2025 Brazil Trip: Day 8 - Foz do Iguacu

Day 8 - Iguacu

We can split this trip into four parts essentially - the first quarter was the weekend in Rio de Janeiro - Thursday Night through Saturday Night. The second was a slightly quieter reset through Rio to Sao Paulo. The last quarter in Santiago, an opportunity to replay the hits. The third quarter are these two days in the jungles of Iguazu Falls. Veted one of the seven wonders of the new world, Iguazy Falls was hyped up a lot - both by that distinction, and by my parents who visited back in 2005 on a trip with their friends, a trip notable for it being the first time they went on a long trip without my sister and I. Anyway, it seems in the intervening 20 years, things haven't changed much.

Much like Victoria Falls, where we went two years ago, Iguazu Falls lies between two countries in Brazil and Argentina, and there is a town where visitors can stay on either side - Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, and Puentte Iguazu in Argentina. I chose to stay on the Brazilian side primarily because there is much more connectivity to the airport on the Brazil side, but having spent a lunch and then evening / night in the town, I'm glad I did as the town of Foz do Iguacu is much closer to a real city than the one on the Argentina side.

I had a super early flight from Sao Paulo, reached early in the cute little Foz do Iguacu airport, and by 9:00am I was checking in to my AirBNB in a tall residential building in the city center. The falls themselves are perfect for 1.5 days of visiting, as the Brazil side you can do in half a day, and the Argentina side in closer to a day (especially when factoring in border crossings), so I timed up everything with a certainty that worked well - especially when the weather ended up being much better than I was expecting a few days earlier.

After a quick nap (again, had to get up at 5am and then had little luck sleeping on the 90 minute flight), I arose for an early lunch at Bendito, a fairly middle-end steakhouse (basically the main form of food in town) that opens at 11am and received me at 11:15. The Brazil side of the falls involves a reservation where you pick a time to ride the bus from the visitor entrance to teh falls area, and mine was 12:30 so I did rush a bit.

In the end, their combination of a heart of palm salad, and picanha (portioned for one this time) worked perfectly. I'll say their picanha had just a huge fat cap that I felt bad cutting off 75% of it, but I couldn't really justify it. The remaining 25% was enough fat to make it quite a perfect picanha, and giving me the sustenance for the walks ahead.

After a 20min uber ride, I was out the Iguacu Falls park, where I caught the double decker bus that takes you from the visitors center another 11km to the start of the trail. There are numerous side trails and excursions in the intervening 11k, that require a few stops on the way. Most are trails taht lead to river level (away from teh falls) where most of the boat tours leave from. After about 20 minutes we got to the stop where the main falls trail starts, and within about two minutes from the bus stop you find yourself at the first of about 20 different platform lookouts with the falls on the other side. And it's mesmerizing, instantly.

The trail from beginning to end is about 1.7km, and walked at a leisurely pace with tons of stops to take pictures takes about 75 minutes (a lot of pictures). It's generally flat with maybe +/- 20 meter inclines throughout, and all the while hugging the coastline on the Brazil side with teh falls growing ever larger and wider on the other side. Unlike Victoria Falls which is primarily one large giant sheet of falling water (which has its own advantages), Iguazu Falls is really like a few dozens falls broken up by rock formations and hills and such on the Argentina side - which gives a great contrast. Some areas are the rushing, crashing large sheets like Victoria. Others are these picturesque areas where the falls stagger down to the lower river level in 3-4 stops, creating a bueaitful cascade of falls and rock pools. It's all incredible, and setup really well with the walking path to give a bunch of great spots to take photos and take in the awesomeness.

And then you get towards the back end of the trail and it all ratchets up a notch. That's when the falls finally curve around, and you get to the point where the Argentina side is as grand as ever, and the Brazil side gets into the action, and we reach the Brazilian Devil's Throat - which is just an amazing walkway built on the rock pool that the Brazilian falls fall into. It gets you pretty out there, and it is just mesmerizing. This is the one part where it resembled Victoria Falls in that the mist and blowback from teh waterfall makes it constantly raining. Not drenching as Victoria Falls was, but still you get quite wet - which is nice after a 60 minute walk in searing heat. It's just an incredible way to end a visit to the falls.

At the end is a nice rest station wtih food, wifi, drinks, a full bar, etc. - of which I probably took part in all those before starting a walk back to the start of the trail - going full pace without stopping as much took me about 40 minutes. Why did I do this? For two reasons - frist to just imbibe more views of the falls, and second as a hack because catchign the bus from the trail end back means waiting in a line at least 3-4 buses (they come in about 10 minute intervals), but I can catch a bus from the start (where most people get off), and take it to the end and just stay on. It worked perfectly. Not sure if it actually saved any time, but again - can't put a price on getting more amazing views.

Back in town, I headed to their one out and out local craft brewery - 277 Craft Beer, which is a really nice location and setup. They have a nice selection of like 20 taps, nearly all brewed in house, with a projector screen showing the last moments of Real Madrid's win over Man City, and a great place to spend time after walking quite a bit before. The beer also was quite great, with me trying four different brews going with half portions of each.

Dinner was at Santo Cupim, which seemed to be the most elegant of the various semi boteco's semi restaurants - basically places that serve all types of standard Brazilian fare, and have a full bar with anything imaginable. These places make up seemingly the remaining 50% of Foz do Iguacu restaurants, with the rest being more steakhouse like, but Santo Cupim seemed to be definitely the most earnest about the food.

For a starter, I got a Brazilian Linguica (sausage spiral) with yuca, which was qiute nice, the sausage spcied well and smoked a ton (if maybe a bit too much at first) before grilled on and served on a griddle. For my main I went off the board a bit to what was described as when translated "filet mignon flambeed in cognac with musrhoom and tarragon sauce". I ordered it, wiht a side of raddichio and bacon bits, and got something that was great but completely not what I was expecting. What was served came in a small cast iron dutch oven, and when opened revealed what basically was a brazilian stew. Luckily, it was excellent, the meat very tender and the sauce working well. Not sure what the cognac brought to the table, but it was fine all the same.

Post dinner, there are various night options in Foz do Iguacu. There's one club open Wed - Sun, 10pm - 5am, but from all pictures and a brief dalliance is more a club / hookah lounge / place more befit for Bangkok or that part of the world - which is sad because they had a live music band rather than just a DJ so the music was actually nice. I settled at "Authentic Bar" which was the one notable cocktail bar in Foz, which was excellent and had a nice crowd of locals, and finished the night at Rafain Chopp, a boteco version of the Rafain Churrascaria (more famous Foz restaurant), open till 2:30 (I left at 1:30), serving chopps or cocktails with live music. I've probably done less live music than I could've on this trip, so it was nice to get a little bit of that in an unexpected place in this town deep within Brazil.

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 7 - Sao Paulo

Day 7 - The Megacity

Sao Paulo is massive. By population living in the main city area, it is the largest city in the Americas, at around 12m people. Now, I don't know how well drawn the lines are for what is "in the city" - compare to say New York which has stablized around 8.5m in the five boroughs, but the five boroughs are at least super black and white. Anyway, this is a long way of saying the Sao Paulo is massive. It's also well built in most areas, with some really upscale neighborhoods that I would traverse over the course of the day. Similarly there are some super urban spots that are fairly staid and charmless. I stand by what I said yesterday, that Sao Paulo would probably be a great place to live, but really feel like my one day here of tourism (and crucially, two dinners) is about right.

The first stop in the morning was to walk down Avenida Paulista, their main thoroughfare that cuts through the financial heart of the city. Honestly, I was hoping for something more glamorous - if I can really fault Sao Paulo somewhere, it is their lack of cool, modern architecture. It's just a series of fairly nice but unmemorable buildings. Anyway, I then took the first of many ubers, and dealt with Sao Paulo traffic for the first of many times, over to lunch at Banzeiro.

Banzeiro serves amazonic cuisine, and is noted for doing it brilliantly, being in the Michelin guide for the last few years. The setting is really nice - well adorned and furnished with cool touches like palm being used to set silverware, and large kayak like figures as columns. It is very, very much Amazonic. For my main, I went with a tucupi based soup with mushroom and shrimp, which was excellent, if a bit more sour (probably more authentic) than a similar soup with squid I had at Aprazivel on my first full day. For my main, I got the belly of the piraracu fish (a more meaty version of piranha) - what's notable about the fish is the almost pork like taste & texture, which in this case worked really well, probably way healthier I imagine as well.

Lunch was graet, but I needed to walk it off, so what better way, I guess, than two museums. First was at the Museum do Ipiranga, which serves as a bit of a Brazilian history museum. It's housed in a beautiful yellow, ornate neo-roman style building in a large park in the Western part of Sao Paulo. Sadly, two of the floors were closed as some major damange during the pandemic to the roof is being tended to. Either way, the museum was really nice, if a bit too focused on the Portuguese conquests to now, with little actual talk about pre-colonization history. That said, they did not whitewash colonization, not that you would expect them to. The centerpiece of the museum is a large hall with four giant paintaings about their Independence they gained in the 1820s. I always forget how soon after the US Independence did Brazil get theirs - though in a simialr way where the ruling class was a lot of people heavy with Portuguese blood.

This museum was nice, and also had a great underground exhibit around deforestation across Brazil. It is amazing how much the environmental concerns are played up in these museums. I guess that's what happens when you have a country that smartly threw out the guy who was trying to turn the rainforest into a cash cow and replace him with a left-wing reasonable man. The underground part also allowed me enough time for the skies to fully open into a hellacious rainstorm that lasted about an hour. Most of it I spent in an uber back towards near my AirBNB, to the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). 

The MASP had three floors that are rotating exhibits and one mainstay floor at the top which I saved for last. I guess at times the other three can be multiple exhibits or just a single exhibit. This time they were all around LGBTQ rights, told through art. Again, three floors in the main city's main art museum - you love to see it. What was nice to was that about half of it was just great art, some just stunning paintings where I didn't really see any LGBTQ connection, but enjoyed the art nonetheless.

The top floor needs it own paragraph, as it was a pretty novel way of showcasing the permanent collection. It was a giant room - think of it as a warehouse almost, with just rows and rows of paintings. The paintins were framed but then held aloft within clear glass panes with space between each one. On the reverse side was the notecard on the paintaing (this was my only complaint - would've been a lot better to put it in front). There was maybe 15 rows, each with about 10-12 things. It was about 60% Brazilian art, but then that last 40% got is some Monet's, some great Van Gogh's, a couple Degas's, some Pizarro's, some Manet's and even some really haunting paintings from teh 1200s and 1300s from Portugal. It was a novel way to showcase art and elevated an already good selection.

The last bit of tourism was going to Croma Beer Co. a craft brewery tucked within one of the more upscale neighborhoods of Sao Paulo, one with tons of tree lined streets and bistro type restaurants, coffee shops, and in this case a lovely brewery thrown in. They had excellent beer, also had a dozen or so various IPAs to go (of which I grabbed a couple...), and a nice menu of which I got the house fries which had bits of bacon cut up on top. On the whole, a nice way to end a fairly quiet day of tourism in Sao Paulo, one spent for too long in ubers giving Sao Paulo's size, but more notably awful traffic.

Dinner was at D.O.M., which is probably best known to American's as Alex Atala's restaurant featured on chef's table. It holds true to just showcasing the various elements of Brazilian cuisine found in the wilderness. It also had a blackout where they quickly had a generator turn on, but made it the second time in 9 months wehre I've been at a tasting menu spot and had a blackout happen - granted this one way more explainable as there was a fairly violent thunderstorm outside. The food itself was pristine and excellent - though to me probably a bit less zany and fun as A Casa do Porco, and slightly more traditional than out there than a Lasai - but still just an excellent meal with some of the best desserts I've had at a tasting menu spot.

With a 7am flight tomorrow to Iguazu Falls, I wasn't left with much time to play with in terms of hitting the town, so I went back to an old classic - grabbing a couple cocktails at Fel before calling it a night. Again, Fel is much like Sao Paulo as a whole - incredibly competent, composed and professional, but maybe lacking the uniqueness of Rio or many other cities - a perfect place to make your ongoing cocktail spot, to take a date, etc,, but maybe not to be wowed.

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 6 - Rio to Sao Paulo

Day 6 - The Shift

There's a risk in front-loading a vacation. To be honest I'm not sure what the best way to order a trip is, especially when all the places are generally new so even if you have a preconceived notion of which is the best, you may be wrong. But that said, I came into this knowing there was a really high chance I would love Rio, and of course I did, and now I run the risk of the back half of the trip being relatively disappointing. Granted, that's part of the reason I threw Santiago onto the last couple days (a place that much like a Cape Town, or HCMC, I know well and know I will like). But what's really giving me anxiety is having left Rio where I had five basically cloud-free and literally rain free days, with what's becoming a pretty harrowing forecast for Iguazu Falls.

Well, after that long preamble, if we get to the day, it featured maybe the most notable tourism aspect of Rio, one that I intentionally left for a last - a trip to the Christ the Redeemer statue. I will say, I do wish the landing area at the summit was bigger - a la the midpoint stop up towards Pao do Acucar, but in reality maybe it was quite big but just way more crowded.

You can either buy tickets in advance or buy day of in line - but seemingly buying in line, despite Monday being a relatively quiet day, seems at least a 90min proposition in searing heat. The tram that takes you up takes a while, and sadly most of it is going through dense forest, but at a couple points there's a clearing and some spectacular views. Granted, these are teh same views you get even better at the top. 

Once you do reach the top (the tram takes about 15-20 minutes) there's either a series of stairs or an elevator, of which I took the elevator up and stairs down (probably for the best). After the elevator, another series of stairs with this time the alternative being an escalator, which very weirdly was hardly being used (many did use the elevator). Anyway, I zoomed past the stairs people on the escalator and got finally to the summit. I do like that when you reach the top you are initially placed at the rear of the statue - truly saving the best for last.

In a couple worlds the setting is phenomenal. The statue itself is regal and beautiful and a testament to old inventiveness, to have this statue lording (pun intended) over Rio de Janeiro. I will say, I always assumed it was bigger than it is, but having seen it from the ground level many times now I wasn't surprised today. Separate to the statue is the amazing views of Rio below you. I truly believe this gives better views than from the top of Pao do Acucar, by quite some distance. You can see the city so clearly below you - the crazy curvature, the giant lake near Copacabana (i.e. not the ocean side), and many details that I hadn't really seen before. Rio laid out like this is amazing.

After a fairly harmless trek down, I took off for Parque Lage, my last bit of tourism in Rio. This is a large park at the base of the mountain that the Christ the Redeemer sits on, and also at a corner of the Tijuca National Park (of which you can access the rest of through a trail out of the park). The main site in Parque Lage is the Palacio that sits towards the front, with a clear view of the mountain and Christ the Redeemer behind it. It really is a glorious view. Less glorious was the diabolically slow moving line to get in the palace (and the grounds of it, which take up the back two-thirds of the park). I gave up after 20 or so minutes with it seeming like the line was advancing 5 people per 15 minutes (I was about 30th in line). Overall, the view is great, but I'm notreally sure why it is so slow moving.

I left partially because I needed to grab a final steak in Rio before leaving (not planning to eat steak in Sao Paulo). The last spot was Majorica, which is an upscaled version of Braserie de Gavea from last night. Not really upscale in cost, but was mostly indoors, white tablecloths, more classy. In Brazil, this doesn't really mean better - it was about the same in being still fantastic. They have the same starting link of sausage, and then I ordered a heart of palm salad which was outstanding. For the steak, I got a top sirloin, which I wanted medium rare but it seemed they heard it through my accent as medium well.

I've never given back a steak in my life (though admittedly never really had reason to....), but kind of had to do so here. We joked about the lost in translation nature and they kindly refired another, which was bigger and if anything they went a bit too far the other way and gave it more rare. Was still excellent however. Brazil steak is for me right up there with its more famous neighbor in Argentina.

From there I had to head to the airport - this one being Santos Dumont, which is a story in itself. It is like London City airport, basically right in downtown, and the flight path when taking off takes you right over Pao do Acucar. Lukcily I had booked a window seat in the direction facing Rio, because I have to now admit two lies from earlier in teh piece. First, Parque Lage was not the last bit of tourism, and the best view of Rio is not from the Christ the Redeemer - because my God was that view from teh plane just magical. It was dusk when we took off, and you can literally see Rio just perfectly splayed out in front of you. We literally flew basically over Pao do Acucar - so early on you get the northern part of Rio (Centro, Santa Teresa, Botofago, etc.) and then the plane banks perfectly over to where you get a perfect view of Copacana and Ipanema, glistening with theri lights now on. Sure the view would have been even better during the day, but this was still a perfect way to say goodbye to Rio.

Landing in Sao Paulo and getting to my AirBNB was a breeze, the AirBNB in a super modern building - though the space itself is a small one bedreem, but with every amenity. It takes two seconds to realize in a way what Sao Paulo is about - this is the financial hub of the country and therefore is richer, more well built up, with fancier shops, restaurants, bars, etc., but ones that are far more similar to those in NYC than the uniqueness of Rio. Completely understand anyone's view that Rio is the better place to visit, but if you want / need to live in Brazil, Sao Paulo is a better go.

Dinner was at A Casa do Porco, the super highly rated pork-focused spot. More on that in a minute, but first was drinks at Fel, a really beautiful cocktail spot - large stone columns inside, calssy decor. The drinks were good, if not amazing, but again you get a level of precision (driven by wealth) in Sao Paulo. Anyway, to the meal, which was unreal. It is pork in every way. It is also $45 - the owners making a commitment to serving tweezery, 15-course meals (technically 8, but with a slew of small bites bundled into separate courses) at an affordable price point. All the plaudits to them - even getting the wine pairing gets you to $80. 

The meal was great, as is that they have a routine 10pm seating window which allowed me to eat here despite landing at 7:30pm. It did leave me with few options for postt dinner, as Monday truly is a quiet night, but after a bit of googling (after my initial spot was closed for a private event) I ended up at a scene. The spot was Riveira Club, which is open 24/7 - like literally so. It is a mob of people late at night,  but is also super secure and has the same pay by hotel room key card type thing that D-Edge had. There were people from all walks of life. The weirdest part is while it isn't really a cocktail bar (most were ordering beer) their cocktails were amazing. I spent way more time there than expected, and of course was able to end the night at a shawarma spot two blocks from the AirBNB. You can run from Shawarma, but can't escape it.

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 5 - Rio de Janeiro

Day 5 - Crisscrossing the City

I was wondering if Sunday in Rio would be notably quieter than Friday or Saturday, bur as I figured out fairly soon it is most certainly not. Much like my favorite Cape Town, Monday seems to be a bit of a "everything is closed" day, but Sunday is definitely not this way. Now, some of the late night spots that would've otherwise been open to 1am - 2am maybe close earlier (as we'll get to), but the Boteco's and street bars serving Chopp (draft beer) that are generally open until 3-4am and still open to that time on Sunday as well.

After that long preamble, let's get to the actual events of the day. It started with a trip in nature, in theory doing so before the height of the heat but as I'm quickly learning, it is inescapable here. Not that I'm complaining - I knew what I was getting into coming to Rio in the middle of their summer. Anyway, the first stop was the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Garden) of Rio - a tight 15x15 type area tucked into another new neighborhood called Gavea, which I would return to much later. 

Actually I was dropped a ways away from the actual garden entrance, as right now on one side of the road sits the gardens adn the other side is the Jockey Club, which converts into a tennis area during the Rio Open, which of course is starting today. So it made what was already going to be a heavy walking tourist stop into more of one, but the street was well lined with trees - as of course is the gardens themselves. 

The garden itself is quite beautiful. It's not as audacious as say Kirstenbosch, but also is far closer to the actual city - it's always nice when places carve out a big area that otherwise could be prime real estate for this. Inside the gardens were a number of areas that all had their own style - from overly foresty, to one area featuring Amazonic ferns and flora, to more open areas with flower beds, statues and fountains. The middle two intersecting lanes are lined with giant, truly giant palm trees, and the view of the montain with Christ the Redeemer sitting on top on one end. It's a stunning main event within the gardens. 

The gardens are a great time waste of about 60-90 minutes (I was on the shorter end, given the heat), and is probably the easiest way to get in touch with flora within Rio - the other two being Parque Lage (which i plan to go to tomorrow) and Tijuca National Forest, which sits outside the city and will be high on my list for a subsequent trip (that and the Maracana are basically the two things I didn't check off my list this time).

From there it was time to head to lunch, this meal also inspired by Somebody Feel Phil, as I took a trip to Aconchego Carioca, which serves dishes taken from the streets. In a way, all my lunches have been similar so far, but this was the place with street food most at its heart. Now, in Brazil that means a whole lot of fried stuff, and cheese and what-not, but damn if some of taht still isn't just really good. First off, their version of a standard Gin & Tonic  is always execllent, and doubly so here with a nice touch of juniper berries directly in the glass, slightly cracked to infuse even more flavor. 

For food, I started with two sets of three bolinhos - one a croquette filled with minced pork belly (excellent, if a bit dry), and manoic balls that come with a gorgeous yellow shrimp sauce that you put on top. Those were otustanding. My main was nearly as good - a guava sauce slathered pork rib set with "angu de pastel" meaning fried bread stuffed with cheese and with a dusting of sugar powder outside. Yes, this was super decadent. I was planning a good amount of walking and dinner wouldn't be until 9pm or so, and I admittedly didn't finish all of it. Not due to taste - Aconchego Carioca was fantastic, with my only quibble a lack of AC (they had fans, though not the most effective).

From there, I checked off the last two art museums, and probably last two new neighborhoods, off my list. First was the Museum of Modern Art (stylized as MAM) which sits in the Flamengo neighborhood, right up agaisnt the water and basically opposite the Santos Dumont airport (the road leading to it is the same). The museum is built in this modern industrial building, is free - and probably rightfully so as there isn't a ton of exhibits. What there is of there, though, is quite good - mainly now was an exhibition called "shapes of water" with various modern art pieces inspired by water, and then a side exhibit of "History of Brazilian Art" which focused on like the 1900-1980 period, with various Brazilian luminaries artwork being exposed. It was quick, but super effective. 

As was the nice walk along the water next to it as well. The Flamengo area being notable for having a small beach but a wider strip of park area with running lanes and the like alongside the coast. A different vibe than Copacabana or Ipanema to be sure.

The last stop was a ways away and flatly probably not worth the time it took to go and get back. It is the Museum of Contemporary Art Niteroi which is in Niteroi, a separate city on the other side of the bay. It took about 20 minutes to reach, a good amount on a giant bridge that connects Rio with Niteroi. The view from the bridge is stunning, and Niteroi itself seems to be quite an upmarket area - something similar in my memory to Vina del Mar in Chile. There were some beautiful seaside buildings that almost immediately start risiing up the cliff face.

The museum itself is notable first for its design - craeted by famous Brazilian architect (at least famous in architecture circles) Oscar Niemayer, the swirling design right on the cliff face is truly beautiful. Inside is anotehr smallish museum with three exhibits in this case, though again each one is curated well. The main one was featuring the art of Carlos Coelho, who seems to be something of a luminary himself. Then there was a series of modern sculpture from 1980-2017, which was a fun walk through forty years of design. Lastly was what might be to a Brazilian the least interesting, but to me the most - a circular walk through of costume designs used in last year's Carnaval. There was some theme from last year that I couldn't really discern, but the grandoise nature of the costumes, adn a collection of photos showing the size of the Carnaval on each side, was illuminating. It truly does look like such the scene, and one I'm probably fine missing this time but would like to experience at some point.

From Niteroi, I took the reverse route back over the Rio and back to Santa Teresa - the main stop being a handicraft store named La Vereda, but also to do a bit of walking around central Santa Teresa. It's small alleyways humming with life around 5pm - botecos filled to the brim, quite a few of tehm with live bands playing samba or bossa nova. There's just a constant sense of life in places like this. Even teh stores themselves were great - many selling clothes, which I'm not really into, but La Vereda did turn our amazing - just what a wanted, a place with a ton of everything all made in Brazil. If you want simple coasters, they have that. If you want prints, they have those. If you want stone work, they have that. If you want giant, good artwork, they have that. I did want the first three things - not the last.

From there, I went to a brewery called Three Monkeys, which I'm pretty sure is a name used by craft beer providers across the world - for instance I'm pretty sure that there was a Three Monkeys brewery or bar in both Palermo and Victoria Falls. Anyway, this one has the fairly novel setup where you pour taps yourself, pay by mL which is really nice allowing you to try out a bunch. They had a really amazing stout which sadly they did not have in bottle form for sale. Beer is key in Brazil, though I will say their craft options do seem maybe more limited than other recent countries I've been to.

After a session of R&R at the AirBNB, and packing up, I headed over to Gavea to go to Braserie de Gavea, a famed local steak spot that churns through tables and giant cuts of steak at good pace and quality. The place was packed - as was the nearby botecos and other bars, most open in this little enclave of Rio to 1am on a Sunday (as was the steakhouse). After about a 10 minute wait I was seated and given a menu with just pictures and portugeuse. I soon learned they come around with freshly smoked sausage that you can buy per link, served in churrascaria style. Then you can order a series of steak options but all cut to feed 2-3. They didn't really have single size portions of any of the interesting stuff. So I of coursed order a picanha with sides of farofa and rice mixed with a ton of veggies and pork (of course!). It was of course way too much food, but was so damn good. Even the fried rice was excellent - the steak was sublime, with me finishing about half of it and taking the rest to go (though as a spoiler, I had maybe two more slices late night). Overall Braserie de Gavea is popular for a reason.

I decided to go back to Leblon, another area that seemingly has more open late night on Sunday options than other areas. First I went back to Liz Cocktail, which closes at 12:30, but was once again excellent. I tried all new ones this time, including a few which is their spin on old classics (like their version of a paper plane), and all were just really well crafted and easy to drink (if anything, too easy). To end the night, and the nightlife portion of my time in Rio, I walked down the road to Jobi, a old school boteco type place that is open till 4am daily, with white shirt and tie waiters that sold ice cold chopp (draft beer - basic choice), and a series of late night sandwhiches in the like. I didn't have space for the sandwhich options, but juding by how others looked, I imagine they were excellent. It was a great place to thrown down a couple chopps (as always served in small portions - Brazil is crazy about ensuring a beer is never drank room temperature), and called it a night in this marvelous city. 

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 4 - Rio de Janeiro

Day 4 - Pao do Acucar

There are two main prominent geographical features (at least from a "look up" perspective) in Rio. One is the mountain where sitting atop is the Christ the Redeemer statue. I'll see that on Monday, one of my last bits of tourism before leaving this beautiful city. The other is Sugarloaf Mountain (Morro Pao do Acucar), which sits right in the middle of the city - somewhat dividing it, with Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon all sitting below it, and Centro and others North of it. Today was my day to see Sugarloaf, it was all encompassing, taking a bit longer than I expected - but so, so worth it.

The day started with a bit of a pain, whereby my tour of Maracana stadium was cancelled due to some maintenance issue that popped up as they prep for Carnaval. Now, Carnaval isn't hosted in the stadium, but I guess it plays some role or something. Who knows. So, with a morning now free (granted, I got up at 10:30), I decided to take another stroll along Copacabana beach. I'll say it now - I am not a beach person. Of course, even I can marvel at how beautiful the beach is, and more to the fact it sits right in the heart of a major city. If I was a beach person, I would have really loved it. This is doubly true when it comes to Ipanema beach, which we'll get to.

After getting my fill of Copacabana, and aroudn the time the searing heat was starting to maximize (I've gotten super lucky with zero rain in my time in Rio, but it has been very, very hot), I headed over to lunch at Miam Miam in Botofago (another neighborhood! this one similar to Leblon), which is a well reputed place serving plated up versions of classic Brazilian dishes. To start I got a dish of duck terrine and roasted chicken hearts - which I should say was me taking a risk. I'm not historically a fan of heart, and don't think this converted me, but the hearts were about as tasty as any I've had. My main was more successful, a classic dish - pineapple and pork fried rice - but elevated with fried onion for crunch, a mix of ponzu and clove for spice, and a truly slow cooked pork that just broke up on contact. It was great. It is this type of seemingly blah food that probably made me a bit averse to Brazil, but if you can get it in great versions like this it all works.

From Miam Miam, I started the trek to Sugarloaf. You technically can hike it but need to get tickets and get it approved. It also takes a long time. Instead, 99% of people (me included) go up to the top by cable car. It's far quicker - far more beautiful (I assume) and works in a super organized way. Technically there are two rides that are not connected. The first ride takes you from ground level to Morro Urca, which is a peak about halfway to the top of Sugarloaf. From here already you get truly amazing views of the city of Rio. There's a great view of Centro, with teh Santos Dumont airport where if you time it right in the day yoiu can have planes take off seemingly towards you. At this point, the Southern view of Rio (e.g. Copacabana) is a bit obstructed. The rest of the city is gorgeous. There's a lot to do at Morro Urca - way more than what's setup at the peak of Morro Pao do Acucar. Here at the medium stop you have a series of food stalls, bar stalls (including a craft beer one that was excellent), shops and even a DJ taht was spinning some good vibes, and of course this being Brazil prompting a fairly well attended dance party. 

After taking a 30 minute break to take it all in, I took the second cable car to the true top. The view is better - you see really the entire city from here. Copacabana beautifully splayed out to the South, with so many umbrellas and life on that beach when seen from afar. Ipanema is a bit harder to see but you can see parts of it jutting out from in between buildings. The rest of the city to the North as beautiful as ever. The Christ the Redeemer statue above it all. Other than Cape Town, be it from atop Table Mountain or from Signal Hill, I don't know if there's a city with a natural viewpoint quite like this. The crazy curvature and hilly nature of Rio lends itself to such a beautiful scene.

I came late enough in the day by the time I was heading back towards ground level so were most of the people so I had to wait at times 5-10 minute to get a cable car - they only run one in each direction at a time, though the ride itself is super quick (3-5 minutes). In the end, the entire process of going up, chilling around and on it, and then going down, was about two hours, but two hours really well spent.

From there I headed over to Ipanema Beach - again I had planned to spend time strolling the beach, but a combination of it being a perfect beach day for people who like beaches (sunny, blisteringly hot, enough wind to create waves) making it super crowded, and my own stupid lack of planning and not having swim trunks, made this much like my morning Copacabana stroll - one that was more about acknowledging waht a cool setup this is but realizing that beaches, even two of the more famous locations for them in the world, just aren't for me.

Ipanema is good for more than the beach though - just like with Copacabana go a block or two up from the beach and you are in a city. If anything, I prefer Ipanema the neighborhood - more bohemian, more townhouse type buildings and bars and restaurants, rather than the more concrete jungle of Copacabana. The last stop in Ipanema for me was the Delirium Cafe, a brewpub built by the Delirium brewery from Belgium, but they serve all types of beer - a mix of Delirium classics and then mostly Brazilian brews. Brazil seems to have a super strong beer culture, what with this place and RioTap as my two examples so far.

If it seems like I didn't do a lot in the day, that is probably fair, what with the late start, the Maracana tour being scrapped, and the last factor, which is my dinner at Lasai was a 7pm reservation. If taht name is familiar, it is because it was featured in the Somebody Feed Phil episode of Rio, as a tasting menu spot focusing on the best of Brazi. That all is still true. Their location changed - now in a small 12-person chef's counter setup where, and i mean this truly, I've never seen as much of the meal prepared in front of you like this. Usually these places may be only doing the last bits, but this was all of it. The whole production was mesmerizing. The food great as well - I prefered it to Oro despite it being more vegetable / produce focused, mainyl because Lasai was also a bit more inventive and audacious, with generally great success.

After Lasai, I stayed in Botofago, but headed first to Hocus Pocus DNA, a brewpub run by Hocus Pocus, a local craft option. Not sure what the DNA part of the name is about, but it doesn't really matter. The place was great. They served only half pours, which I liked as it let me try more of their offerings. From there, I had about an extra 90 minutes or so to kill before ending my night at D-Edge. I had a few options, but didn't realize that Canastra Rose, the cocktail bar/lounge taht I loved my first night, was about a 10-minute walk (again in a very well off and crowded area of Rio) away, so I headed over there for a repeat. 

It was busier (unsurprisingly, given this is a Saturday vs. that being Thursday), but the vibe no less great. I'm amazed how quick the four bartneders are with service given how many people are there. I generally had to wait no more than 5 minutes to get a drink. Their negronis are something truly special. In the end, I grabbed a pair of those, an old fashioned, and got into the dance groove - though this place is far more latin and/or hip hop than D-Edge, which is straight EDM.

D-Edge was about teh same as yesterday, namely excellent. The open warehouse style still has some pretty damn powerful air conditioning to make it all still feel quite airy. The bathrooms also shockingly clean for a place like this - to be fair though I've seen that trend across all the places I've been to so far in Rio, there's a general trend of cleanliness that I wasn't expecting. On this night I spent a bit more time on their roof bar, which I guess in busier times has its own DJ, but here was more just a place to chill. From there you can get a view of the city, though all the mountains and whatnot are dark - except for the top cable car station on Pao do Acucar, which they keep alit all the time. A great way to end a great night by staring at the beauty of what lies above.

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 3 - Rio de Janeiro

Day 3 – The Many Neighborhoods of Rio

The day started lazily, with me probably going out later than anticipated on night one (adrenaline is a hell of a drug), and then intentionally planning for a lighter first day. The morning started around 10:45, with a stroll down Copacabana. There’s a lot of signage about Carnaval, which is of course coming up in about two weeks. You may ask why go to Rio so close to Carnaval but not for it – and I guess all I’ll say is it’s better saving Carnaval for a subsequent Rio trip. Anyway, the beaches of Rio all seem to have their own life – Copacabana, at least near where my AirBNB is, is mostly about sports as there’s dozens of beach volleyball courts set-up – and nearly all were occupied (11am on a Friday). I can’t imagine what this area was like during the 2016 Olympics.

Anyway, after that it was time to leave the cozy confines of Copacabana and head north towards one of the many various interesting neighborhoods of Rio, this one being Santa Teresa, which is built on a hill. Rio’s geography is super unique – well, actually not sure unique is the right term as in many ways it is a bit like Busan – a city built around a bunch of hills and mountains that almost create 4-5 different cities that are loosely connected. Most of the Rio neighborhoods I’ll visit are at sea level, but Santa Teresa is an exception. Most of the other hills with stuff are favelas – Santa Teresa is not, and deep in the heart of it (and I mean after 10-12 winding turns) is Aprazivel – my lunch spot.

The main calling card of Aprazivel is the view – it is built on the side of the hill, with the road level being just an elevator that takes you to the restaurant below. I came early so was given a prime table with a view of a part of Rio just splayed out in front of me. It really is a stunning city. Anyway, Aprazivel may be known for the view, but the food is also quite good as well. They serve hardcore deep Brazilian cuisine, many things with an Amazonic twist. For instance, my starter was a squid soup with herbs and tucupi, which is a slightly fermented juice from the manioc (cassava), which was so perfectly tart. It truly was a great soup – almost a Brazilian version of a Tom Yum, if you will. The main was more staid but still excellent – a duck breast with black rice (a specialty in Brazil) and various greens. Just really solid food, and combined with a gorgeous view and Aprazivel was a hit.

From there I headed down the mountain to Centro – which is as close as Rio has to some sort of main financial area. Sao Paulo is certainly the business hub of Brazil, but this area had a few skyscrapers and whatnot. It also has two museums that are a draw, right up against the water in a large open square. The first is the Museu de Amanha (Museum of Tomorrow) which is as much an architectural marvel as a museum. It is a stunning white building that extends deep over the water (granted, on a pier) and is about realistically the world and climate change. I guess it’s a science museum, but halfway through it turns into a really nice display of climate change, overcrowding, deforestation (a big issue in Brazil especially given what they’ve done to the Amazon). It is chilling at times, beautiful in others (it almost doubles as a modern art museum) and is just a weirdly cool experience.

Next is the Rio Museum of Art – which granted is one of about four or five art museums in Rio, and despite its name isn’t really the best place to see classical art (Brazilian or otherwise). To be honest, not sure if there is such a place within Rio. This museum had about 4-5 exhibits, one large one featuring Brazil’s love and infatuation with first funk and then hip hop – with a ton of art and music posters and the like, mostly all from Brazil (with some NYC thrown in). Other exhibits were more classical art – featuring various Brazilian artists, all from the 20^th if not 21^st century. Is this an art museum that can stack up to the great art museums of the world? No, but in a way it was refreshing and new.

After this I was in centro which is near some of the more famous sights, but also a fairly empty financial district now that it was nearing 5pm. There were still enough people around to make me feel okay walking. Uber is easily used in Rio and in a pinch could take me from point a to point b well enough, but using my legs I was able to check off three spots that were all in close proximity. First the Portugeuse Library, which is basically a giant (four story) open hall of a library, with reams upon reams of old books on the sides. Now, this is all for show – they are real books but are now part of this large art piece. 

From there is a simialrly large hall, the Catedral Metropolitano, which is a giant open tepee like structure with vibrant stained glass, muted statues all kinds of light. It is haunting in a good way - unlike any cathedral other than a somewhat similar setup in one of Berlin's main churches (a nice 11-year old pull for me... man I'm old...). What's interesting about Brazil is it is the largest majority catholic country in the world and they don't have a neogothic like mega cathedral. Again, I'm happy they're going about it their own way.

The final stop was at the Escaladaria Selaron, the famous painted tile steps in Lapa (another neighborhood, a bit more bohemian vibe). It was unsurprisingly packed, but more suprisingly pleasant - the crowd was generally quite understanding of everyone's hope of getting a picture as unobstructed as possible. There was almost a natural order to it. As for the steps themselves, they are beautiful but so are the tile walls on the side iwth various drawings, outcrops, etc. The whole scene feels more European than South American, but the music, color and vibe was fully South American.

At this point I headed back to the AirBNB to rest up, charge the phones a bit, and then head out to another neighborhood for dinner at Oro, a 2-michelin star restaurant serving very fancy versions of upscale Brazilian cuisine. The restaurant was in Leblon, a tucked away upscale semi-residential, semi-nightlife neighborhood in the southern corner of Rio. Dinner was excellent (a full post to come on the tasting menus later), especially enjoying the incredible seafood and use of Brazilian produce, such as their second to last main, which was a delightful "Mushroom Many Ways" dish. Oro was a great time.

As was my cocktail spot for the night, at Liz Cocktail & Co, also in Leblon (about a 10-minute walk - this is a busy, in a safe, good way, night area). Liz Cocktail had a great theme of presenting two cocktails that relate to every decade from the 1890s to 2010s, all linked with an artist of the decade (e.g. the 1960s had two cocktails, one of which called the 'I want to hold your hand" for the Beatles). I tried about five of them (was there for 2.5 hrs), during which chatting with various Cariocas who all got a treat out of my story of being someone with a very Brazilian name, but knows no Portugeuse.

Finally when it was time to leave Liz, I headed over way to the northern end of Rio, to D-Edge, a club in a converted warehouse (it's near the port), that was a truly great time. There's two levels, and a pretty novel card system to pay for drinks where everyone gets a card of theirs (like a hotel key card) and then you settle up before leaving. The drinks were cheap, the bartenders fast. The music was great. The crowd got progressively bigger from 1:30 when I arrived to 3:00 when I left (it closes at 7am). It was a graet, great way to end the day, enjoying myself dancing the night away.

2025 Brazil Trip: Day 1-2 - Getting to Rio

Day 1-2 – Braziliero

I have never been to Brazil. Not that this by itself is all that notable, except I’ve been to a lot of other places within South America, and loved all of them – from Peru to Patagonia to Santiago to Buenos Aires. I love those places so much that I forced a two day retreat to Santiago at the tail end of the trip. For a long time, I’m not sure what really put me off on going to Brazil. It isn’t like it is difficult to get to – basically slightly further than Peru, closer than Santiago or Buenos Aires. It isn’t like I don’t have a fondness for the culture – especially since my last name is Portuguese. But whatever, the time has finally come.

The trip started nicely with a ride down to Sao Paulo in Polaris, with my upgrade stunningly clearing a couple weeks in advance – allowing me to avoid the always annoying last minute guessing game. It did give me also a few hours in the Polaris lounge, which was nice especially since seemingly the Sao Paulo flight from Newark is the last Polaris-accessible flight of the day, leaving at 10:45pm. By the time I was leaving the lounge it was basically empty other than my fellow travelers. No better way to start a trip than with a really nice Old Fashioned and then a Macallan neat.

The flight itself was actually pleasantly surprising. The food is always a dice roll on Polaris – with certain routes having decent food and others the old United garbage. Well, this one came out on the better side, with a really nice chilled ginger beef starter, and one of the better beef mains I’ve had on a plane – a really nice short rib and polenta. The wine list is always on point on Untied as well. The flight itself isn’t too long (9h15m), and before you knew it I was asleep and then being awakened to scarf down a surprisingly decent breakfast (frittata) before we landed in Sao Paulo.

I had about three hours to kill on my layover, which went quite quick with an ice cold beer (the glass was so chilled that the top bit of beer semi-froze – really nice!) and croquettes. The flight to Rio was something of an adventure, with a still pleasant outcome. The flight itself is 40 minutes. But first there was a mechanical issue on the plane that at least luckily they discovered just as they began boarding. Gratefully, GOL Airlines had another plane ready to go but it was in the other concourse. Then as we were taxiing the dark sky opened up and it began pouring. It seems like I have perfect weather lined up for Rio (granted, it’s hot) but this bit of a rain was an annoyance. Anyway, we ended up landing about 30 minutes late, which wasn’t too bad all things considered.

For this trip I’m staying in various AirBNBs, and the Rio one is a pleasant 1-bedroom, with really powerful AC (a must – the daily temp is about 75/92), and one block up from Copacabana beach. In a day or so I would come to learn that maybe I shoudn’t have just picked that location because I knew of it. Nothing wrong with the Copacabana neighborhood – and my stroll on the beach at dusk was a super cool feeling, but there are nicer neighborhoods across Rio.

Dinner the first night was at Assador, a churrascaria at one end of one of Rio’s many beaches, with a ton of outdoor seating that overlooks Sugarloaf Mountain (Pao de Acucar) glistening in the distance, and with a view of planes taking off from Santos Dumont airport (the secondary Rio airport). It was a great scene, even if a tad too hot for my liking. It was classic churrascaria setup with two interesting distinctions – first they did not care about the red v green card system – you can put whatever side you want, they will come around to you anyway. And maybe more interesting was their salads were served in a cart that went around as well – and there were some great things, especially some really nice heart of palm preparations.

But realistically, this place is about the meat – it started slow with rib-eye and sirloin, but then the real stuff started with round after round of Picanha, the now infamous Brazilian preferred cut. It was amazing – so juicy, so well cooked, the fat just perfect. The sauces they give you add so much as well. Then towards the end of my time there, they brought out a spit roasted half-lamb which was also just incredible. Maybe not as good as Borago’s lamb, but for a place like this, it was great. Pairing all that with a bottle of Brazilian red, and a glistening moon lighting up the bay and Sugarloaf, and it was about as good an intro to Rio as you can have.

My night activities on the first day (Thursday) kept me in that part of town, first to RioTap Beer House, which is like most bars in Rio – a semi indoor, semi outdoor spot with just a bunch of cool ass people. I don’t know if I’ve been to a city where the average coolness of a person is so high. Anyway, RioTap specializes in beer, in that they have 6-7 local tap options and then about 50 bottles, a mix of Brazilian and notable American craft labels. The bartenders also were quite knowledgeable, as on stout I wanted wasn’t available so thy recommended a few alternatives.

I didn’t really want to leave RioTap, but glad I did as the next spot was even cooler – called Canastra Rosa, this lounge turned semi-club at night was perfect – a perfect level of crowd (would probably be too much on a weekend), a good mix of locals and foreigners (at least judging by language, and great drinks – nothing too inventive, but good cocktails made well. The place had a good sized dance area, a side hall with giant chandelier and funnily audacious style, and then a second floor with some air. Just a great spot – granted one I probably won’t make it back to. Maybe on a subsequent trip – and yes, even 0.5 days into my time in Rio, I’m already thinking about subsequent trips.

2024 NFL Playoffs: Super Bowl Review

Player / Coach of the Game: Vic Fangio

It's weird because to some degree what the Eagles did wasn't all that crazy. It wasn't Spags crazy blitzes last year, or even Gregg Williams famous four gameplans in the Super Bowl win over the Colts. No, this was more him coaching up a team to just be perfect. Yes, the front was dominant just rushing four, but also his back seven was perfect. They covered and passed off routes so well. Fangio had drilled into that team these are teh route combinations, the way the Chiefs play. Mahomes can get rid of the ball super quic, but those guys just weren't there. This was a masterclass of a defensive performance, right up there with the Seahawks against the Broncos, or the Bucs against the Raiders.

Runner-Up: Jalen Hurts

I understand the sentiment people had around a defensive player winning MVP, as a symbol of how incredible the defense was. But units can't win MVP (granted, I'm open to it being a "Most Valuable Unit" award for the Super Bowl), so if we are going to go with one player, why not Hurts. He was great - making super accurate throws even to covered receivers (the back shoulder to Brown was practically Rodgers-ian). His scrambling was great - super quietly putting up the most rushing yards of any Super Bowl QB ever. He was great when the one thing people feared (the Eagles run game gets shut down) happened from the jump. The Chiefs defense played reasonably well, but Hurts was brilliant.

Goat of the Game: Patrick Mahomes

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll talk about the GOAT of it all later. But let's not mince words, this was maybe the worst game of Mahomes career. The funny part is that in garbage time he made two outrageous throws deep - hopefully the Chiefs learn from that (and reinforcing the OL). But in the first half Mahomes was bad. He was inaccurate when he was trying to get rid of the ball quick. He was skittish in the pocket. The two picks were just bad throws, if impacted by pressure. It was a nightmare. The Tampa Super Bowl loss everyone was comparing it to was him going above and beyond against impossible circumstances. This was him making things worse.

Runner-Up: Travis Kelce

Drops, slow play, and a failed attempt to draw a penalty. Kelce was able to breath some life into the offense last year in the Super Bowl (granted, only after Dre Greenlaw went out). He was able to breath some life in the Divisional Round win over the Texans. He was a slow, plodding mess in this one. Now, this wasn't the worst part of the game for the Chiefs (oh, we'll talk about the OL in a minute), but Kelce's drop to nothingness was stark.

Surprise of the Game: Serena Williams

Look, it was a blowout. There's not so much to talk about. I've actually not written one of these about a blowout, seeing that the last two blowout Super Bowls had some personal connections in the negative sense (Manning losing to Seattle, Brady beating the Chiefs). Anyway, Kendrick said there would be some surprises, and man, getting Serena Williams to crip walk in front of 130m people was about as surprising as you can get.

Runner-Up: Jake Elliott

Again, I'm struggling here to think of things to be honest. There was a whole lot surprising about the game - but those work better in the other categories. Especially since surprise is supposed to be a positive. For Jake Elliott, he was perfect on four field goals, three of which were 45+ yards, three of which after getting the field goal made longer by the Eagles somehow committing a false start on a field goal three times. Jake Elliott had a super up and down year, but he was nails in this game, a key part really as any miss (especially first half to make it 10-0) could've given the Chiefs great field position, something they really didn't have the whole game.

Disappointment of the Game: The Chiefs

I mean jesus that was an awful performance. Everything was bad. The only player coming out of the game looking better is Xavier Worthy. The OL sucked (more on them to come). The weapons, again Worthy excluded, all sucked (more on them too). The defense wasn't bad, but wasn't great either, with even dependable players like Jaylen Watson getting roasted by lesser Eagles players (Dotson). The only thing they did well was shut down Saquon - but even they should know while running can win games, at the end of the day stopping the run won't win you a Super Bowl.

Runner-Up: Saquon

I hate bringing this up, but man would it have been amazing if Saquon bust off a long one. The only thing that was missing from the Eagles domination (not that they, or Saquon himself, really care about). He did do just enough to set a new record for rushing yards in a season, but it was a downer of a finish. Granted, it seemed like the Chiefs really only cared about stopping Saquon, but would it have been great for after the capper TD to Smith they could have had a capper long rush with Barkley.

Team Performance of the Week: Eagles DL

Ok, let's get to the real stuff. The unit that dominated the game was the Eagles defense pitching a masterclass. Take it a step further, the sub-unit that dominated the game was the DL. It's funny because two years back I named the Eagles DL as the main disappointment - they had 70 sacks taht year and didn't get to Mahomes once. This year, it was insane. The no blitz stat is a tad misleading since on a handful of plays they brought a LB and dropped a DL, but Sweat, Carter, Davis, Smith, and even the backups Williams, Ojobo and somehow even barely playing Brandon Graham, all got in on the action. It was incredible. It was the best performance by a front since at minimum the 2007 Giants, if not further back. That was an incredible performance.

Runner-Up: Eagles Secondary

What helped the DL do even better is the secondary was super sticky as well. Dejean gets the headlines for the pick-6, but all along the secondary they were able to pass off routes so well, react to the Chiefs overloaded formations, and gave the DL just long enough to get home play after play. Hell, even long ago benched Avante Maddox had a big pass breakup on 4th down. The Eagles secondary didn't need to play amazing to win, but they did and that's why we get a historic level blowout.

Team Laydown of the Week: Chiefs OL

I'm overly critical of the Chiefs OL because unlike in the 2020 Super Bowl loss to the Bucs, this wasn't a bunch of backups. This was four of their five starting OL - granted one out of position. The mainstays in Taylor, Smith and Humphrey were barely better than Thuney and Caliendo. They were all just disasters, beaten play after play after play. Zero push in teh run game either - you can't even criticize the Chiefs for not running the ball more since they get nothing on run plays anyways. The Chiefs OL if they played their best may have still not really turned the game, but at least made it closer and at minimum entertaining.

Runner-Up: Chiefs weapons

Well, even when the Chiefs OL gave Mahomes time to throw the ball, the weapons were of zero help (save for Xavier Worthy). The Kelce drops and missed blocks. The terrible drop by Hopkins on what would've been a ~50 yard gain. The nothingness from Pacheco and Hunt. Did the other TEs even play? This was an overall team disaster. We get on the Chiefs weapons a lot - and I get it, this isn't a top unit. But they're sure as hell of a lot better than that...

Storyline that will be Beat into the Ground: The end of the Mahomes GOAT talk

There's a reason why I didn't bask in the glory of the Mahomes > Brady discourse following each of the last two Super Bowl wins. And this is 100% of the reason why, because of course the scores of never-ending tweets and articles and talking head segments about how this ends the GOAT talk. Can we just let this Mahomes brilliance just ride out. Also, the idea that it is a non-starter because Mahomes has been blown out in the Super Bowl is such nonsense. We're seven years into Mahomes career. Through seven years he is way outpacing Brady's first seven years. This is the 5th best outcome of Mahomes's career (3 Super Bowl wins, and a slightly closer Super Bowl loss). The 5th best outcome of Brady's first seven years was blowing a 21-3 lead in the AFC Championship. There's no comparison. The only real thing that matters in the inevitable debate is if Mahomes can either (a) build up enough of a lead over the next seven years, or (b) match Brady's longevity in a third set of seven years. So let's all just pause any GOAT discussions for at least three years.

Storyline that Should be Beat into the Ground: The Eagles Dominance in team building

It's so funny that the Eagles team building approach basically boils down to: just draft dominant players and sign them in free agency. They've overloaded on SEC players (remember all the "they're only drafting the 2021 Georgia defense... not so funny now!). They went out and traded for AJ Brown. If that's not their maxim, then it is their propensity to over focus on making sure their OL and DL are super strong. This was true in 2017, when they had the league's best OL and a super strong DL (Fletcher Cox and Co.). This was true in 2022, when they still had a strong OL and a record setting DL (Hasson Reddick and Co.). And it is of course true now. The Eagles I'm sure are super smart, and we know they're analytically inclined, and of course I'm reducing their brilliance to these simple maxims, but sometimes the "keep it simple stupid" approach just, you know, works.

Screw It - Super Bowl LX pick: Bills 27  Eagles 20

2024 NFL Playoffs: Super Bowl Pick

(A1)  Kansas City Chiefs  (15-2)  vs  (N2)  Philadelphia Eagles  (14-3)

Sun, 6:30  -  FOX  |  KC -1.5

The Matchup:  I'm going with my gut and going with the Eagles pulling this off. Granted, I picked against the Chiefs in the Championship Game, and picked the Texans to cover in the Divisional Round. That said, I'll go through my five key raesons shortly that at least have me believing I'm being rational. I'm not a Chiefs hater. I would actually be perfectly fine with the history of a threepeat, and have generally found them a fairly likable dynasty (well, at least compared to the last NFL one...). I didn't make a pick last year, but I did have the Chiefs going into that game. I did two years ago as well. I just think this is a better version of the Eagles that lost two years ago, playing a slightly worse version of that Chiefs team. Anyway, here are my five key reasons for picking the upset:

1.) The Eagles run game can take over in a way the Bills came close to doing: the Chiefs are generally good at not giving up huge explosives, but as the Bills shoed (and more scarily, the Texans showed the week earlier) you can run on them and get chunks. That is an awful weakness against the Eagles.

2.) The Eagles OL should be able to contain Chris Jones better than others to date. Granted, this is probably of the five, the most likely for me to jsut be wrong. Chris Jones in the playoffs the last three years is on all time heater. He can dominate this one, but the Eagles OL is great side to side, and at the very least can easily double team him with good trust that the other guys can go 1:1 and be successful.

3.) The return of Dallas Goedert. The Chiefs match up well with the Eagles two outside receivers. Though much like my view of Chris Jones, it shouldn't be a shock to anyone if Brown and Smith win their 1:1 matchups against McDuffie and Watson. But Goeder matches up super well against a Chiefs team that struggles against TEs.

4.) The Eagles can dominate the interior. The Chiefs moving Joe Thuney to LT has been a masterstroke, fixing the biggest issue of the Week 1-16 Chiefs. That said, moving Thuney outside has undoubtedly made the Chiefs interior protection lesser. Hasn't mattered against teams with so-so interior DL like the Texans and Bills (though even there, Ed Oliver had a great game). That is not as good a setup when needing to go against Jalen Carter.

5.) The Eagles won't be scared. The Eagles are a good sitautional football team. Definitely not as good as the Chiefs - but from a tush push that actually works, to a line that can give Jalen protection, to a secondary that can play well in teh red zone, the Eagles are to me the second best team situationally after the Chiefs. There's still a gap - and of course if this comes down to a last drive where Mahomes has to make something happen, of course that is a terrifying place to be in. But if the Eagles find themselves like the Bills did driving up 22-21, I trust them to get those yards and get the points.

The Pick: Eagles 27  Chiefs 23

The Doncic Trade

I was sitting at a very busy, more so than usual, The Moose & Firkin in Vaughan, chilling at a barstool, chatting with some local Vaughan-ites, when I checked twitter and saw Shams initial tweet, taht Luka Doncic has been traded to the Lakers for Anthony Davis. I immediately had to re-read it three times to ensure I was actually taking it in properly. Then I saw that Tim McMahon retweeted it, so I was pretty sure he wasn't hacked. Still, it seemed fake. Like was I misreading it and ignoring Shams saying "they woudl explore in offseason" or something. Like this can't be real.

I texted my friends group chat and groupme and we launched into a great 90 minute back and forth on it. All of su, as is to be expected, were on teh side of this is ludicrous, stupid and completely braindead for the Mavericks, but at the very least it made 12:15 through to The Moose & Firkin's 2am closing time a lot of fun (don't worry, I uber).

Two days later, I'm still not really sure of what to make of it. Reports have emerged that are at least attempting to explain it (slightly), from reports of the Mavs just disgust with Luka's effort into conditiioning (more on this to come), to the what was once hairbrained but has some legs theory that this is some 3D chess move to tank fan interest for the Adelson's to be able to move them to Las Vegas. But it all remains that this is by far the most inexplicable, stupid, unprecdented trade in NBA history. 

Every layer makes this even dumber - including the revelation today taht the Mavs intentionally looked to keep it quiet between them and the Lakers, lest Luka find out and create noise by wanting out. Of course, they wanted him out, so that was ridiculous. Then was the even better revelation that the Lakers brilliantly negotiated the Mavs to give away less, in a situation where the Mavericks should ahve held all the leverage.

Simply put, what makes this the wrost trade ever is very simple: we've never seen a player of this caliber been willingly given away when money wasn't the main factor. Granted, money was a bit of a factor - seemingly the Mavericks not wanting to tie up supermax money in Luka -  but critically they could from a financial standpoint. They just actively viewed that as a bad investment. In a capped league, it absolutely is not. But anyway, truly this was unprecedented.

The only comparison I could even think of was the Red Sox trading away Mookie Betts in 2019, fresh off winning the World Series, with Betts as at worst the #3 player in MLB. The Red Sox could afford him of course, but squarely said money was the issue in trading him away. It was dumb, as dumb as this. But at least they (1) made it clear it was about money, even if that was ridiculous, and (2) at least held something of an auction. 

We also have situations like the Edmonton Oilers trading Wayne Fucking Gretzky in 1988, but again they squarely blamed money from teh beginning. If anything, the Oilers stand as the best case scenario - they still had a good enough team to win the Cup in 1990, and then slid into irrelevancy for 25 years, save for one fake, crazy run to the Cup Final in 2006. That slide into mediocracy and irrelevancy may easily befall the Mavericks.

You just don't trade players of his caliber, especially in capped leagues. I don't care if he's fat and lazy at best (and I guess potentially something of a functional alcoholic at worst), he is one of the Top-5 players in the league despite that, and someone who drug your team to the NBA finals literally seven months ago. It is malpractice to just willingly give up on him. If we want to focus on his weight, let's turn our attention to the Pelicans, who have moved heaven and earth to keep Zion Williamson, a player who hasn't hit Luka's highs and has been far fatter at his lows, on the 10% chance he turns his life around. And you know what? That's the right thing for the Pelicans to do.

The Mavericks are not acting rationally. It either will be that this is part of a giant long ploy by ownership, or truly Nico Harrison is just dumb. Honestly, even if he's proven "right" in that Luka stays oft injured, oft in-shape, and ultimately never leads the Lakers to a title, you still don;'t make this move, because the alternative is worse. The Mavericks got so lucky that the Suns and Kings stupidly passed on Luka, and the Hawks preferred Trae Young (who ironically is still there). They had a generational player fall into their laps, and he delivered - from five 1st team All-NBA selections, to making the WCF in 2022 and Finals last year. And they threw it all away.

The view on this trade was so overwhelmingly negative, so overwhelmingly shocking, that I don't think it changes anything long term in the league. People will realize this is an outlier of a rogue GM just acting dumb and emotional. I don't think other league superstars shoudl be on notice. 29 other teams would have seen the fallout and it has been enough to spook any team even contemplating something similar back inside. And for good reason - you don't trade 25 year old Top-5 players.