Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Our FAVORITE Cafe - Baby Lanches

So after only a short week up in Maceio and San Luis we headed out to visit Rio (Dave served his mission here and I really wanted to see my first new Wonder of the World). We flew in and stayed at a hostel in Copa Cabana- a popular vacation spot for Frank Sinatra and friends, and just walked down by the water that first night and stopped by a market. We found a nice little juice/snack shop called Baby Lanches that night that had some amazing juice - and we were ADDICTED!

Andrea, Me, & Josh up at the statue

Next day started with some more juice then we headed to go see the Christ the Redeemer Statue. It was amazing and it does just sit above the city and it so big you can just see if from everywhere. Of course there were tons of tourists so we had to fight to get some of the pictures but overall it was just so cool to see the statue and the view. After we headed down and got some lunch we made our way over to the Pao de Asucar (Sugar Loaf) where you take a Gondola up and you really can get about a 360 degree view of the city. We got up there and just shorly after the sun set and the city lights all started to come on - this is highly recommended to anyone visiting here (unfortunately my camera died before the sun went down but I'm actually kind of glad because then it's just a great memory I have)! Oh and don't worry we got juice on the way home, then surprise Kareoke back at the hostel so we stayed as long as we could until we finally went back for more juice and some quiet for our sanity, then back to get a good night sleep (yeah right!)

A view of just part of the city from the Pao de Asucar

Let me just quickly describe the hostel - we were staying in a room with 6 bunkbeds all 3 beds high = 18 people total. A group of Math students from University of Washington were actually staying in the same place so that was fun to talk to them but I had about a 30 year old man on the bunk above me and everytime he rolled in the night I woke up with a shear panic that he was going to collapse on me. Although I'd definately not trade Josh for his experience - that first night while reading some of our "roommates" decided that it didn't matter if they were in a room with 16 other people, at least they had the courtesy to hang up a sheet on their second bunk - although it wasn't soundproof and poor Josh got the worst birthday present ever. I'm so sorry Josh but just so glad that I was so out of it, we promised that he would never have to stay in a hostel again in a room that big.

How we felt about the "incident" - Josh threw up in his mouth!

Tuesday - Happy Birthday Josh, and what better way to celebrate or cheer you up then with JUICE! Then we went a toured a pretty intense Cemetary that was actually just down the hill from a Favela (these are neighborhoods up the hillside - where people just went up and took the land, but they are very shady and each Favela is overseen pretty much by different drug lords so they don't pay for the land or anything but they kind of pay for protection and they are very dangerous to say the least)! Afterward we headed to this great Botanical Garden (the largest one located in a city) and just walked around - I could only imagine how beautiful it would be in the spring with flowers in bloom. Later we headed to the center of Rio to a huge market, but it was mostly a market for DVD's, Nike clothing, and a bunch of random stuff that I didn't have room for in my bags but it was really fun to see this side of the city. [Oh yeah while there I wasn't paying the best attention and totally fell of a curb, it looked hilarious but actually hurt!] Later we headed back to the juice shop of course then back to sleep with a hopefully peaceful night.
One of the Favelas we walked near by - pretty intense!
Wednesday - we headed down to the beach in the morning (grabbing some juice on the way) and later walked around Copa Cobana some more and to the mall to get some books in Portuguese for Dave. Today we just took it easy and enjoyed being in Brazil. We ended the day and our trip by celebrating with lots of juice - our last time at Baby Lanches (8 times total for our short stay in Rio) then headed back to the hostel and left super early the next morning to wait in line for the longest time ever with TAM airlines - (It was seriously like Meet the Parents when the counter just sits there and types like 800 things to issue us one bording pass - and they suffer from a company wide staple shortage!)
We LOVE the Juice - and Guarana!

But all in all Rio was great and a dream come true to see the sights!