OMG, I would like to return to so many of them. First and foremost, I would like to return to Brasil, starting in Rio and traveling to the gem finds in Minas Gerais, then the wilds of the Amazon and the beaches in Bahia, to which I traveled with my fiance and my then to be In-Laws in 1972. We drove for 500 miles per day for three days to get to Bahia, stayed for three days and then drove back for three days. The things we saw while driving and did not stop for make me crazy to think about now.
LOL, share some great stories, okay, I've got a couple of those.
On the second night of our Journey, we came to a small town called Victoria de Conquista. LOL, I just looked it up, it must have been less than 20,000 when we were there, but it is 341,000 now. We went to a small restaurant next to our small hotel and it was really hot. My not quite yet mother-in-law as sitting across from me and was wearing a sweater with a long zipper that ran diagonally from her right color bone down to about the top of her stomach. She had been wearing a sweater in our air conditioned car with a short zipper down the middle, stopping high enough to be modest.
Yup, it was inevitable. She made a comment about how hot it was, reached up and zipped it all the way down, exposing her right breast prosthesis and her bra covering her left breast. I blushed beat red and started talking to the ceiling and Claire responded and asked me a question, I answered to the ceiling, and finally Sam got tired of staring at his idiot son-in-law to be staring at the ceiling and looked at Claire, ripped his napkin from his lap and held it in front of Claire and the whole restaurant started laughing with us. Several rounds of drinks appeared to the table at no cost to us, and many stopped to wish us a great vacation. It was very good that we were walking back to the hotel.
Two days later, we wanted to spend a day at the beach. I asked at the hotel and he told me to just drive North for twenty to thirty miles and there would be one great beach after another. The first couple were fairly crowded so we went past them and the next one was completely empty when we got there.
I got into the water with my fins, mask and my snorkle, and was swept along the beach at a rapid pace by the rip tide. I went a half mile or so in less than twenty minutes and decided to walk back, as there was no way I was going to swim against that current. About half way back there was a Brasilian Goddess standing with her hands on her hips looking out to sea. She was wearing a tiny bikini bottom and was tan all the way up to the top of her head with no tan line from a top. I tried not to stare, but I don't think I succeeded. At least I kept walking. Two or three hundred yards further and I came to where Resa and Claire were standing, and Resa said the boys playing out in the surf, knee deep but about 70 yards out from us, were wearing the tightest swimsuits they had ever seen. One of them turned to catch a wave and I started laughing, they were totally nude. We walked a ways up the beach to wear Sam was resting and Claire told me that this beautiful half naked lady had walked right in front of him, but he was already sleeping. I said I had seen her standing on the beach.
Shortly after she came up to us, holding her bikini top with one hand and asking if we could let her have one of our bananas. I picked up two and was going to toss them to her, one on each side, but decided that would be rude, so I just handed them to her. When we got back to the hotel and shared our experience the guy at the hotel blushed and said he forgot to warn us of the nude beach. We all had a good laugh.
I still have some of the black and white photos I took in Rio. I had the run of the Embassy dark room, provided I used expired paper, chemicals and film. I have some pictures taken of me playing for the Brasilian national rugby team in our game against the Cambridge Oxford traveling side, who thoroughly kicked our behinds. I have some pictures taken by me in the streets of Rio, and I have some pictures taken with a rare roll of color film I took while Resa and I stayed overnight in a small mountain town and I took so many pictures of the hummingbirds that I got a great picture of Resa pouting because I was not spending enough time with her.
I also have a picture of her riding a horse at the home of Senhor Gracie who at 70 plus years had 22 children of three wives. The eleventh was my Jiu Jitsu Instructor, Carley Gracie. There is even a picture taken of me with two medals about my throat. Both were second place medals, one for my weight class and one for the overall free weight category. I lost twice to the same incredible fighter.