Rio and the end of a wonderful trip!

I have been in Rio for the past week and am just about to leave back to Miami tomorrow night. I find it hard to believe all that has happened in one summer and all that I have gotten to see. There is no other word to describe it but magnificent. I´ve enjoyed everthing from this trip so much, and by everything I *mean* everything: good or bad, pretty or ugly (and believe me, there was plenty of ugly and sad views, even if I neglected to write them down here). I don´t think I would exchange these experiences for much else. I wondered before this trip whether because I am a historian and not an anthropologist that I wouldn´t gain anything from actually being in the country that I am studying (besides books of course). I realize now that no matter what field you are studying (history, medicine, public health, anthropology...whatever), nothing can replace actually living in the place you are studying. You can gain an understanding of the psyche or logic of the country that otherwise might be lost on you...everything begins to make sense historically. Sometimes even the opposite happens, which is actually ideal. I really like it when someting I thought was a completely logical chain of events turns out to make no sense in context, because then I know there must be a much more interesting story that is hidden somewhere is some archive. And, I´d love nothign more than to find it. That, to my nerdy historical senses, is exciting.
All in all, I can sum up the last paragraph by just saying: I enjoyed myself, I´ll miss it a lot, and I can´t wait to do something like it again. And here I should end my long rant and begin to talk about what happpened in Rio. If the last paragraph bored you (which it probably did) I am sorry, I just feel that at the end of something big in your life, some sort of conclusionary thoughts should be made.
Anyways, in the last weekend in Rio a lot of things have happened, though, in honor of Brazilian time, have happened quite slowly. It´s incredible how laid back the culture is here and how ridiculously contagious it is. Everyday I lose half the day on the beach--riding the great surf by literally swimming up the strong waves and later laying down in the sand to dry up. Granted I am not complaining, its just weird that I am so drawn to these beaches. After all, I live on a beach essentially, this should be nothing new for me. But there is truly a mystical beauty to Rio´s beaches thanks to the towering and steep rocky hills, speckled with green that sorround the Ipanema shore. There is just nothing to compares to seeing these formations touching the sky while you are down in the shore diving into the crashing waves. It´s a totally different type of beach than I´ve ever seen before. Another interesting aspect of the Rio beaches are the people. Honestly, you´d think the shore were some sort of runway for guys and girls to strut their stuff and model the latest brazilian bikinis (for girls) and some new type of speedos shapped like "trunk"underwear (for guys...this is the part I find a little disturbing; especially how they are *everywhere*).
But there is a whole lot more to Rio than beaches (although to many cariocas, that is all you will every need here). What was really cool is that I recently got to see a Candomblé ritual (an religion which is a sincretism between the Ioruba african religon and Catholicism) a little ways from Rio in this jungle-of-a-house owned by a french woman (the Mãe de Santos). Inside the house, I was taken into the main corridor where a whole party was being prepared. In essence, a candomblé religious cerimony is quite literally a party for their Orixas (or demigods). It´s not really like mass at all. After a few hours of dancing to different drumbeats (each one representing a specific Orixa), the main candomblé dancers will get invaded or possessed by the spirit of their personal Orixa. This is a little scary to watch as the dancer will begin screaming his greeting in scary deep or high pitched voices that definitely do not belong to the original person. To add to the whole mystical aspect, the body periodically convulses (as if the spirit was about to leave for a second but decides to stay for a little longer).
At any rate, after the posessee calls out his/her name, s/he is tied around the chest in order to keep the fragile spirit inside the body and then taken off into another room, dressed in the a custume which is most comfortable to the Orixa, and comes out to dance, join the party essentially, and just hang out with his and her followers. (By the way, these dances are really really cool). So the deities are really quite personal in this "religion" (which I believe is technically part of catholicism, though I doubt that any priest would approve). What makes the whole experience even more bizarre is that each Orixa is not picky about what gender s/he invades. Thus, female Orixas often invade male bodies. It is an interesting sites to see these men dressed in very feminine clothing and swaying, talking, and trully acting like women. As soon as the whole process is over, if you go talk to them they could be the most macho person alive, it does not matter. The person dancing was not them, it was the Orixa; this idea is key in order for one to understand and appreciate these ceremonies. (You can tell I was accompanied by an anthropologist, can´t you?)
After witnessing the candomblé party I went back to central Rio and headed over at 12 o´clock at night (which is early for Rio, by the way) to Pão de Açucar (Sugar Loaf). This place is a famous rock formation by the beach which is so high up you have to take a little cable car (o bomdinho) all the way to the top in order to get to see a beautiful view of Rio. During the day, it is extremely touristic, but at night it becomes one of the hippest night clubs in town. Imagine having to ride up a cable car to get into your club and then partying it up with all of Rio´s splendor in view at the peak of a huge rock formation! That´s exactly what this is. It is one of the most beautiful night clubs I´ve ever been in. Every friday and saturday night Pão de Açucar is packed with all the hip and beautiful people in Rio as well as with all the European expatriots who have a taste for "high society" (Brazilians like to borrow this world from English). It was a really weird feeling to jump directly from a Candomblé party (generally a religious event for the poor) and then going to Sugar Loaf right after. Nevertheless, it was a great chance to see both sides of the world in Rio, a city which has one of the largest economic disparities in the western world. That is what is most bizarre about this place. Despite it´s incredible beauty, poverty and suffering is always visible right at the corner of your eye no matter where you are.