rio

I cant imagine a city with a more beautiful setting than rio de Janeiro. It has pristine beaches which are exceptionally well maintained by squads of beach cleaners. The hills and water add to give it exceptional views, combined with the lush vegetation found in the tropics. It is a laid back city, where shirts qualify as semi-formal is they have sleeves. People walk all around the city in beach wear and flip flops are the official shoes, coming in every colour and pattern combination imaginable. The life style is chilled as well: sonia tells me she plays beach volleyball for 1-2 hours every morning before work. I ask her at what time exactly she starts her job, and she responds “oh when I feel like it.” All day long, any day of the week, there are people out on the beach. They don’t just lie there sunning themselves though, as cariocas like their exercise. The beaches are filled with surfers, standard beach volleyball, and especially its brazilian variant- a kind of volleyball where you can use any part of the body to get the ball over the net, except your arms. On Sundays, they close the streets along Copacabana and ipanema, turning them into a huge, endless track for joggers, rollerbladers and pedestrians like myself. The air is soft with humidity, and even when it rains, it feels pleasant. I can imagine the lifestyle must be addictive, and if you have lived here it would be hard adjusting to anywhere else.