Enjoying Rio

So, Clau and I are here for another week or so - it's been really great to actually have some time to just relax as well as see all the family and friends. Brazil, and Rio in particular, is really changing rapidly before our eyes. For one thing, there's an obvious explosive growth in the middle class, and the number of really, really impoverished people is decreasing. Everything is now considerably more expensive, especially considering the exchange rate, and you can just sort of see the place becoming more prosperous. The mayor and governor of Rio seem to be collaborating on cleaning up the city, and they seem to be taking a page out of Giuliani's book, in particular by focusing on some smaller-level crime. There are endless police checkpoints to make sure folks are wearing seatbelts, and checkpoints for drunk driving. The police have lots of shiny new equipment and kevlar. There are a slew of new laws (and old laws which are finally being enforced) regarding the beaches designed to make them more sterile and tourist-friendly (no umbrellas with beer labels, no glass, no dogs, etc etc. It's actually quite nice.