Early in the trip we were able to go see a few sights during one glorious day. The highlights were definitely Copacabana Beach and Sugarloaf Mountain. The beach had the nicest sand I have ever seen (I'm not even a beach guy) and was so clean. There was no trash anywhere! People were playing volleyball, another game similar to volleyball but using your head and feet only, guys selling bikinis from a large umbrella, and drink vendors selling water, beer, coconut water, and various other alcoholic drinks. We were not on the beach very long but I enjoyed every minute.
Sugarloaf Mountain gave us views of the whole city and the Copa and Ipanema beaches. Rio is a beautiful city and it looks even more magical up on the mountain. To get up there we took two trams, transferring from one to another on an intermediate mountain. The weather was perfect while we were there and view was gorgeous.
As with all my Olympic experiences, the people that I work with are fantastic! Every two years our "Olympic Family" shows up to work for three weeks helping to bring the viewers the wonderful sights and sounds of the games. Just in our department there are over 40 people. There are producers, associate producers, associate directors, editors, interns, production assistants and EVS operators (playback of segments). With a "live" Olympics our job is sometimes a little easier, but trying to get our segments edited or time slipping for the audience is always a challenge. There have been a couple days where we had to use multiple edit rooms just to get our segments to air. The viewer would never know that happened which is always the goal. To see how many people work on these games please watch the credits on the final night. These people have put in at least 12 hours a day for the last 3 weeks. Some much, much longer. Thank you for watching and reading!