My very first trip to Rio back in 1999 was unusually short for a first visit. I wanted to surprise my mother on her 50th birthday with a trip to a city she’d only heard about in books and on records, but seemed to love as if she were a native Carioca.  Due to limited funds and an unforgiving work schedule, I believe that first trip was only for about 4 days. In fact the Brasilian consulate was so suspicious of my request for a tourist visa for such a short visit that the required me to get a notarized letter from my employer stating I was NOT going to Brasil for business purposed. Ha!

Since that first trip, my visits to Brasil grew to more appropriate lengths. 10 Days, 2 weeks, even 2 months for one of my visits in 2006 when I was between jobs and wanted to work on my Portuguese and my capoeira training. But it seems like for this last trip, my 8th visit to the country, I reverted back to my original ways. Just a quick last minute jaunt for a long weekend in one of my favorite places.

If you’re visiting Brasil for the first time, even if you’re just staying in the city of Rio de Janeiro, I definitely recommend at least 10 days for your trip. That will give you enough time to deal with jetlag, adjust to a bit of the culture shock, take in the main tourist sites and spend a few days doing nothing beside enjoying the cities famous beaches.

Beautiful beaches of Rio de Janeiro

But when you’ve seen Pao de Acucar and Cristo Redentor multiple times (and you’re sure you’ll revisit them in the future) and you’d really rather just see friends and soak up some of your favorite Brazilian things, 3 or 4 days is a perfect amount of time to recharge your batteries.

Flight deals, staying with good friends, eating in local instead of tourist class restaurants and minimizing my time in the vast Rio malls, helps to cut down on expenses.  I had a list of a few essential things I really wanted to do while I was there and I can happily say I checked nearly all of them off the list.

Passion Fruit Caipirinhas….yum!

• Visit with some Rio based friends I had not seen in a while – CHECK!
• Enjoy some live Brazilian music (even though they sang a lot of American cover songs) – CHECK!
• Have lots and lots of Guava Juice – CHECK!
• Enjoy a fresh fruit caipirinha and some local Chopp – CHECK!
• Dance samba into the wee hours of the morning – CHECK!
• Take a local Capoeira Class (Thank you, Mestre Curumim) – CHECK!
• Visit my favorite store, Gilson Martins, based in Ipanema – CHECK!
• Practice my Portuguese – CHECK!
• Sit my butt on a Brazilian beach – CHECK!
• Add to my collection of Havaianas – CHECK!
• See my Capoeira Mestre and his family in the Play Romeu na Roda – well….ALMOST CHECK!
• Just “be” in Brasil – CHECK! 

Good food with good friends in Brasil!

Dancing the night away at a samba school

Scenic drives in Rio

Reading through this list I realize I could have done a good portion of these things right here in good old Los Angeles, but some how its just not the same as when you’re in the Brasil. I know its not always feasible to just jump on a plane for a quick trip to South America, but sometimes you just have to go for it.  So glad that I did.  Here’s to more visits to Brasil and wherever else on the globe my finger lands, in 2013.