Fernando, Danny, Aija and Ricardo at the Banda de Ipanema

I was blessed while staying in Rio to have plenty of visitors come to stay with me at the apartment I was renting.

Rafael, my portuguese tutor, returned to visit his home country. I was able to acclimatise him back into his own culture pretty easily. We met up with two of his American friends in Rio as well, Lee-Michael and Matt, and we hung out at the Marriott hotel in the Executive Lounge for a while with a great view over the beach.

Danny and Aija came down from Canada to visit Brazil for a few months and arrived in time for Carnaval in Rio. Their introduction to Brazilian culture included açai, this purple berry mixture from the Amazon that is chock-full of guarana, and agua de coco, the delicious water inside the green coconuts.

Fernando and Ricardo, two of my friends from Sao Paulo came to stay for Carnaval as well so it was a full house!