Brazil... And we're back!

What an amazing vacation! We saw numerous gorgeous beaches, lots of underwater wildlife, and accomplished plenty of relaxing.

I decided to blog about our experience over the next several posts and show you some of our food adventures (or misadventures...) but wanted to give you some highlights first.

So here you go, a fast recap of superlatives and stats.

Days on vacation: 16

Pictures taken: 1,190

Books read: Mrs: Broad- 6 (I ran out of books) Mr. Broad- 1/4 of a book. To his credit the book is called Gotham, History of New York til 1898 and is quite dense.

Bottles of sunscreen used: 2

Best reaction to Mr. Broad's pale skin when we arrived: 2 Brazilians touched his arm

Best overheard quote: "Man, if you want some good weed, you should come to the States dude."

Mrs. Broad's favorite quote to her: "You look like you are Brazilian because you are so beautiful." -a Rio taxi cab driver.

Mrs. Broad's favorite quote said to Mr. Broad after he was speaking Spanish to a Brazilian: "Uh, I don't speak Spanish, I speak English or Portugese." Said in English. Right...

Number of beach vendors that walk up and down the beaches of Rio: hundreds

Best thing to buy from a beach vendor : A piece of cheese grilled on a stick with oregano

Weirdest thing to buy from a beach vendor: A lace tablecloth

Number of one piece bathing suits we saw: 1

Worst Portuguese-English translation or When you should do more than just spell check: Explanation of a ruin was,"The General's daughter liked hanging out here and it put her at ease with her 'Dawns Syndrome.'"

Acronym that needs redefining: GLS -- For Gays, Lesbians, and Sympathizers. Umm, Brazil maybe we change that to Supporters??

Best jobs of people we met: A tie with a 1) Snowboarding photographer from Switzerland and 2) a guy that worked for the Brazilian FBI (the equivalent) policing the Amazon for drug smuggling from Columbia.
Uh, wow.

Best place to see a soccer game: Maracana Stadium. There is a moat around the field so fans don't charge after the game.

Worst place to wear a black top to: Maracana Stadium when it's the opposing team's colors.

Number of Phillies' fan we met: 2

Number of Yankees fans we met: 0 (Ugh! Seriously?)

Weirdest thing we ate overall: ??? You can be the judge in upcoming posts....

And the sights. Who can give a superlative to this?!

Olinda- a cobblestone town within Recife.



One of the many beaches from Fernando de Noronha

See that trail... that's how you get down there. Plus two ladders that go straight down 200 feet. Plus a lot of praying. A whole lot of praying.


Hundreds of dolphins we saw!


More beaches from Fernando de Noronha (there are lots of these but I'll try to cut them down on the blog updates). Notice how deserted they are...




Best place to watch a sunset- Jericoacara


Might as well ski down the sand dune...


And Rio de Janeiro

Scene from Ipanema Beach

Lots of coconut drinks on the beach


A poor shot of a favella


We didn't stay here, the Copacabana Palace

And of course, the famous Christ the Redeemer



More to come, don't you worry...