October 11 2014 Copacapana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A bit of an uneventful day.  I didn't sleep very well from all the apartment noises.  This place sucks.  I emailed the owner via email. since she lives in London.  I'm waiting for a response to either fix these things or I would rather find another place.  I finally found my friends from Detroit and met them at Starbucks in Ipanema Beach.  Wow, this beach area is really nice, and not as ghetto looking as Copacapana Beach.  We walked over to their condo and its was very nice with a good view of the beach 3 blocks away.  Wish I had gotten here instead of the place I'm in.  One of the guys had just cooked a chicken pot.  Chicken in a pot with carrots, potatoes and some spices.  Man was it good, they called it soul food.  One guy was laughing at me because I was sucking on the chicken bones. He said I ate soul food like a true brother. We downed a few beers and had some of the Remy Martin that I had returned to them.  I found out the three guys came to Rio in part to see an NBA pre-season game with Cleveland and Miami. I did get one of the guys Facebook info, so we are going to keep in touch.
We left their apartment to go to Ipenema Beach, I stayed a while.  My goodness, so many beautiful women in their thongs and bikinis.  Now I know the inspiration for the song, Girl from Ipenema.  If you are reading this and under 40 you will have no idea what I'm talking about.  Google it. Then. I decided to head back to my place.  I found out later they had a big party with a bunch of locals, missed opportunity.
I decided to buy a few things at the market and have dinner at the apartment.  So, I got my usual comfort food: local cheese, crackers, olives, artichoke hearts, local fruits (guava, pineapple and some sort of white melon) and found a bottle of Brazilian Cab, it wasn't too bad.  Sat out on the balconey and listened to all the local noise.