As it is, I did leave out the part where paramilitary police armed with machine guns were omnipresent, which took some getting used to. Also, one of the division heads of my outfit is a native of Brazil, and grew up there. One of his cousins is a Senator (or equivalent) in their Federal government. So that somehow grease a few wheels. Having a top floor room with a view of Copacabana beach didn't hurt, either, and he had a friend arrange an English-speaking driver to be available for us (especially my wife, who couldn't care less about my work there). The driver was a Rio native, and knew some ins and outs that many tourists (and probably most who visit for work) don't get to see. I don't speak Portuguese, although I can figure out way more of the written language than I can when it's spoken. It's more similar to Catalan than it is to Spanish, but the pronunciation takes more getting used to than I had time for.
Like the relationship between Danish and Swedish (which are more similar than Portuguese and Spanish are), it is difficult to reconcile what a native speaker says with what comes out of their mouths. Swedish is phonetic and very straightforward with a very simple grammar. Danish has a slightly more complicated grammar with a numbering system that makes French seem easy (!!). Even in French, if you want to say 57, you say cinquante-sept, or fifty-seven. Same with Swedish: femtiosju. Fiftyseven as one word. In Danish it's "su og halvtreds," or "seven and half (a twenty) down from three twenties."
I re-did the OP in the Lounge forum with a few more photos I forgot to post in this one, if you want to bother.
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