I recently spent a beautiful weekend in New York. New York was Paris, Buenos Aires, London, and Santiago all rolled into ONE!  We visited the Top of the Rock, the Financial District, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, and experienced the nightlife in the Meatpacking District and in the Lower East Side aka LES. 

We also visited Central Park twice! The weather was amazingly nice. I brought my Brazilian Sarong with the iconic Brazil flag design and used it to keep the damp earth from getting me wet. A picnic sarong is perfect for any type of outdoor park terrain- whether it be grass, sand, dirt, etc. The sarong or "canga" as Brazilians call it, was very light and easy to carry.   

Sarongs are a definite MUST when traveling. Whether it's a long weekend in another city or a two month trip through Europe, be sure to pack a sarong for any outdoor picnic experience! Take a look at the pictures while lounging in Central Park my sarong.  

I got the idea of starting this business after visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While I was there for a month, I noticed the abundance of sarongs on the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. After purchasing several sarongs and using them daily, I thought to myself, "why don't we have any of these back home?" 

After doing some digging, I was able to find my old Rio post that I had posted on my personal blog three years ago. Now, after reading it, I really really want to go back to Brazil. Here's the post:

I want to remember everything I did in Rio. So this entry will be solely dedicated to my experience in Rio De Janeiro, BRASIL. Here it goes..

Places to eat:

1. Big B´s - Theres one on every corner. I usually ordered an Açai with a Cheeseburger. You can mix it up a bit and get different sucos or smoothies. Great place for late night grub.
   
   
2. Apollos - I went here for the first week, but after awhile the stale pastries get kind of old. A great place to get a big bottle of Lipton Ice Tea and some fresh bread.
   
   
3. Galeto- In portuguese Galeto means baby chicken. You can find small galeto restaurants everywhere in Copa. The food is quality and affordable.Places I visited:House - Located in Leblon, and upscale club that tries to impress its crowd with sophisticated computer technology that documents and photos every person that enters the club. The only plus is girls are free before 12, guys are 20, and they have free Capairinhas till 12. Have fun paying for overpriced watered-down drinks. The night usually starts out with a live Samba band, and around 12 they open up the upstairs and start blasting trendy house music. It´s gringo infested, the locals are stuck-up gringo hunters. So only come here if you´re with a big group.
   
   
4. Casa De Matriz - Located in Botafogo, I heard this place goes off on Wednesday nights. I went here my first night in Rio, I think it was a Friday. They were playing brazilian funk music, not funkie. A lot of jazzy samba and slow beats. I did not enjoy the music, but the layout of the club was great. Lots of girls as well. Come here on a Wed or Thurs.
   
   
5. Casa Roja - Located in ... I can´t remember Sao Cristovao?? It´s about a 20 min taxi ride from Copa. The layout is great, lots of people, and the music is ok. It goes off Sunday nights.
   
   
6. Lapa - The place where EVERYONE goes on Friday nights. Lapa is a street situated in front of huge white archs where everyone hangs out, dances, and drinks. You can here music from every club in the area blasting their music toward partygoers. There are guys walking around with their shirts off, people screaming and yelling, and many locals bumping into you. Most people pre-party here until 2 or 3 and then end up finding a local hip hop or funkie club in the area. Most places play a little of everything. There is one club called 40 grados which is a little more upscale. The place is pretentious, I would not recommend going here unless you have money to spend, and want to feel cool.
   
   
7. Castelo das pedras - Located in a Favela 40 minutes from Copa. It´s a huge warehouse party. The downstairs dancefloor is huge and is filled with cariocas walking around with their shirts off and sweating profusly. The VIP upstairs area is all gringos. It´s nice because you can go up and down when you like. It´s FUNKIE music all night. You must go here if you want to experience a true favela party. If you're staying at a hostel and someone asks you if you want to pay 60 Reals to attend the party, say NO! Get a group of friends together, taxi it there, pay the 10 Reals to get in. Once you're in, bribe the security guard to get into the VIP area, or have one of your gfs make a puppy face. After the club is over, there are literally 6 or 7 gringo vans waiting outside. Hop into any van, they all go back to the same area, and don't check whether you paid or not. CHEERS!
   
   
8. Beaches:  Everyone in Rio wears "cangas" also known as sarongs. These are extremely popular and you can find them on almost any beach in Brazil.  They not only serve as a towel to dry off, but many wear them around their waist. The one sarong design that stood out the most was that of the Brazilian flag. Many locals wore this sarong as well as many tourists. Whenever I saw that sarong while traveling through South America, I knew that person had visited a beach in Brazil. After staying in Rio for almost a month, I ended up leaving with three different Brazilian Cangas.
   
   
9. Copacabana - A little dirty and too close to home
   
   
10. Ipanema - Tower 9 or Posto novo. We always met people here, beautiful location with great views.
    
    
11. Barra do Tijuca- 35 min from Copa. There were no gringos here. Beautiful beaches with local kitesurfers entertaining you. 

Locations I visited:

• City of God or Cidade de Deus - Crazy place. I saw a youngster with a gat on every corner. The apartments from the movie was the first thing I saw entering the city.
• Escalera de Selaron
• Santa Theresa
• Barra De Tijuca
• Leblon
• Itaguai
• Gavea
• Leme
• Rocina
• Tabajaba
• Enough for today. SAI FORA!

The site is coming around nicely. I've been experimenting with Weebly and am about to sign up as a premium user. I'd like to manage all my sites through one website, it's much easier than using Wordpress. I established my business account, paypal account, and Google adword account. I'm learning about SEO, e-commerce, and other things to get my site up and running.