Location, Location, Location

I thought yesterday when I went to the Favela (Slum) Gym, I'd reached the gamit of gym variations in this city, but today I experienced JUST ONE MORE.

There's a section that divides Copacabana Beach and Ipanema Beach...it's called Arpoador. It~s a rocky penninusla that actually is quite beautiful. See the picture. If you look closely, you see the part where to the two sandy beaches come together right before the rock that sticks out like a ship. well, there atop the rocks is my lastest gym find. (By the way, my new apartment is very close to this area).

On this beautiful rocky stretch of beach, they've built an every man's gym--sort of. The benches are concret slabs. The barbells are flower pots on each end with cement inside to give weight. There's pull-up bars, dip bars, bench press bars...etc. The best way to describe it is it's kind of like a Fred Flintstone gym set on the sea shore, in beautiful Rio, with the sun setting and fresh smells of trees and flowers and salt air as you watch the surfers and ships passing by.

Nice picture, right. Abba, Dabba, Do!

So, I tried it out, and as nice as the best gyms can be, this one seemed to do the part just as well. (I might have been overcompensating for the surroundings). There were some men there with great bodies, and I'm pretty sure they only use this little open air gym.

A lot to be said for less-is-more.

Got a good work out, and it was so beautiful...God's A/C, and the walls were bautifully painted with God's masterworks, (not that horrible green color at the one gym).

I'll go back, I'm sure.

PLEASE WAIT FOR ME ARGENTINA

So the British gentleman I'm renting from in Ipanema (Max) and my American friend doing the New Years Celebration here (Mark)--we've all decided to take 4 or 5 days and go visit Buenos Aires the first week in January. I'm excited to go do that. Should be interesting. I've never been there and have always wanted to visit. They say it's got an European flare with a Spanish Accent. We'll see how right THEY are.

More on this to come.

DANCING QUEEN

Last night I went to a big dance club called The Week, International. It's located near the downtown area, in not the best neighborhood--they never are. It's a big club, big dance floor, big price tag to get int ($30) etc. However, the music was thistechno, tribal beating, pulsing bass, laser lights, etc. etc. that I think you have to be drunk or drugged up to like--I've never liked that kind of music, much less at 2 in the morning. So I have to give a big thumbs down on the music, but the space was really cool and clean.

SLASH AND BURN

Stupid me...I went to the beach yesterday with sunscreen. But thinking I'd be OK under a umbrella, I was there for like two hours, and at MAX only out in the sun for 30-40 minutes.

But that did it. Plus, I think the sun relfects of the sand (which is really just glass), and i burned my face for the first time since I've been here. I ususally get my shoulders and back, but no, this time I'm looking like a drunk Irishman.