In honor of Mardi Gras, here are my favorite spots in Rio de Janeiro and some blogs with the best of the best things to do while in Rio. Happy Fat Tuesday!

Head dress for Mardi Gras

Lapa Steps

View of Rio from the Sugar Loaf

Mind you, Rio is a fun yet dangerous city to be in- even my Brazilian friends told me so. As always, party hard and stay safe. BTW, this is the only place I've found to have a tour of its squatter areas- i.e. a favela tour. If you come from a developing country, you probably won't find this interesting, but other people (from the Western world) do pay to go to this tour. A new tourism opportunity perhaps for the Department of Tourism (DOT) in the Philippines?!?

Blogs about Rio:
Best of Rio: What to Drink?
Best of Rio: Juice Co./Lunch Spot
Best of Rio: Zuka/Top Restaurant
Learning Parts of the Meat through a Churrascaria

On a side note/my little rant for the day: 
One can only wonder why the biggest(?), most exciting Mardi Gras in Asia has not been advertised on the world stage - yes, I'm talking about the annual Sinulog festival in Cebu City. In comparison with Rio, Cebu also has beautiful (and safer!) beaches as well as a parade, entertainment, food and accommodation that are all world class. I haven't been thoroughly impressed with DOT's campaigns for the past few years, including the most recent ones. And speaking about DOT, I tweeted @DOTPhilippines about their insensitive usage of the whale shark photo awhile back, and yet no one has (at least) acknowledged my tweet- a best practice in the realm of tweeting.  They definitely need to hire a competent social media strategist. In fact, I'll volunteer to be a consultant for free!