RIO... Well.. I just got back as I stopped over in MIA for two days, and stayed over in Miami Beach... Rio was interesting. I made a friend on the MIA-GIG flight, we hooked up, and rented an apartment, my friend was Brazilian/American, and spoke Portuguese so I got very lucky. Well we got a room at an apartment behind the Cocacabana Palace. And we hooked with a local who took us to where some "Action" is. Well I discovered that 30 REAIS goes a long way, my friend spent 90, I was tired so 30 was fine. We went through more thatn 20 600ml bottles of SKOL. Later on we got a ride to our place.. Well the next day, we met some young ladies at the beach, and hooked up with them that night at a mall in Botafago. Girls out there really like Americans, and I cannot emphasize this enough. So they gave us a ride back, and we changed and met them at a club. Where more girls flocked to us stunning young Americans who can speak Portuguese. Well we ended up I guess being in charge of paying for all the drinks, yet we didn't know this... So some of the chicks left, as we did not want to leave with them. at about 5:45 AM we are ready to leave, when some big security guys ask us forabout 400 Reais. Uh Oh.. We had about 100, and so they take us to our place, and we did not want to pay, so we took a little bit of shoving around, and they ended up taking our phones, cd players, clothes, shoes, etc. We are soo tired that we go to sleep And what would you know but knocking of the thug who gave us a ride home the first night demanding money... So more stuff was taken. At this, we snuck out of the aparment before more damage was done, and went to the Sheraton. We were basically stuck there as we had no money or ATM cards Over the period of two nights, we racked up about 1200 Reais there! We drink a lot, and Cervejas are like 7 Reais compared to 1 at the stores. ETC ETC ETC. Last day there my friend went to the consulate and after eight hours was able to draw some money from his US bank account. He stayed another night, and then went off to San Paulo to meet lost lost family, I have yet to hear how that went. My friend has a lot of money, and so does his family, so I am going back to Rio in June to visit, when all has settled. The trip was allright, but I did not get to do as much, as no cash means no fun..But the women over there are awesome, they all wanted to marry me! IF it could only have been like that in Miami! How was SIN SoCaL? I may try to do more details later or a trip report... I spent all night partying in South Beach, and only used my hotel as a shower, and took a 7am flight to SFO, and had to pay $150 for the stopover!