Not going to lie... It was awesome waking up this morning to a view of Copacabana Beach. All my nights on the road for work scored us a pretty sweet upgrade and ocean view room!
Being huge sports fans, we wanted to make sure we had a chance to visit Maracanã Stadium. Even though it's currently closed in preparation for the Olympic Games, it was still quite impressive from the outside. When it originally opened in 1950, it held nearly 200,000 people and was the world's highest capacity fútbol venue. Capacity has now been reduced due to safety concerns, but it's the only stadium to have hosted two World Cup Finals, the first in 1950 and then again in 2014. It will also be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2016 Olympic Games, as well as, the Men's and Women's Olympic soccer finals.
We headed over to Sugarloaf with about an hour and half until sunset. As we rode the cable car to the first stop on Morro da Urca, the city spread out below us. After taking a ton of pictures, we rode the second cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf... OH. MY. GOODNESS. The views were unbelievable... breathtaking. I could go on and on with adjectives. The sun was setting behind the mountains and Christ the Redeemer and the entire sky was lit up a bright orange. It was one of the most beautiful sites we've both ever laid eyes on. Luckily we're in the age of digital because I literally took about four hundred pictures even though it was almost the exact same shot... I just kept snapping. I couldn't get enough of what we were seeing. The pictures give you an idea, but this is one of those things you need to see with your own eyes to appreciate. We sat on a bench staring at the view as we watched twilight turn to dark and the city light up below us. Even though the view wasn't changing, I didn't want to take my eyes off of it... but finally we made the trek back down and headed to our hotel.
We wandered around the Centro neighborhood during lunchtime, which gave us an opportunity to see all the locals out and about and then we decided to test out Rio's subway. We were surprised by how clean and easy it was to navigate. We strolled through Urca, a residential neighborhood at the foot of Sugarloaf mountain, where fishing boats dot the bay with a backdrop of Christ the Redeemer looking down over the city. The area reminded us of a mix between Trastevere, where we lived in Rome, and some of the residential streets on the sound end of South Beach Miami. We popped into a grocery store looking for water and ended up picking up a few things for a picnic lunch by the beach. I also surveyed the Dannon yogurt and we told the grocery store employees I worked for Dannon in the States... they thought that was really cool, lol.
We headed over to Sugarloaf with about an hour and half until sunset. As we rode the cable car to the first stop on Morro da Urca, the city spread out below us. After taking a ton of pictures, we rode the second cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf... OH. MY. GOODNESS. The views were unbelievable... breathtaking. I could go on and on with adjectives. The sun was setting behind the mountains and Christ the Redeemer and the entire sky was lit up a bright orange. It was one of the most beautiful sites we've both ever laid eyes on. Luckily we're in the age of digital because I literally took about four hundred pictures even though it was almost the exact same shot... I just kept snapping. I couldn't get enough of what we were seeing. The pictures give you an idea, but this is one of those things you need to see with your own eyes to appreciate. We sat on a bench staring at the view as we watched twilight turn to dark and the city light up below us. Even though the view wasn't changing, I didn't want to take my eyes off of it... but finally we made the trek back down and headed to our hotel. 
There is no time like the present to experience Rio's cutting-edge nightlife... We tried Stuzzi, a laid-back Italian tapas lounge on Leblon's Rua Dias Ferreira, which has become a must visit street for foodies visiting Rio. The food was delicious, as were the cocktails. Our meal was interrupted by two older gentlemen that approached the table and started talking to us under the premises that they recognized us and thought we were someone else. Nice try señors... If anyone asks, we now have boyfriends. Who approaches someone's table to try to pick them up while they are in the middle of dinner?!??
After a quick bite, a couple of cocktails and a Red Bull... we headed to Bagatelle. Yes, Rio now has their own version of this popular spot from the same owners of the Bagatelle in New York and Miami. It's located in the jockey club on Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in a beautiful old building. We walked into a room with the beats pumping and Brazilians dancing on tables and banquettes. Guess some things are the same no matter where you are in the world :) We had a blast!
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