Zach plays the pandeiro with our hotel's great samba band

This was when we arrived a month ago-Zach now runs to wherever they are playing around the pool and dances and
bangs the pandeiro when offered. The 3-piece band is smoking hot-I should know their names and I promise I will soon.

Bella's Halloween Pumpkins

Bella did these mainly herself on the computer from a program emailed us by Karen Ewart.
Arty pumpkins...

Rio Fun

Here's some pool shots. The mountain in the back is to the west of us-the ocean is south of us.

More Rio pix

Yes, Cynthia and I recommend Rio. Definitely come here and miss Sao Paulo.
Picture 1: Cynthia and the kids in the Botanical Gardens. There are trees there dating back to the 18th century.
Picture 2: Samba dancers at the Premiere party.
Picture 3: Dad (me, Paul Hanson, SALTIMBANCO saxophonist) with Zach, Bella. Geremie (son of Marc Sohier, bassist and
bandleader of SALTIMBANCO band) is next to me in the pool.
Picture 4: Samba band at the Premiere party. It was a very loud and very funky samba band. The roots of Brazilian samba
are from Angola in Africa where I heard it was called Simba (?) I saw this on a BBC program about Brazilian-African connections.
Unlike in North America-African slaves were allowed to keep a lot of their religious and cultural heritage when they were brought over.
I hope someone who was at the SALTIMBANCO Halloween party has some pix of Cynthia and I and the kids..send them my way. It was great to go to a party for Cynthia as she really wanted to go to the Premiere party.