Day 18: Brazil - Rio!

We got up later than usual after a lovely night's sleep, which, I forgot to mention, was prefaced by another bottle of complimentary honeymoon champagne, chocolate, and strawberries. (we clearly need to go on honeymoons more often).

Today was a day of relaxation to the max. Nothing but beaches for us. And we certainly picked a good day for the beach -- there were blue skies and clear waters galore.

It happened to be Brazil's independence day as well -- so there were random military helicopters and battleships cruising along the waves along with the swimmers:

There was even a submarine out for a spin.

There were also random street parades and random Stanford band run-esque street dance parties.

For lunch, we continued the spirit of relaxation and opted for the classic Brazilian fare of...


Pizza Hut. Ian was extremely happy with the pizza. The Brazilians add this cream cheese like stuff to the toppings which made it extra...heavy and horrible for your , or creamy and delicious -- depending on your point of view.

After lunch, more beach, closing out the evening with one of the best sunsets of the trip thus far. And even after the sun goes down, the beach party continues, with the Rio coastline making the best of backdrops (you can see the lights of Ipanema starting to light up along the shore).