Monthly Archives: September 2013

Barren rocks are great places for making friends. Several weeks ago during a work meeting, I segued the conversation to rock climbing and was put in touch with a Rio native named Aloisio Viana, who promptly invited me to climb … Continue reading →

This weekend and last weekend was “Rock in Rio,” which is billed as Latin America’s biggest music concert and featured Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Metallica, and many other US bands that I could have seen if I stayed in New York. Better … Continue reading →

Apparently it’s fairly common, and not just to foreigners. An American like me or a Brazilian like my language teacher might one day swipe their bank card at an ATM, withdraw cash, and the next day or week several thousand dollars … Continue reading →

My location: Rio’s iconic Pão de Açúcar, an island-rock jutting out at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. My mission: To summit the 1,299-foot-tall peak. The previous weekend I had hiked neighboring Morro da Urca, but summiting Pão de Açúcar (“Sugarloaf”) is a … Continue reading →

For 30 years, I was a virgin to live pro futebol. Tonight, after a three-decade-wait, I attended my first-ever pro futebol match, and it could not have been a better experience. Rio de Janeiro’s beloved home team of Flamengo was hosting … Continue reading →

Let’s head to the slums for some music and dancing! That was the plan tonight, as I was told it’s actually become a popular thing to do in Rio — a preposterous idea just a few years ago before the state … Continue reading →

This is the flag of Brazil, billowing atop Praça Engenheiro Bernardo Saião in Rio de Janeiro. On the green flag is a yellow rhombus — two colors of the old imperial Portuguese flag — surrounding a blue disc filled with 27 white … Continue reading →

One of the most interesting things about New Orleans is, I think, the doors. They’re colorful, slender and tall, each about 10 feet high (you can tell by how low the doorknob appears in the photos), as if constructed for some … Continue reading →

Now that I’ve explained how to safely eat a beignet, I can move on to describing other foods of New Orleans. This will not include the overrated po’ boy, which while ubiquitous is really nothing more than some sloppy meat … Continue reading →

A beignet is somewhat synonymous with New Orleans. It’s like a fritter, and it’s actually the official state doughnut of Louisiana, which might imply that they’re sold on every street corner, the Down South equivalent to Starbucks in New York City. … Continue reading →