Rio on Good Friady.

We spent 2 nights in Rio de Janerio smack in the middle of Holy Week, which is considered the biggest holiday in Brazil. Since Brazilians love to flock to the beach for holidays and the city normally has more than 6 million people, crowded is a bit of an understatement. It was a great big party in the streets and a fitting time to visit the iconic Cristo Redentor statue that overlooks the harbor, but the long lines for all the tourist attractions were horrendous. In the end the views of the famous Rio harbor were worth the wait.


About 5 minutes after checking into our hostel we me Andre, Canadian from Quebec in his mid-30's. The three of us went out to dinner an the standard traveler questions arose, "so how long have you been traveling and where all have you been?" but Andre's answer was a littler different "4 and a half years and about 86 countries"....Wow. Turns out he built up a successful software company and sold the thing to take some time to travel. What started as a 1 year trip around the world, just kept going and turned in to 4 (though he does spend a few months back home occasionally). He's basically our new idol. We spent the rest of our time in Rio with Andre, pumping his brain for tips on all our destinations, he's been everywhere we're going...more than once, and he gave us his email for future questions, super nice guy.


Brazil was EXPENSIVE. It's seen explosive economic growth over the past few years, which is good for Brazilians, but bad for cheap tourists like us. Grocery stores, transportation, restaurants, etc. generally seem to cost more than they would in the US, which is a bummer. The language, Portuguese, is also just about impossible to pick up. Some words are the same as in Spanish, and a lot of the younger Brazilians seem to speak quite a bit of English, but reading signs, menus or trying to pronounce just about anything is a futile effort. Fortunately our hand gesture communication skills have improved in the last 8 weeks.

The old aqua ducts of Lapa, a neighborhood in the center of Rio known for it's street parties.

The streets of Lapa are lined with little stalls selling street food and any type of drink you could want. Who needs bars?

The assortment at one stall.

Pão de Açúcar, or Sugarloaf Mountain: a rock pillar that rises out of Rio bay, accessed by cable car (after a very long line of people).

The view from Sugarloaf. The curving beach is the world famous Copacabana.

Cable car up to the top.

View of the city from Sugarloaf. The Cristo statue is just barely visible at the top of the highest peak, Corcovado mountain.

Sunset at Copacabana.

Approaching the Cristo redentor.

 View of Rio bay, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, from Corcovado (at the foot of the Cristo statue). The pinnacle in the middle is Sugarloaf mountain.

We spent Easter weekend in the beach town of Paraty and then onto Illah Grande. More to come from there.