The Brazil Post!

Here it is. The longest Blog I will probably ever blog. Below is a picture from the top of our hotel room in Rio. Thats the statue of Christ on the top of the hill.

But that was at the end of our trip. So let me take you to the beginning of our trip. We flew into Rio from Atlanta and had to wait 8 hours for our flight to Floripa. And there was nothing to do in the terminal but sit.

On our way home we learned that above the terminal is a large number of shops, restaurants, places to shower, and nap. Awesome.

We did however, finally make it to Floripa. The next morning we went to the center of the city and did some sight seeing and shopping.

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner on the roof of our Host's apartment complex. It was awesome. We ate lots and played some games, including the elephant sign game.

On Christmas day we went to a beach about an hour away. Don't remember the name of the cities of beaches but does it really matter?

Bellow is a good example of what cities in Brazil look like. All of the tall buildings are apartment complexes and not office building.

This was one of the most crowded beaches we went to. The sun was blazing hot and the water was warm but still so much cooler than the sand.

Wow. White.

This is a view from the top of the apartment complex, were we had dinner.

The second beach we went to was a little more secluded but still crowded. Here we did some snorkeling with the fishes. Its was great. We also burnt on top of our burns that day.

With a view like that, how could you not strike a pose?

That night we had a pizza buffet. Not like an american buffet though. This one was actually good. We had pizza with eggs, corn, and chocolate. Good stuff.

Oh, and this little guy is a Ford KA. Its the tiny little car we pilled in when we were not using the busses. An interesting note, many of the cars in brazil do not have ac or radios. Every car we were in during that trip was also a manual transmission.

On the hottest day of the trip we took a hike to a beach. It was beautiful but unbelievably hot.

This was a great beach because there was almost no one there. It was nice being able to jump around in the water and not have to worry about our stuff.

Another great thing about this beach was that instead of hiking, you can take a boat instead for about 6 bucks a person. Not bad for a 10 minute boat tour.

In effort to mix things up a little, we took a break from the beaches, and went to a waterfall.

I love the superman pose.

That night we drove to a spot where you can see the entire island.

Behind linda is a foot bridge that connects the island to the continent. It was closed 5 years ago when linda served her mission there and is still closed. They say its famous. I didn't ask what for, I just figured it was for being a foot bridge that no one can walk on.

I know. Sand boarding is sexy right?

This was back in the center. I loved this building.

"I am waiting for a bus."

Some cool graphite we saw while waiting for the big new years party.

Our white outfits for ringing in the new year.

We took a bus to this beach. Well actually we wanted to go to another beach. The traffic was so bad that we bailed out of the bus and walked a few miles and stopped at the first beach we came to. And yes, we got there way before the bus ever did. An interesting thing about this beach was that it was a gay beach. I felt violated from a few of the eyes in that group but I couldn't help but laugh as I heard the music from the bar, "this is what we do, this is how we do it."

No this is not the gay beach. Its a different one.

Stuck in beach night traffic. It took us 3 hours to go about 10 miles.

Adult playground. I seriously think they need these in the states.

Heading of to Rio. Funny that it rained on both the day we got off, and on the plane.

Its so humid and hot that the planes AC acts like a fog machine. At least I hope thats what it was.

The view from our hotel room in Rio

This is from a view point on the way to the statue of Christ. Thats only about a fourth of Rio.

In summary, Brazil was awesome. It was hot, humid, smelly, exhausting, and all together amazing. If you have the means, or even if you don't (we sure didn't), I highly recommend it.