My first trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was back in August I was a day trader at the time, and the stock market had just gone through a rough spring and summer. My friend and trading buddy Luis and I needed a break from the market and decided to take a spontaneous trip to somewhere far and exotic.
The market had been good to us so money was not an issue. We literally spun the globe I had in my office and decided we would go to whichever country my finger landed on. In hindsight I realize how lucky we were that the globe stopped on Brazil! Sure everyone has heard of Brazil in the famous carnival in Rio and the women in thong bikinis along the beaches there. But those almost seemed like rumors to us since we had never been, nor had we ever met anyone who had ever been.
So we decided to look up whatever info we could on Rio and liked what we found. The next day we went to the El Corte Ingles travel agency to speak with their Brazil specialist about the trip we were planning.
Ruben took good care of us and even suggested we travel up north to Salvador, which is in the state of Bahia. We booked a couple of tickets the next day and were off to Rio de Janeiro for 3 weeks. Well the flight was 9 hours from Miami, but relatively smooth. We were so excited to be in Rio that we didn?
We got a hotel just off the beach, in between Copacabana and Ipanema. Not the greatest spot it turned out, but no worries, we were in Rio right? Since it was the middle of the afternoon, we checked in and headed over to the nearest beach, which was Copacabana Beach and ate at Havana one of the many outdoor cafes along Avenida Atlantico and soaked up the sights.
