Rio de Janeiro

Rio De Janeiro is about 1.5 hours from Petropolis.  When we told people we were heading there for a few days they all told us to be really careful.  Even though I didn't feel like I was traveling somewhere dangerous I knew I didn't want to take Jared and Lydia.  Mostly because of the nature of the trip (Mark reuniting with mission people) we already knew it wasn't really a kid friendly trip but I could tell Mark wasn't interested in worrying about them in the city too.   He found us an Air b-n-b in Barra da Tijuca which was about 35 minutes away from the city center.  It is where his mission office was and where they are building the Rio de Janeiro Temple.  Our place was right across the street from the beach and had a lovely view and a hammock on the balcony.  Our first day there was all rainy the second day was better and the third day was all sunshine.  We used just about every form of transportation in Rio.  Mark was not interested in driving in the city and he was especially not interested in finding and paying for parking there.  We started with a taxi from our Air b-n-b to the bus station.  From the bus we got on the Metro and then walked where we needed to.  We also used Uber a lot which worked great as long as we could find an internet connection which wasn't too hard.  The funny things about visiting Rio is that none of the places were visited were actually places he served.  He told me that he didn't serve in any pretty places.  The neighborhoods he lived and worked in were too dangerous for us to go into.  I'm glad he made it out of there with only stories to tell.

Beach on one side, Lagoon on the other. 

Our typical lunch in Brazil.  Meat, black beans and rice.  Mark mentioned that while he lived there lunch was the big meal of the day.  I loved this.  It was way nicer to relax and eat a nice meal in the middle of the day.  We found a restaurant called Kilograma where you pay by weight.  We loved it and ate there each day we were in Rio.  

Day 1

SARAA Market for souvenirs

Escadaria Selaron

Parque Lage

Temple Drive By

One of Mark's favorite Brazil memories was all the fruit and fresh juice.  SARAA Market is where all the locals go to shop.  You can find pretty much anything and its much more reasonable than actual shopping centers.  We found what we were looking forward and sound fresh juice which he was excited about.  

The Ecardaria Selaron was one of my favorite places in Rio.  A Chilen artist named Selaron lived on the street and one day he decided he was going to try to make his neighborhood a nicer place.  He was an artist and on a whim decided to take his trashy smelly street and turn it into something special.    He did this by adding tiles to he dilapidated steps.  He began with blue, green and yellow tiles, the color of Brazil's flag and then added red.  When he ran out of money he started receiving donations from around the world.  The tiles are unique and it completely changed the direction of the neighborhood.  It was a great stop.  I had never heard of it before we started planning this trip and am so happy we got to see it. 

Brazil: I Love You, Selaron

The neighborhood is also known for some of the best street art in the city.  The mayor of Rio De Janeiro recently legalized street graffiti on surfaces as long as it wasn't historically designated. 

Parque Lage is a public park in the middle of the city.  We took a really long walk in the rain to find it.  On a clear day you can see the Christ the Redeemer statue really well but that was not the case for us.  The park has a fun cafe in a beautiful setting and its basically a mini rainforest.  As we were leaving the cafe to go check out the park the clouds parted at the top of the mountain and we got our first glimpse of the statue.  We didn't see many animals as the weather was poor, but we felt like we were in a tropical rainforest.  The trees were thick and there were so many different varieties.  It was a fun stop. 

We found some cool cave to explore complete with Stalactites and a little aquarium.

Mark was so exited to stop by the Rio temple.  He was so happy for the members there when they announced it.  After serving there I think it was really meaningful to get to see a temple there.  

Day 2

Parasailing

Sugar Loaf Mountain

For a really long time I've wanted to go parasailing.  When we were planning our trip Mark found a company that took people out and we decide to spend the money and do it.  I am so glad we did.  While I do not love being on a boat, parasailing was awesome.  We were supposed to meet our guide at the marina at 11:00.  It took us a long time to find them and then once we did we learned we had to wait longer because the wind was not strong enough.  Around 11:45 we got on the boat and headed out.  There was a man from Angola and an older couple from France.  The older couple just wanted a nice boat ride and they got a long one.  These poor guys had to drive all over the bay looking for enough wind to inflate the parachute and keep it up.  We drove back and forth across the water.  It was beautiful out and had great views but I was so bored.  Boats just aren't my thing.  They tried throwing the chute up three times and each time there wasn't enough wind, it just landed in the water and then they had to untangle it.  And the chute got heavier each time it landed in the water.  Finally on the last try they found enough wind.  The commented that they had never had to throw it three times before.  As we were waiting I ended up taking a little nap on Mark's lap.  I was the second one to go up and loved it.  It was not scary at all and required no real skills.  You are strapped in a harness and then a pulley pulls you up.  We felt perfectly safe and couldn't believe how peaceful it was once we got up there.  With his long legs Mark was able to do some fancy tricks and had a great time too.  We both had the drivers lower us to dip our feet in the water.  It was so nice and fun.  

 Mark hanging upside down

Since it did take such a long to find any wind we had to really hightail it out of there to have time to eat and make it to Sugar Loaf Mountain in time for the sunset.  Originally we planned to hike up to the lower mountain and then catch the sky tram to the top, but we didn't have enough time.  We got off the metro and stopped for a yummy smoothie to enjoy on our fast paced walk.  The neighborhood right by the Metro felt pretty sketchy but we were fine.  We took the tram to both mountains and got there with about 15 minutes to spare.  It was beautiful.  When we were down in the city it felt chaotic, disorganized and dirty.  When we got to the top it was peaceful and the city looked beautiful.  Its surrounded by water and mountains.  We could see the beautiful beaches and the boats bobbing in the water.  It was amazing.  

Copacabana Beach is behind my shoulder 

Day 3

Morning Picnic on the Beach

Tijuca National Park/Christ the Redeemer Statue

Copacabana Beach

Our last day in Rio was also Mark's birthday.  We started with a simple breakfast picnic at a beach 20 minutes away from our Air b-n-b.  We went on a short run on the beach, watched some surfers and saw two different models doing a swimming suit photo shoot.  The beach was small and in a beautiful setting.  We were nervous as the day started because we planned to go to the Christ the Redeemer Statue and it was really cloudy which could mean we wouldn't be able to see much of the statue or the beautiful views.  Luckily the clouds all cleared up and it turned into a beautiful day.  After our time at at the beach we went back to the Air b-n-b and packed up all our stuff.  Mark had talked to front desk person (it was a condo) and he said we could park in the lot above the parking garage so we grabbed a taxi and headed back into town via bus routes and the metro.

While the neighborhood we stayed in was clean and safe it was a bit of a hassle to get into the city but it worked out fine each day.  We got off at the closest metro stop and then walked part way to the pick up spot for the statue.  There is a train you can take to get up there but Mark had read about a really great viewpoint and wanted to get there another way so we could stop there.  We found an internet connection and got an uber.  The driver was really nice and was happy to stop and the view point for Mark.  

Looking out both sides

Ubers and taxi's are only allowed to take you up the a certain point.  You can't have them take you all the way to the statue.  It is located in a national park and has a visitors center where you purchase tickets.  You can walk all the way up if you want but we opted for the bus shuttle.  We had about 45 minute to kill before our scheduled shuttle and enjoyed a Guarana on the patio.  The shuttle drops you off at the bottom of a large, steep set of stairs.  There were a good amount of people but it wasn't too bad.  We were really luck that the weather cleared up so nicely for us.  The views from up there were amazing.  It presents the city as this beautiful organized place.  It was certainly cleaner and more organized than Egypt but it is deceptive .

We stopped for lunch at our favorite place and Mark picked out a few desserts to sample for his birthday.  We then made our way over to the beach.  We got there a little later than we wanted and wished we could have had more time to walk on the beach.  We are not huge beach people but Copacabana was beautiful and the weather was just right.

I had  been wanting to get a picture the way houses/neighborhoods are built and when we walked around a corner from the beach I got my chance.

After that we picked up our car and drove to the airport.  We are so thankful we got to take this trip together.  It was a great experience.