We arrived in Rio de Janiero at 9:30am after a 8 hour flight from Miami. The flight was going well when at 4:30am the aircrew came on over the intercom and asked for medical assistance as one of the passengers fell ill. No one knew what was going on, and at that point in the flight I’m pretty certain we were over the ocean and there were few options to land. After we landed they sent two medics on board to get the sick passenger; an elder woman from Brazil that obviously didn’t look well after 5 extra hours of flight she had to endure, eeks! Hope she’s okay!

Rio is amazing… the language is similar to Spanish, but a lot of the words flow together with a “ji” sound, as in magical, making it a bit difficult to catch everything said. I’ve been able to pick out a few words in conversation, but I keep my phrases short and use wonderful hand gestures to get my point across, as well as that good ole Kansas charm! Yi HA!

Life as a traveler is hard, for example, we have to stay at the Le Meridian across the street from the Copacabana beach… my life is truly tough! NOT!!! Outside my hotel room you can see the busy streets and the people of Rio walking along the shore playing sand soccer or volleyball- can’t believe it’s winter here… those birds are smart to fly south for the winter!

Yesterday we spent our day walking around, mainly looking for a bank that took our company issued Mastercards, and took in the beach for an hour or so. There’s not a lot of shame here as the women and men wear very little in the sun. I actually find it a bit refreshing as it’s obvious that they’re comfortable in their own skin! If I didn’t know anyone here, I’d be just as shameless!

We walked a few miles down the shore to get to the flea market, which was a real treat as I wanted to put my bargaining skills to test. I did okay… got a few things here and there and I walked away a happy camper. Even managed to buy some gifts for others too! After a few hours of walking and shopping, Clare, Cristina, and I decided to sit at a great Arabic restaurant on the water, it was amazing and the view of the water and the excentric people was also a treat! Vendors wandered about the restaurant attempting to sell squeaky Toocan toys, drums, and whistles, at times it got a little out of control as it seemed to amuse the locals more than the intended tourist buyers, but made for interesting entertainment. We sat and drank in the culture for 2 hours before heading back to the hotel to snooze— it was a great first day to a business trip!