It's hard to beat climbing up Mount Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue up close:

Copacobana Beach is so pretty.

Here's a polaroid I took:

And it's not just Rio that makes the trip to Brazil fun. Leave enough time to visit Manaus and the Amazon. I stayed at the Tropical Manaus, now an Eco-Resort, from which you can take a boat trip into the jungle. I have no idea if it's still the best place to stay 40 years later, but it does still have its incredible zoo in the open on the hotel grounds.

The Amazon is also home to the Encontro das Águas [Meeting of Waters], where the Rio Negro meets the Solimões rivers, but the rivers run side by side for miles, without ever touching each other.

Back to the Olympics: NBC and Comcast are the big winners. Consumers, not so much. (Comcast owns NBC). The viewing choices are all over the map -- and notwithstanding how many people have 4k TVs (including me), and the games are actually being filmed in 8k (available in Japan) and downgraded here, there is a paucity of 4k viewing options. Xfinity hasn't even released it's long promised 4k X1 box to the public -- at least not in Colorado.

I won't even be able to watch the 4k events with NBC's 24 hour delay on Xfinity because I don't have an LG or Samsung TV -- my TV is a Sony. No wonder people are leaving Xfinity and cord-cutting. How ridiculous is it that NBC is using Sony cameras to film the events but we can't watch in 4k on Sony TV's?

I'm going to try using my antenna instead of Xfinity cable and see if I can get 4k that way. Supposedly NBC will have 2 channels for that, but there's no recording option, so you have to catch it live. Here is Xfinity's schedule.

The official Twitter feed is here.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Olympics will be a positive event for Rio and the World.