Rio yet again

Greetings from summer!
At time of writing its 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit.)
That's a bit better than the deep freeze of the past month.
I got a chance on Sunday to do walk about with my camera for a couple of hours and did so at Rios two most famous beaches.
Copacabana wasn't crowded, but Ipanema was slammed.
Though I'd hate to spend a Sunday in such a crush, Ipanema is much nicer than Copacabana.
It defines itself as the cutting edge of "Beach Chic"though I think that's more tourist slogan than reality. You'll come across Brazillians from all walks of life and it has a more natural vibe than Copacabana. Copa feels a bit seedy and over run with scammers looking to part tourists from their cash. I've heard it described as slightly threatening (despite the touristy facilities) but I think that's a bit paranoid.
Ipanema is a "lived in" beach.
That may not make sense, but it's the best way I can think of describing it.
Different socio-economic groups call sections of the beach their own, with areas loosely defined by the numbered flag posts running along the boardwalk :
Post 10 is where the rich, play, 9 self fancying Bohos, 8 is Gay posing central etc.
Or so I'm told.
To me it looked like a heaving mass of shiny bodies cooking in the sun.
People were so packed in, there didn't appear to be much more than a square foot of sand per kilo of sweating flesh.
There's a lot of flesh.
Fat, skinny,young or old, the mini-thonged, tattooed masses let it all hang out.
Age or sex make no of difference.
After a while you get rather blase and neither granpa or porn star bodies rate much more than a passing glance.
That's what the locals tell me anyway.

Meet my future wife.....

Yep I'm as astonished as you are.

That's it for today.

Despite what the pictures from Sunday may have implied, I'm holed up in office meetings all week.

I still retain my fishbelly-prison pallor.

It's torture of a sort when the weather outside is awesome but spending daylight hours locked in meetings.

Soon enough I'll be shovelling snow in Michigan again.

Stay well everyone.

T