Bangkok to Rio

That's right, our blog's prophetic title has been fulfilled. After two months of travelling in countries where hand-holding in public is taboo, we are in the land where people make out on the beach, on the bus, waiting in line at the bank... you get the idea.

Heading more or less straight from Southeast Asia to Brazil is definitely a culture shock. There are some improvements. Being able to speak the language is nice. Being able to pass for locals (at least until we speak) makes walking down the street a much more calming experience. Jesse is nerding out on the music, as you might expect.

On the other hand, now that the dollar is more or less on par with the Mexican peso, Brazil is expensive. And while there's some interesting food here, we really, really, really miss Asian food. There's some good Brazilian food out there, but it cannot compete.

Expensive as it may be, there's no denying that Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Squeezed up against mountains covered in Atlantic rainforest, it's easy to escape the city. Our first weekend here, we hopped on a city bus, and 15 minutes later, we were in the jungle.

We met Kermit the Frog:

We watched out for falling jackfruit:

We sadly did not spot any koala bears eating the bamboo:

We checked out the orchids:

Last weekend we explored Urca, one of the cities oldest neighborhoods, on a small peninsula sticking into the bay at the base of the famous Sugar Loaf Mountain.

These guys didn't seem to be catching anything, but they had a pretty nice spot picked out:

Rio has some pretty cool sidewalks.

Our other main activities in Rio so far have included apartment hunting (we finally caught one), seeing music (lots and lots of really, really good music), cooking (turns out when it's 86 degrees in your apartment, it's 95 in the kitchen), and drinking lots of delicious tropical fruit juice. More details on all of this to come.

-J&B