Christ the Redeemer

To kick-off our visit to Rio de Janeiro, a half-day city tour was included with our GAP package. The tour was outsourced to the company called Be a Local, and our guide was nice. We started with the iconic Redentor (in Portuguese), which was recently voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Unfortunately, we came on a very foggy morning. Though at the base of the statue, the Corcovado Mountain was covered with low clouds at 3,000 feet.

The statue itself stands another 130' tall and can be seen from nearly everywhere through out Rio.

The statue itself was impressive, but I was more wowed by Iguazu Falls. It did offer spectacular views of the pockets of the city nestled at the base of the mountains, when the clouds weren't in the way.

Sadly, one of the best photos I captured just as we were leaving. We could clearly see the statue every other day we were in Rio, but our visit wasn't to be a clear one.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Finished our My Publisher album for our first year and it's ordered.

Favelas of Rio

We departed Paraty early in the morning for the short drive to Rio. Before getting to the heart Rio de Janeiro, we had to drive through the outskirts of town. These ghetto areas are called favelas, and a shanty town with some unique Brazilian characteristics.

Favelas have historically been dangerous places, controlled by drug lords. Formal city services such as water and electricity can be difficult to acquire. Poverty and violence have plagued these very poor areas, and the lack education make for a rough life.

We watched the foreign film City of God a few months ago, so we were somewhat prepared to see the extreme poverty of the favelas, but the sheer number of people who live like this is overwhelming. We heard the largest favela contains over 100,000 people.

Though some favelas can be dangerous (we heard that even the police don't go in!), you can take an arranged tour. We didn't go, but some others from our group went with a guide who had arranged safe passage through the favela. They rode up into the mountains on the back of a motorcycle, and saw "look-outs" on most corners, armed with very large guns and occasionally a grenade.

I wish we had taken the favela tour instead of hitting up the beach, but I also know it would be difficult to see such extreme poverty.

Just a small reminder to be so thankful for all the blessings we have in America (and most other places if you are able to read this blog!).

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: First day of my study class.

Valentine's Day in Brazil

Perfect way to spend our Valentine's day in Paraty. We walked down to the pier with all the boats, asked a few for prices, understood none of their Portuguese, so they wrote the price down in the sand, and we were off on our private boat!

We paid R$120 for 4 hours, or about $15 USD an hour for a private boat to take us around the Bay. We enjoyed sitting up top, watching the beautiful green coastline and flowered islands past by at a leisurely pace.

The further out in the bay we went, the more green the water turned.

Really- life doesn't get any better than this!

Some friends from our travel group went on a larger boat with other people.

Our captain was nice and took us to 2 snorkeling spots. I snorkeled at the first place, but stayed topside at the second one to lounge in the sun.

H hopped in the water with the Other Camera and took some neat underwater photos.

I think I might have freaked out a little bit if I saw this many fish around me.

Next, our captain took us to a small beach with lots of our tourists.

We grabbed a snack (french fries) and a few drinks to hold us over till lunch.

My husband has been snorkeling and scuba diving since he was a young child. I'm new to the sport and still get very excited (nervous) about snorkeling.

Bright sun. Light breeze. Blue skies. Turquoise water. Awesome mountains. Green forests.

PARADISE!

Except when we looked back towards Paraty, we noticed some ominous clouds starting to build on the horizon.

"I don't care! It's too perfect right now!"

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Had lunch with my maid of honor today!

Pretty Paraty

It was a full travel day from Iguazu Falls- flying out early in the afternoon to Sao Paulo and then driving a few hours to Paraty (or Parati). The flight delay didn't help and the windy roads at night in the back of a bus were too much for my tummy to handle. Imagine my surprise, after getting in at midnight, we awoke to this beautiful view out our window.

Mountains make me melt.



Since it was Valentine's Day, we decided to do our own thing. We made the 30 minute walk into the city, passing by normal Brazilian life along the way. We walked through the town center and straight to the water front. Everywhere, there were people selling coconuts to drink.




Since they were cheaper than water, H and I decided to share once since neither of us had ever had a coconut. I was really surprised, and the water had a slightly sweet flavor.



The town of Paraty is set back in the Ilha Grande Bay, but it is surrounded by beautiful green mountains and numerous islands.

Paraty is also a UNESCO world heritage site, with many old buildings dating back to the late 1600's and some great architecture including Capela de Santa Rita.

The cobblestone streets and neatly arranged grid of buildings take you back in time.

My favorite thing about Paraty was the doors. Each owner had a unique and fun set of doors, all full of bright colors and fun designs.

The stark white buildings offered a great contrast to the funky doors that lined every street.

The bay and waterfront itself were also beautiful, with several pieces of history to remind visitors of the former fort.

Luckily, we weren't there during a full moon, when the cobblestone streets are flooded by high tide.

I took these pictures while we were out on the boat, but I loved the crisp white buildings surround by mountains and forest.

This was the main square by the piers where all the boats docked

After our day around the bay, we dropped into the first restaurant/bar/bathrooms we could find.

This unique restaurant was on the corner by the docks, so we had full window-doors on both sides and could watch all the local activity while eating our Brazilian pizza lunch and sipping in a Caipirinha.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Things are picking up at work and I've got lots of travel coming up.

Zoe at the Vet

I took Zoe to the vet last Saturday. She'd been having some goop in her eyes & there was a small growth on her leg I wanted them to examine. She needed her nails clipped and I wanted them to check her teeth to see if they needed cleaning. After the wonderful vet spent a good deal of time with us, she confirmed that Zoe had canine pink eye or conjunctivitis. They didn't have any of the liquid drops, so we took the antibiotic ointment.

She also suggested we do lab work on the larger growth on her right rear outer thigh. Zoe, as a short haired dog, gets all kinds of bumps and bites that are very visible through her short coat. She's had a regular history of unusual skin things, which is fairly common with Vizslas. They typically turn out to be nothing and go away on their own. This particular growth I noticed a few weeks before we left on our vacation, and I was concerned to see it was still around. She had some other bumps on her at the vet visit, but we decided to do a fine needle aspiration of the area to complete some lab work.

While we were there, the vet also mentioned that she *thought* she heard a very mild heart murmur. Zoe is VERY anxious about being at the vet, as are most dogs. She shakes uncontrollably and gets very nervous. The vet recommended we have further analysis done to determine if there is indeed a heart murmur and how severe the murmur is and what type of murmur. It could be a harmless murmur or a more serious murmur.

Monday night the vet's office called to tell me that the lab work had determine that the growth was a mast cell tumor and they recommended going into the dog hospital in Houston. I don't know much yet about MCT's, but if it is caught early enough the prognosis is very good. I made an appointment for next Tuesday with Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists for a consultation. Hopefully they will be able to remove the MCT later next week and have more scientific results back regarding the stage and grade of tumor. Hopefully it won't involve any chemo or radiation.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I think we caught it early, I've got a great vet and the animal hospital here in town is awesome.

Dance Dance Latin America

So you want to know how we spent our first anniversary? Going to a samba show in Brazil! It was actually more of an over-the-top tourist junket that featured traditional dances from all over Latin America called Rafain Churrascaria Restaurant in Iguazu Falls. It was totally cheesy, but still entertaining and memorable.

We really weren't this into the show, but the couple next to us grabbed my camera and insisted on a picture. Just as amusing as the show itself was the busloads full of Japanese people who were more interested in their cameras and gadgets and video recorders than the actual show itself, quite a few of them were sleeping during the show and then they all left early!

Our super-awesome guide even arranged for the Rafain to bring us out a cake and took us to get a picture with one of the samba dancers- who happened to be Ms. Iguazu Falls in this years carnival. Are those real?? Pretty decent dinner buffet, but we arrived late. Drinks were extra, but it was overall reasonably priced for the entertainment factor.

It totally cracked me up and was so appropriate to hear the mariachi's and see the dancers on our anniversary. Brought back good memories of Mexico last year....

This was the coolest lady and best part of the show. She had these little ropes with a wooden ball on the end of each and she had incredible talent and rhythm with the girl on drums. It was very entertaining and then she lit them on fire and whirled them around some more.

And of course- here's the samba dancers with big scary feather birds dancing around that everybody has been waiting for!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Best anniversary I've ever had! :)

Iguazu Rainbows

After a rather refreshing drenching on our boat ride, we started our hike to the top of the falls. Little did we know what awesome views the top of the falls would bring us.

Starting out near the bottom, you can see a nearby observation deck with a tiny observer up close to the roaring waterfall.

How often does a girl get to pose with a rainbow coming out of her head?

At least 10 of the 270+ waterfalls behind H!

We discovered a large pack of these little raccoon like guys. A couple are cute, 30 are scary!

At the top, we were treated to dramatic cliffs, with the edge just a few feet below us.

Just cause I love my hubby!

Yea, I'm not showing you all 300+ photos I took on our day and a half in Iguazu Falls.

But I've got quite a few rainbow photos.

In the foreground, you can see the very edge of the falls, right before the water goes over!

Occasionally we could see both ends, but not the middle (not enough mist!), of the rainbow.

And to top it all off, we even had a few double rainbows!

It was so amazing to be that close to so many rainbows and they were all so brilliant and beautiful!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: H has been great about helping out with some chores that need to be done.