Iguazu Falls Day 1

Our third day in Rio de Janeiro got off to a super early start, because we were catching a flight to Iguazu Falls which takes about two hours.  We were rewarded for getting up early though, when we got to breakfast and saw the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean.  As always, pictures don't do it justice, but this was one of my favorites.

We got on the bus, and a lot of people fell asleep, but I wanted one last look at Rio.  We drove by the Christ the Redeemer statue and I imagined that he was saying goodbye, come back soon.

The flight was fairly painless.  I discovered that one of my favorite parts of this whole guided travel thing was that Marcia had printed our boarding passes and paid porters to help with the bags, so all I had to do was hand over the passports.  The airport was nice and clean, we had a short wait, a short flight, and then we were in Iguazu.  Once again, Marcia had arranged porters, so Jeff went over to ID our luggage, while I succumbed to Elena's insistence on taking her picture with Superman.

We met our special Iguazu guide, Val, who took us to a new bus.  Val explained that we were going to go to the hotel to drop off the bags, but that we couldn't check in yet, since it was too early.  Never fear though, since our hotel was inside the park, we could make use of the walking path and get a look at the waterfalls right away.  Then we would have time for lunch, and by then the rooms would all be ready.

It wasn't a long drive, and when we pulled up to the hotel, the first thing that I noticed was that it was pink!

Then we walked a few more steps towards the sound of rushing water and got our first glimpse of part of the waterfalls, wow.

The river is the border between Argentina and Brazil, so the falls themselves are in Argentina, but the view from Brazil is spectacular.  There is a walking path on the Brazil side along the almost two miles of waterfalls, and it starts right in front of the hotel, so we walked along it.  We tried to get pictures with the girls and the falls, but they weren't always cooperative.

Jeff also got some great panorama shots.

I like some of my smaller shots too.

It was just so spectacular.  When we finished with our walk, we waited for a while for the rest of our group and had a close encounter with a coati, which is a relative of the racoon.  Our guides had been very clear that these were not cute animals to be petted, and we had to keep repeating this to Elena.

Jeff also spotted a cool butterfly.

We took an elevator up to a little shopping and restaurant area where we had two options for lunch, a fast food court or a buffet restaurant.  We opted for the buffet, and Elena was especially pleased to see that they had decorated for Christmas.

We got a table with a lovely view of the Iguazu River before it goes crashing over the falls.

We got our favorite Brazilian drinks and the food was really good, so we had a leisurely lunch there.  After lunch, we took a look at the stores, but there were only a couple, one selling souvenirs and the other selling expensive jewelry.  Eventually, it was time to take the bus back to the hotel.  When we got there, they escorted our group to a lovely room where we waited with welcome drinks while they handed out keys and we identified the luggage we wanted sent to our rooms.  The girls made a beeline for the chess set by the window which cracked me up.

Jeff relaxed under the portrait of the first Emperor of Brazil.

At first we were a little puzzled at the title of emperor, but then Jeff started doing some research on Brazil.  It is actually the 5th largest country on Earth after Russia, Canada, China, and the U.S..  He also found this map, showing how Brazil dwarfs Europe.

One of my friends shared the fun fact that the easternmost part of Brazil is closer to Africa than it is to the westernmost part of Brazil.  Overall, we felt that someone who controlled the whole country was perfectly justified in calling himself an emperor.

While we were researching, the girls were enjoying their new hotel room.

Ours was connecting with slightly different decor.

The rooms were quite a bit smaller than what we had had at the Sheraton, but I loved the tile in the bathroom.

The real selling point for the hotel though, were the grounds, so we got changed into swimsuits and headed out to explore our pink paradise.

They had a VW van, pink of course, and inside were Santa and Mrs. Claus with a bunch of presents.  The light wasn't great, but I couldn't resist a picture.

Our final destination was the pool, a lovely spot with comfy loungers and pool side service.

I absolutely loved the little parrots at the top of the stirrers.

After a while though, it was time to get cleaned up and ready for dinner at the hotel's buffet restaurant with our group.  The hotel was beautifully decorated for Christmas, so we wanted to get some pictures with the girls before dinner.

They insisted on taking one with us too.

By the end though, they were getting a little punchy.

The dinner was delicious, but the girls were beat, so they asked to head back to the room without us.  We weren't far behind though.  We tried to get a couple more pictures of the tower and the van, but the light was not our friend.  Still, you can see Santa and Mrs. Claus in there.

We got back to the room to find two children, sound asleep.

It was a long, but wonderful first day in Iguazu.

Rio de Janeiro

Our epic adventure got off to a great start in beautiful Rio de Janeiro.  Getting there was rough though.  We had an overnight flight, and we ended up in the row in front of the exit row, so the seats didn't recline, and I swear we had less legroom than usual.  It was pretty miserable.  Then we got stuck in an epic traffic jam on the way to the hotel, but our tour guide, Marcia, had arranged for early check in, so we got right into our connecting rooms and opened the balcony to look out at this view.

Vacation officially started!  We all needed a nap though, and then we treated ourselves to room service breakfast to fuel up for beach time.

We tried the pool for a bit, but the beach was SO much better.  The waves were serious though, so Elena had to hold someone's hand if she wanted to go play.

We were at the Sheraton, which is in the shadow of one of the mountains, a bit outside of the main part of the city.  We enjoyed being a bit off the beaten track.

Vivian LOVED the waves.

We got four complimentary drinks on check in, and when in Brazil the right thing to do is drink caipirinhas, especially when they can be delivered to you on the beach for free.

We didn't forget about responsible parenting though, and we had the girls take a sun break in the shade of our umbrella.  They were perfectly happy poking around in the sand.

We enjoyed the beach until everyone started to get worn out again, and then went back to the room for room service dinner.

From our balcony we could see the glow of Rio's famous beaches across the way and enjoy the sound of the waves.

The next day, we were well rested and ready to start officially being tourists.  We had booked a cruise tour which added five days of land based sightseeing to our cruise.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go, since we've never done anything like that before.  I was worried it was going to be a big group, but there were only 16 people in our group, including the four of us.  The girls were the only kids, and Jeff and I were about 20 years younger than the rest of the adults.  Everyone was really friendly though, and our tour guide was great, so we got on the bus and got ready to see Rio de Janeiro.  

One of the first things we learned was that it got its name because it was "discovered" in January, and the Portuguese thought the bay was the mouth of a big river.  Another fun fact is that different beaches have different patterns on their walkways, so for example Ipanema

looks different from Copacabana. 

They actually sell Copacabana t-shirts with the sidewalk wave pattern on them.  Even though it was total beach weather, there was still some holiday spirit with a Sanda Claus.

Our first stop was the cable car to take us up Sugarloaf Mountain.  The cars themselves were quite big, but they had lots of windows.

It's a two phase ascent, and people thought the man who designed it was crazy.  When you look at the mountain, you can see why.  I got this photo after the fact, but it shows the first stop and then the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.

The view at the first stop was already spectacular.  You could see all around the bay.

There was a small airport in the bay as well, and it was so cool to watch the planes come in for a landing.  We hung out there for a while, enjoying the breeze and the view, but then it was onward and upward.

The views were even better from the top.

The picture below shows the famous beaches on the far side of the hills, and on the closer side is the station where we started off.

There was a special walkway for taking pictures, and Elena, with zero fear of heights, made a beeline for it.

We got time to just relax and enjoy the view, and we all agreed that it ended up being one of our favorite parts of our trip to Rio.  The next stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral.  When we first drove up, we had some serious doubts about the architecture.

It's meant to look like a Mayan temple, but mostly it looks like ugly concrete.  Once we got inside though, we changed our minds.  The interior is one huge, open space with no columns and beautiful, multicolored stained glass windows.

There were also several modern statues at the various entrances.

Our final verdict was that it was one of the coolest cathedrals we've ever seen, definitely different, but very beautiful in its own way.  After the cathedral, we continued through the city.  It's a large city with lots of interesting architecture.  I'm not going to include all the pictures we took, but there are a couple things that stood out.  One was the aqueduct that now serves as tram tracks.

It connects this little neighborhood to the rest of the city.

There were also beautiful tiles all around.  I managed to catch the ones on this bell tower.

We also drove past the huge concrete grandstands where the Carnaval parades take place.  We don't have a picture to do it justice.  Honestly, my takeaway is that it would be best to watch it on television, because I don't know how you can see from the top.  Still, it was impressive and took up a huge amount of space.  You can see that Carnaval is a top priority in Rio.

We were running early for lunch, so we stopped for a photo op at Copacabana beach.

Vivian's shirt for the day was a Christmas present from Aunt Dana.  It says Bacteria: The only culture some people have.  It was an immediate hit with the microbiologist and nurse in our tour group.  

On the tour description, it said that we would have a typical grilled lunch.  We told Marcia that our favorite Brazilian steakhouse was Fogo de Chao, and she said, that's where we're going for lunch! It was a great surprise.  The chain actually started in Sao Paulo, and the one in Rio is fairly new, but the food was fabulous as always.

After a meaty lunch, we were off to visit Christ the Redeemer.  To get up our next mountain we took a tram/train.

The view out the windows was fun, but the view from the top was even better.

In addition to the bay and the ocean, Rio also has a lagoon.  For the holidays, they had a Christmas tree floating in it.  It's hard to see from the photo, but we drove by it later in the bus too.

The statue itself was quite impressive.

There was a large crowd around the base, and many people were lying down on the ground to get a good angle for the shot.  It seemed like a recipe for someone getting their face stepped on.  Elena wanted me to lay on the ground and take a picture of her with her arms up like other people were doing.  I love her a lot, but I stood and got this shot instead.

All Vivian wanted was a Guarana soda, because it was quite hot by then.  I had introduced her to the soda the day before at the beach.  I remembered how much I had liked it the last time I was in Brazil and thought she might too.  Sure enough, she is now hooked.

After our second mountain of the day, we were all pretty much done.  Back at the hotel, we washed the kids up and ordered them room service again, but Jeff and I had enough energy to go to one of the hotel restaurants for a light dinner.  I ordered my favorite drink,

and enjoyed the view.

Our final verdict is that we absolutely loved Rio de Janeiro, and would be happy to go back any time.  The spectacular combination of water and mountains, good food and friendly people is hard to beat.  Thank you Rio!