We interrupt our report on Bolivia and Peru to bring you some photos from New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio de Janeiro. To tell the truth, after working hard in November and then doing a rather intensive trip, partying wasn’t on my mind since we've gotten back to Rio, especially since I caught a cold on the plane back from Lima. However, we did go to check our offerings to Iemanjá, which got moved to Dec. 29 out of fear that the beach would be too crowded on the 31st. (It was – Copacabana was estimated to have 2 million people.)

On the 31st we went for a walk on the beach to check out the preparations.

Close to midnight we headed out to see the fireworks.

Last year’s fireworks in Copacabana were officially declared a failure (the mayor appologized to the city), and the city did everything to make up for it this year. Today’s newspaper’s announced that Copacabana “bombed.” (“Copacabana bombou!” – that’s a good thing here.) This might not be obvious from the pictures, however, if you've seen last year’s photos. So let me explain: The mistakes made during last year’s firework’s were actually great for photos. The fireworks were too far, which, however, put them closer to the horizon and made it easier to get both the firework’s and their reflections in the water in the same shot. On top of that, a cloud of smoke that obscured the fireworks created amazing visual effects that could be captured on camera. Yesterday’s fireworks, by comparison, were too high to be photographed from the beach (though I've seen nice photos in the newspapers made from hotel windows). They looked spectacular, however.

A mere 30 minutes after the fireworks it rained.