Two days is not enough time in Rio de Janeiro! Two days was like going into an amazing vegan restaurant where I would want to try everything, but can only choose one dish. I did find a great vegan place: Rio Vegano. I ate there twice, because it was close to where I was staying. Delicious salads and lentil burgers and also pastels de forno, which are like empanadas stuffed with various things, tofu, eggplant, hearts of palm… Chocolate cake of course, and the owners are delightful.  I promised them I would write in my blog.

I took the train up to see the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer, but it was very foggy. It cleared after a while.  I saw some very authentic samba at Rio Scenarium, at the suggestion of my friends in Belo Horizonte. Today was sunny and time for the beach at Ipanema. Then the cable car ride to the Sugar Loaf mountain. Everything was quite incredible, but mostly it was the friendly people. I don’t speak any Portuguese but they were always helping me. Today I wanted to get to the cable car ride, and I asked which bus to take, but instead people at the bus stop put me in a cab with a wonderful lady who said she was going that way anyway, and paid for the taxi. On the way back, I got lost on the bus, but the bus driver made a special stop for me near a different metro station then the one I was supposed to go to. It will be a great place for the Olympics. Here are some photos of my time in Rio.

Tomorrow I fly to Cartagena, Colombia.