Metro, Pedra Bonita, and Tijuca

We spent all day Wednesday exploring the Centro neighborhood aka downtown Rio. We started off at Cafe Colombo, a very popular cafe that has been around since the 1800s. The decor was beautiful and the coffees were delicious!

 Then we walked around to a couple art museums, churches, and saw some construction being done in preparation for the Olympics.

On Thursday morning, we went on a hike to Pedra Bonita. We took the train to the closest stop then took about a 20 minutes taxi ride from there. It was an interesting trip--the taxi driver had to stop and ask someone for directions, and his car couldn't make it up the hill to the hike so we had to walk up--but we made it! It was described online as an "easy hike" but we did not agree with that. It was only 30 minutes but the steep incline and 95 degree weather made it pretty tough! But it was all worth it once we got to the top! (We took much better pictures but they are all on Berto's camera.)

On Friday, we went to the beach. I unfortunately don't have any photos since I didn't bring my camera since the beaches here are infamous for theft. We only took as much cash as we would need for the day, and I'm glad that's all we took! There were two girls laying next to us that got there purse stolen while they were laying with it sunbathing--and none of us saw how it happened! The beach was nice, but it is definitely not a relaxing beach experience. In addition to worrying about someone stealing your stuff, there is someone walking by trying to sell you something every 30 seconds. If nothing else, it was good for people watching!

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Tijuca Forest, a national park within the city. We saw a waterfall and went on a short hike. We didn't knowingly sign up for the other part of the tour, which was a walk around a favela. It was interesting to learn the history, but it felt pretty strange to be on a "tour" through it.

Today we went shopping at a "hippie market" they have every Sunday. Then we relaxed at our hotel pool for the afternoon and went to a delicious pizza place for dinner. Here is the view from our hotel pool:

Our Rio trip is quickly coming to an end! We fly home tomorrow night, arriving in Chicago early Tuesday morning.