Today was a good day

Every once in a while the stars just align and everything is as it should be. You wake up and find your two Argentinean friends crashed out in your living room in Rio while checking out the view of the Copacabana. You feel good about the fact that you saved two friends from sleeping out on the beach.

Your sister cooks you a great plate of eggs to go along with the fresh papaya (yes I know I have an issue with fruit, let's just accept it as a healthy obsession).

You spend the day relaxing at the beach with all of your friends. The beach vendor even cuts you a deal on the umbrellas. Flaco lounges around singing Bob Marley, or at least the words he knows "Da dah dah da da, I shot the sherrif, bah bah bah ba ba bah"

You finally find the zone swimming. With each stroke you remember how you promised yourself you'd become a good swimmer before you left Rio. Today everything is working and you still have two weeks to go. You find that buoyancy equilibrium in the water and learn to relax while floating. You figure out what is was with your form that was messing you up. Follow through, don't lose momentum and pace yourself. Before you know it you've hit the end of the beach and can't even see friends around the curve of the shore.

When after your ready to leave and have paid the aforementioned beach vendor you remember you forgot the cup of matte you also had, and run down there to give him the extra 1.50 Reals. This brings a smile to your face for some reason.

You realize that your Spanish has improved to the point that you are playing translater between your sister who speaks no Spanish, your little buddy who speaks a little and the Argentinians who only speak a bit of English. And everyone gets along great.

Your new friends take off back to Argentina for yet another farewell. But not before presenting you with about 3 shots left in a bottle of something you've never heard of before and an offer for a place to stay if you make it to Cordoba.

You head to the all-you-can-eat chorosco buffett that you don't really want to see because you know your sister does. And it turns out to be fantastic. They do good work there, and are ever so attentive to all your needs. You eat and eat like you never have before. The secret it turns out, is to eat plenty of vegetables and salad, and pace yourself.

It's Carnaval, you're staying 50 feet away from Copacabana beach, but you head to Ipanema to party. At two in the morning you and your new friends decide to move the party to Lapa until the wee hours of the night. You post party in your apartment overlooking the beach. Life could suck more.