Food
Free day experience on beach
I am glad today is free day for us. Because the past few days are quite long days and every night when I went back to the hotel, I just felt so tired that I didn’t want to do anything. Thus, today I decided to spend my whole day on the beach, lie on the chair, drink some coconuts and make up some sketches I didn’t finish in the past days. Yutong and I wake up at late morning and then we walked along street to find anything for our lunch. The street in our neighborhood is similar and unfortunately we went to the wrong way to the beach.But we found a pretty good restaurant by accident–Brasinha. I ordered salmon here and it was really huge parts of salmon and it tasted pretty fresh!
I also found it was really interesting that they cook potato like this. (In the picture) not like fries and it was really good!
After lunch, we walked along the Ipenema beach to the copacabana beach. We rent chairs and umbrella and just lying down on the beach. Copacabana beach has some differences with Ipenema beach. The store here is more bigger and has better restroom. People here are most families. When we tried to take selfies at the beach. A father of a family told us he is a photographer from Bali and would like to take pictures for us. We played on the beach with the seawater and he took pictures freely for us. He was really nice and we took a picture with his daughter. When we lying on the beach, we also saw teenagers playing soccer on the beach. They play really well and I really want to join them.
Lying on the beach for a long time is a good way for me to observe the beach life of Rio.
When we back to the hotel, we felt really sad because this was the last night in Rio and I believed I will miss the day I spend here.
This is the sketches I made up on the beach. Actually on that day I only drew this one and then fell asleep on the beach.
The Good Stuff!
After a good night of a little R & R, I think one of the main things that I have come to love about Rio is the many tastes the city has. From the first day on Sugarloaf Mountain with the ice cream we ate, ever since my taste buds have been craving the local food. On Sugarloaf, the group stopped for a nice dessert which included delicious fruit and ice cream. The second night we were here, the crew had a great (unplanned) sort of buffet family dinner. I got to try and eat new foods that I have never had before.
The third day was a day filled with a lot of walking. We looked at many sites and a lot of architectural buildings downtown. What was nice was that we were able to find our own way to our final destination of the night and that was the delicious Porcao. I have to say this was one of the best restaurants I’ve ever eaten at. I myself am a big meat guy and Porcao was the definition of that. 
During the fourth day of lunch, we were again able to experience and find something of our liking. I decided to get pizza. It was very good topped with ham, onions, and green peppers. This was a little different than the normal pepperoni that I am used to. Along with food, I’ve had my share of the local drinks here. The local draft, Brahma, is very good as is the Caipirina. I am usually not one to try new things but since I’ve been in Rio, I have been falling in love with doing such things.
Amazed by Rio
We got to explore Rio a little bit more today, mainly around Ipanema and Capacabana beach. It is so good to lay on the beach and run into the sea. I saw a lot of interesting trees along the beaches and streets, which I think we might be able to see some of them in the botanical garden.
I think this is Ficus microcarpa, which I used to see a lot in south China. It has those interesting roots on its branches.
I don’t know the name of this plant. I found this on the sidewalk around Ipanema area. It looks like a scaled pineapple.
This is a tree I saw on the way to the Capacabana beach. It has some hanging planter attached on its trunk. A living planter!!!
Vanessa introduced this Rio snack to us on Ipanema beach, it is called Globo. It has two tastes- sweet and salty and will melt in your mouth.
We are sharing the Globo together, I like the sweet one 😉
We had an amazing lunch/dinner in “nomangue”. We had a combination of different seafoods. The grilled lobster is so good. You can almost smell the fresh air from the sea.
Last Supper
O Arby’s! My Arby’s! My stomach is going to miss all the American-ness in the next few days. We had a nice lunch/afternoon-snack at a restaurant in the Columbus airport, during which I got the “Ultimate burger”. You just can’t go wrong with a patty fired on the grill with some bacon, mushroom and blue cheese. The onion ring also adds some crispiness and a slight side-kick to the flavor. Ugh I’m hungry again but I don’t really want to spend more money on food before I even leave the country. I know I am probably gonna write a post about how awesome and delicious the food in Brazil is and come back bash myself about this post in the next few days, or maybe even tomorrow. Now that I’ve written my critique about American food, I actually wonder what Brazilian food tastes like. Well, I guess I’m just ready for everything but the language about Brazil in general. (Yeah, having to miss many of the pre-portugese lessons doesn’t help much…) Alright Brazil, here’s Johnny!