warm beach weather now??)

Oh, and our first VIP arrived the other day too...! Momma Zengel!!