If I was going to be a fake photographer...It would be for National Geographic...

I have never had much a desire to go to Rio…never had anything against it, just wasn’t on my list of must-sees. And then Rio was granted the 2016 Olympic Games…and then the 2014 World Cup…I began to think I might be missing something. Then fate delivered, right to my mailbox, a personal invitation to Rio de Janeiro. How often does that happen (ok – it was actually a wedding invitation but as the wedding was in Rio, I am totally counting it). This is why my South American odyssey headed over to Brazil.

Having a local to show you around the area makes all the difference in the world…usually. Our first day in Rio was a bit…odd. We met Guilie, who is a friend of a friend of Leila, and she volunteered to serve as our personal tour guide. This would have been for more useful if she were in fact, from Rio as opposed to near Rio. But she did speak Portuguese, so she was a definite asset.

Now Leila and I are about a month into our vacation, and absolutely exhausted. We had been very much looking forward to a day of rest…Guilie had other ideas…she wanted to show off Rio. Fatigued but wanting to see the highlights we scampered after Guilie as she darted through crowded sidewalks and on and off several buses. It became apparent after a while that we were not headed to any classic beach or Rio attraction – we were doing errands.

A break came in the day when we went to see Guilie’s ‘cousin’ act as the “mascot” for a local football team (in this case, American style football…except played on the sand). First off Guilie has an astonishing number of cousins; in my time in Brazil I personally met 23 of them. Second off, the term “mascot” has a much different meaning in Rio. Leila and I were expecting to see a girl dressed as a jaguar or toucan…instead we met a regular girl pushing a baby stroller. She was very nice, that was apparent as the ENTIRE team of young men came over to greet her. Oh…”mascot”…not what I was thinking.

The players appeared puzzled as to who the two non-Brazilian (as evident by the amount of clothing we were wearing) women were watching the football game…Guilie reassured them all with a quick explanation. “They are from Canada…they are photographers… for Sports Illustrated.” WTF!?

We attempted to get Guilie to rescind her comments to no avail; she simply stated that the boys will enjoy having someone to show off for. Great. So the rest of our afternoon was spent pretending to be photographers for a major sports magazine…crawling through the sand to get the best ‘shot for the cover’ while these young men played their hearts of with the hopes of being discovered. And so, while it is a far cry from Sports Illustrated, I will post a few of their photos here…in case anyone from the NFL happens to be reading…