City of God

We spent about a week in Rio and we really loved the city. We didn't have great weather every day (side note - forecasts are highly inaccurate here) but when it is sunny it may be the most beautiful city in the world. We managed to get a couple of clear days which we took advantage of to go and see the Sugar Loaf mountain, Christ the Redeemer, and take some walks along the famous beaches. Rio was such an interesting city to see with a huge divide between rich and poor. Looking over the city you see beaches, jungle, and high rises mixed in with favelas climbing up almost every mountain in sight. We opted against a favela tour but we heard that they were very interesting and different than you might expect. There is even a McDonald's in the largest favela of the city, and one of our hostel staff said he met a young guy from Vancouver living at the top of one favela just for the cheap rent!

 

There are definitely some areas you would want to be careful in but luckily we made it through the city without any mishaps. We stayed in Ipanema and felt very safe in the neighborhood even after dark. We heard that most of the beautiful, young Cariocas strive to live in this area of the city and it's not hard to imagine why. Walk a couple blocks one way and you hit a gorgeous beach, walk the other way and you hit a nice lake in the city with a botanical garden. On our first night in town they had a big celebration on the lake and lit a floating Christmas tree while setting off fireworks behind it. Hard to believe it is getting close to Christmas while we are in this part of the world! Another highlight from the city was a night out in Lapa listening to some live samba music with some more caipirinhas! They are just so hard to resist!

Ipanema and the Lagoa

Found some monkeys while hiking the Sugar Loaf

After a 24 hour flight journey, we made it to Colombia - sin Adam's backpack. Luckily the airline found it the day after and has just sent it to the hostel.  The jury is still out on whether anything is missing! (Update: nothing is missing.)

Spaceship Cathedral..

Copacabana Beach

View of Copacabana beach from the Sugar Loaf