Rio Part 1

Our first stop on the trip was Rio de Janiero.  Rio turned out to be a great city - lots of stuff to see, lots of places just to hang out, very friendly people, and really good food.  It definately made my list of place to visit again.

The view from the apartment we were staying at.  Half block from the beach.

Ipanema beach on the left, Arpoador beach on the right, the Christ statue is really small in the middle, and Sugar loaf is off in the background on the right



Fishing off Arpoador rocks



Strolling down Ipanema

Does the coolness of drinking out of a Coconut offset the wierdness of the taste of Coconut water?

 We took a couple of Gondolas up to Suger Loaf mountain - a prominient slab of rock 1300 ft high.  The mountain is surounded by rainforest.  Though a little cloudy when we went up - the views were still great.

The first gondola going up

At the midlevel platform with Sugar Loaf in the background

The second gondola - still going up



And finally to the top



There were these Sagui Monkeys up on the mountains.  They were cute but a large group of them started circling us (I guess wanting handouts) and we found ourselves in a tornado of monkeys. 

The rainforest on the top.

When in Italy you eat gelato - when in rio you drink succo.  The number of different types of fruit juices seemed infinte.

There is a cable car that runs from downtown Rio to the hill top neighborhood of Santa Theresa.  If you see it coming you just jump on the side – a popular pastime with the neighborhood kids.  The resulting chaos and merriment was some of the most fun we had. 

The Cable car

A kid doing tricks off the walls of the road.

Laura hanging on.

We made a couple of friends on the ride

Awesome tree we found just walking around

A foot-volley ball game after sunset on Ipanema.  Its like volleyball but you can't use your hands.