I'm not sure what it is about foreign men and me when it comes to national religious monuments. I was in Rio with my friend Nil and we'd decided to pay the money to go visit one of the newly crowned 7 Wonders of the World - the statue of Christ the Redeemer. After all, when was I likely to be in Rio again anytime soon? So, we pay our 35 Reias and take the train up.

When we get to the top, there's a bunch of people up there ... and Christ is smaller than he looks from Copacabana. If you know me, you know that I'm everywhere, trying to get the photos that I see in my mind - a closeup of his face, a head-shot with his arms spanning the photo, a full body shot, etc. Well, I'm not paying attention, but there's a guy that's been talking to me in Portuguese. I'm not answering, so he tries English ... "Hello, how are you?" Like any good American, I answered, "Great, how are you?" To this all of his friends break out in some crazy cheers ... I guess after trying several languages, he's cracked the code.

After this, they kind of follow us around, eventually asking my friend in Portuguese how much it would cost for him and his friends to take pictures with me. Papparazzi! It was CRAZY, and once again I found myself standing with men who I couldn't understand, taking photo after photo. (The last time this happened was in Italy.) I didn't charge them this time either ... I figured if all they wanted was a photo of a black American they met in Rio, the least I could do was oblige. (Especially since I was too chicken to ask for photos with some of the extremely beautiful Brazilian men I saw in Rio ... sooooooo many missed opportunities. I really gotta work on that!)

Besides this craziness, Rio was amazing! We stayed in a slum area that wasn't too dangerous ... but we couldn't stay out after 8 or 9 for safety reasons. We hit all the toursity spots - Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra, Pão de Açucar, Cristo. We spent a small fortune on buses and taxis, but I decided before I came that I was going to pay whatever it cost, because this may be my only time here. Sieze the day!

So, I'm back in São Paulo for a few more days before flying out on Thursday. I was supposed to go to the Strawberry Festival yesterday, but instead spent the day in bed after throwing up several times on the bus ride back. I'm not sure if it was a virus or something I ate. Either way, it seems to be passing, so all is well. Maybe I can go to the festival tomorrow ... I hear that they have live music and chocolate dipped strawberries!