First 2 days in Rio!

We arrived in Rio Thursday night after a long night and day of traveling. We were pretty jet lagged by the time we arrived so just walked around our hotel nieghborhood to find some dinner. We ended up at a place that had about 100 items on the menu, all in Portuguese. We chose some things at random and they actually ended up being very good choices!


On Friday we walked to escadaria selaron, a bunch of flights of stairs decorated in mosaics by an artist. There are tiles from many parts of the world--I even found one of Oregon!

Then we took the train to Copacabana and Impanema beaches and walked for a couple hours along the water. It was very pretty. Think we will go back for a beach day sometime this week. Think Berto will have to get a speedo and I will have to get a thong bikini to fit in. :)

Today we took the train up the mountain to Christ the Redeemer statue. It had amazing views but was very crowded so we didn't stay up there too long. Tomorrow we are going to explore a "bohemian and artsy" neighborhood nearby and possibly hang out at the pool at our hotel, which has a beautiful view as well.

Berto's spanish is helpful, but the language has been more of a barrier for both of us than we expected. I have not seen any mosquitos! But still putting a bunch of bug spray on. And it is HOT and humid. I think this might be the hottest place I have ever been!