First of all: Yes, there are a lot of girls with bodies like Coke-bottles, and yes, they do wear sexy bikinis when they walk along the beach. No, it’s not that they all wait for tourists with white skin and plumb bodies.
I am back in the summer! Rio de Janeiro! 28 degrees, sunshine, salsa. And once again I am thankful that http://www.couchsurfing.com   exists! Having arrived in Rio. I got a super-warm welcome from Roberta and Renate. The twin-sisters must be angels – I feel like home, or in fact, a little bit better than at home. Once I had put my rucksack on the ground and still with my mouth stuffed with a delicious pie Roberta and Renate had prepared, Roberta insisted that I must learn how to dance Salsa. I explained that half of Cuba had put a lot of energy into that mission, too, and that they had failed.
My legs simply will not cope with hot rhythms.
She would not listen and packed my hand. Then we were dancing and I was very surprised: whatever we did, it felt very intimate, more like hugging than dancing, and I was wondering whether I had just gotten a special treatment or whether this was normal in Rio.
The second is the case: People here are very sensual. They hug, touch and caress a lot. They live a life we Europeans know from Fellini movies.
However, they are less fat then the Fellini protagonists. Rio-folks take care a lot about their bodies and appearance. And it’s easy to understand why: if you have temperature close to 30 degrees even in winter, then you do not want to wear more clothes than necessary. To get these super bodies, they work out. I decided to adapt and could easily understand why they like to train hard - have a look on the beach picture on the left side: That’s me, slightly sun-burnt, but super happy in front of the Pao de Azucar. 
On the beach they play beach-volley, but not in the common style, that would be far to easy: the only use head, breast and legs. Cool to look at.
However, with Roberta at my arm I discovered more of Rio than just its white beaches. A huge city. In the midst of high mountains, one of them the famous “Pao de Azucar”, with beaches everywhere. Really impressive, especially when you climb one of the mountains to have a view from above. However, what I got used to from Buenos Aires and to a minor extend from Santiago de Chile is missing here: no nice street cafes, no beautiful shopping streets… Rio is busy, and life is on the beach. Not in the streets. But the beach life is great!
However, this being my last station in South-America, I cannot wait to discover Asia. Soon more form over there!