Rio de Janeiro

String Bikinis in Rio

Little do I know about the International Olympic Committee and how they do what they do. I’m still scratching my head in wonderment over their decision to choose the least prepared of the 4 competing cities.

Rio has the least-prepared infrastructure of any of the four cities that competed for the hosting opportunity.

Nearly half the stadium capacity it needs will have to be built and additional renovations will be necessary to provide another 24 percent of the minimum required seating.

Rio’s metro system does not link the city center and most of its hotels to the outskirts of Barra da Tijuca, where most of the venues are concentrated.

It’s a beautiful setting, but it’s also notorious for violent crime in its shantytowns, or ‘favelas’, ruled largely by warring drug gangs. However, Rio says it will spend heavily on its infrastructure, and hopefully they will find a way to contain the drug lords.

I can’t imagine where the golf events will be played. The courses that I saw there did not appear to me to up to the standards for Olympic competition. But, there’s plenty of time to construct a course that will be a good test.

Me, I think I’ll just hang around the beaches of Ipanema, Copacabana, or  Angra dos Reis and look at the girls in their string bikinis.