Click on the photos to see the corresponding photo album.
This is my first-time experiencing winter in June. I am now in Rio de Janeiro where I'll be until next Monday. I love it here! The weather is perfect - much cooler than the hot and humid weather in New York, yet comfortable enough to go swimming in the ocean.

My flight to Rio was via Sao Paulo. Here is the video of take off at Sao Paulo: I arrived to Rio late morning but inspite of lack of sleep on the plane, I joined my co-workers in a driving tour of the area surrounding our hotel. Here is the video: We also went to the beach which is two blocks away from the hotel where we are staying. The waves were the biggest ones I've seen with my own eyes. Then we were driving around the city and ended up in a quaint outdoor resaurant on top of a mountain with a superb view. I will be uploading the photos here. Tomorrow - meet more of my Brazilian co-workers in the work environment...

I had a busy day at the office today, but in the end it payed off by going into all-you-can-eat meat place called Porcao, which translates to "fat pig". It had a buffet salad bar and different slabs of meat were brought to the table every 5 minutes by very enthusiastic waiters. They sliced a piece of it right in your plate. If you said no, they seemed to push it as if they are trying to cell you a car and work on commission. When the waiters saw me snapping pictures so much, they got so excited that they invited us to the kitchen for a photo shoot. Here is the video clip from the kitchen: Click on the photo for all pictures.

The agenda after work today was to go to the nearby mall and check out the arcade there were they were supposed to have a DDR machine. When we finally got to the arcade the good news was that there was a DDR machine there, but the bad news was that it was off. The arcade attendant tried to boot it up I prayed that it actually would work: but unfortunately it did not work because the machine was broken. That was a bummer! So instead I played another game where you use your feet - Top Skater:

Click on the photo to see all photos taken on this day.

Well before I arrived to Brazil, one of my colleagues, knowing how much I like ballroom dancing, kept talking about going to a "Ballroom Dancing" place on Wednesday of the week of my stay in Brazil. I was looking forward to this day to find out what the ballroom dance scene is like here. So today is the day and we ended up going to the place not really looking like a "ballroom dance" place I am used to.

The place is called Rio Scenarium. It looked like an antique museum. Everywhere you look you see various antique items allegedly used in various old movie sets. Even the tables had some items underneath the glass. On the stage was a band playing typial brazilian music and people were dancing on a small dancefloor. Soon after eating some Brazilian snacks, I got up and headed to the dancefloor where I was able to successfully fake my Brazilian samba dancing.

Here is a video from the place:

Here is a video of Phil and I playing a vintage out-of-tune piano on the second floor:

Today we had lunch at a food court in a mall near the office. They had outdoor seating with a fantastic view of the Sugar Loaf and other surrounding areas including our office building. I experienced a Brazilian pizza with a very thin crust. Since Marcelo mentioned a delicious milk shake from fast food chain Bobs, Phil has been talking about it for days and finally his dream came true.

At night I went back to Rio Scenarium to hear Ludmila's niece perform with her band and do some more dancing.

Since it is Winter in Rio, by the time I get out of work it would get dark, so I could not see much in the daylight. So this morning I decided to wake up early and walk to the office so I could see more of Rio in the daylight.

Most of my walk was along the most famous beaches of rio. I started in Leblon, went through Ipanema and turned to Copacabana. Along the way I saw several amazing sand sculptures. If you want to take a picture of them, you're supposed to put 2 reais in a jar as a donation to the sculptor.

Today Ludmila and I went to see the famous Brazilian landmark - the statue of Christ on the tallest mountain of Rio - Corcovado. The statue is 30 meters high. It was erected in 1921 and it has become a symbol of the city and of the warmth of the Brazilian people, who receive visitors with open arms. This is what it looks like from below and this is what things look like up close.

We got there by car. As we approached the winding road up the mountain we had to avoid many kids from poor neighborhoods who tried to show us the way for a small tip.

Most of the buildings in Rio look quite modern. But in the center there is one square surrounded by several old-fashioned buildings. Pictured here is the municipal theatre. Here is another photo of it taken at night. Click on the photo to see more.

Barra World is a shopping center located in Barra da Tijuca region of Rio de Janeiro. What is special about this mall is that it is composed of sections representing a particular country, for example France, Great Britain, Egypt, etc...

They have live shows there too. We cought the tail end of a dance performance which also included dances from various parts of the world. Here is the video:

At the end of the night we went to a supermarket to get some food for tomorrow. This was one of the neatest supermarkets I've been to. Everything was neatly placed and the assortment of goods seemed to be much better than in American supermarkets. They had a bakery there which produced fresh bread every three hours.

My last day on the trip was the same as the first - hanging out on the beach. Ludmila wanted me to see various beaches so we drove around from one to another. Here is the video: Here is the video of preparing a coconut for consumption of its juice right from inside of it: Brazilians are so much into football that they even play volleyball with their feet: We found this cute little doggie on one of the beaches: Here I am attempting to surf the waves: After the beach I had to take a quick shower and go to the airport to return back to New York.

Here are all of the videos from my trip:

Today I arrived back to Rio for my second one-week stay.

My travel companion on the plane was a 14-year old girl from Paraguay. Several times I felt like a father when the air crew asked me "Anything for her?" when they were bringing around food and drinks and she was sleeping.

As usual my flight to Rio was via Sao Paulo. The thing about Sao Paulo airport is that it is very boring. There are hardly any stores there. The only thing that one can enjoy there is the abundance of the masseuses all over the airport.

After coming from hot and steamy New York City, the weather here is just perfect, around 75 degrees! Here we are tasting the authentic Rio drink/meal called Açaí! It does not look as good as it tastes and apparently it is very good for you.

After work A. and I got some Italian dinner at an outdoor restaurant next to our hotel before crashing there after an exhaustive flight and day in the office

Click on the photo for more pictures from my trip back to Rio.

My first experience of Brazilian "ballroom" dancing was when Ludmila and I went to a dance party at the Everst Hotel in Leblon. It turned out that partner ballroom dancing in Brazil is quite different than what I am used to in America. People only danced the traditional Brazilian dances like Samba, Bolero, Zouk, Forro. There were couple of songs to which one could do a Cha Cha, but most people did some other type of dancing that I could not really figure out.

There was a performance by some guy who played the tambourine and did some juggling tricks with it. He later let go of his tambourine and did a little dance performance with a partner.

At some point a photographer with a big camera took couple of pictures of Ludmila as we stroke some dance poses. Both of them combined are displayed here. One of them made it to a Brazilian dance newspaper.

Today after work Ludmila and I went to our second dancing outing. This time to a place called Bola Preta. It was right next to the Teatro Municipal. As usual there was a live band playing Samba, Bolero and Forro music.

On Thursday Ludmila and I ventured to yet another dancing venue called Gaucha. This was a large place tables were you could eat teh food obtained from the buffet. There was a large projector screen with a football game. But most people congregated on a large dancefloor with live music.

At the end of the night Ludmila and I gave an impromptu performance per request of the announcer who managed to tell the audience that I am a "choreographer from New York". Video of our performance is coming soon...

Barra Da Tijuca is an area of Rio De Janeiro which is totally different from Leblon where my hotel was. In Leblon there are many people on the streets walking around and eating in outdoor restaurants. In Barra Da Tijuca, you have to have a car to get around. But there are specific areas where people hang out - most of them are malls and "Downtown" is a large outdoor area designed for people to actually hang out instead of driving in their cars. There are plenty of outdoor restaurants with live music and small little shops.

Saturday morning Ludmila and I took off to Buzios. It is a 2.5 hour drive. At a traffic light next to her condominium complex we were faced by the youth handing out fliers with advertisements of condo sales in the area. The ad compaign was so quite ingenious. They actually spread a banner right accross the intersection infront the vehicles waiting for the green light. Ludmila rolled down the window and got flooded with the ad fliers. There was plenty of reading material for the trip.

The way to Buzios was via the area called Niteroi which is separated from the main Rio De Janeiro city by a river. There is a long bridge called Rio-Niteroi bridge that connects the two. Driving on the bridge offered some nice panoramic views of Rio De Janeiro. Niteroi and Rio in a sense are like New Jersey and Manhattan. Brazilians make fun of people who live in Niteroi the same way as Manhatanites make fun of people in New Jersey. They say "the only view you get in Niteroi is the view of Rio."

In Buzios we stayed at Pousada Dos Gravatas located at the Geriba Beach - one of the best beaches of Buzios.

At night we went to the center of Buzios nightlife - the Centro.

Sunday was my last day in Brazil. Ludmila was anxious to show me as much of Buzios as possible so we drove around varios beaches. Took a swim at one and took lots of photos.