Rainy Rio and Returning Home Thoughts

"The girl from Ipanema" - a few days ago, I was the girl from Ipanema! Or was it that, "her name is Rio and she dances on the sand!" My hostel in Ipanema was right down the street from the "COP-a....COP-a-ca-BAN-a". OK, so there have been a lot of songs written about Rio de Janeiro, and a few decades ago, this was really a place to sing about. Unfortunately, these days, crime and gang violence has taken over the city. Tourism is sliding, because it just isn´t safe to go out unless you are on a guided tour. Its such a shame that such a gorgeous city with so much to offer has been corrupted by so much....corruption. (Allow myself to repeat....myself.) This beautiful beach city offers lots of outdoor sights and activities. To my disfortune, it poured rain the entire time I was there, so without the outdoor activities there really wasn´t much to do. Luckily for me, the rain cleared enough Wednesday morning for me to be able to visit the famous Christ statue who watches over the city from high up on a hill (apparently he´s not doing a very good job). I´m very glad I got to see this famous sight, no trip to Rio would be complete without it. There are great views of the city from the statue, and on a non-cloudy day you can see even more! My sojourn is nearing its end. I am now within the last five days of my trip before boarding the plane back to Boston. There are things I will miss about South America, but even more that I look forward to returning home to. Here are some of them: Things I will miss: Dulce de leche, empanadas, people waving at buses, people being kind and helpful even when I give them an attitude, stylish mullets, making instant friends simply because they are foreign too, accommodations for $5, prescription meds over the counter, buying medicine by the pill, practicing my Spanish, dulce de leche ice cream, llamas, red rooves, scenic bus rides, palm trees. Things I can´t wait to come home to: Thai food, Japanese food, Vietnamese food, cereal, broccoli, the Simpsons in English, GOOD movies (none of this "Duplex" crap), buffalo wings, Seinfeld, salad dressing, not having to wear flip flops in the shower, cashiers having change for a $20; bathrooms with soap, toilet paper, AND paper towels all in one; throwing my toilet paper in the toilet rather than a trash can, being able to argue with customer service people in English, 88.9 WERS, not hearing "You´re Beautiful" by James Blunt every day (or is it still playing?), coffee ice cream, driving (wait...no more car!), different clothes, real towels, farenheit, refrigerated milk, pine trees. Also, here are a few random observations I have noticed along the way: There are BankBoston´s in every major city in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Do they realize that BankBOSTON doesn´t even exist in Boston anymore? New York Yankees hats are in fashion down here, though I guarantee you they don´t even know what it means! I tried to counter this once, I´ll leave you with an excerpt from a conversation I had with a woman on a bus in Bolivia, wearing a Yankees hat: "You know, you should get a new hat. A hat with a `B´ on it. This hat is no good." "You mean, `B´ for Bolivia!" "No, no, `B´ for Boston." "Good idea, `B´ for Bolivia, thanks!" "OK, it can be for Bolivia AND for Boston. The hat you have now is very bad." "You´re funny."