Oi Rio!

Me eating ice cream in front of Ipanema beach. Ice cream always makes up an important part of my travel diet.


The man in the mountain. I didn´t even realize he was there until Mia pointed him out to me just now. This was one of the many views from the peak of the hike we did.


The Corcovado. Tourists aren´t allowed to leave Rio without taking this shot.


View of St Theresa, the oldest neighborhood in Rio. The big rock in the backround is the Pao de Açucar. The obviously less well crafted neighborhood is called a favela, aka a ghetto. Also where we spent the most of our time. Just kidding, Mom!


Look! Monkeys! They were cute. This was the second of two monkey sightings of the day. The first was on the way up to the Corcovado. These monkeys were less tame than the first, who took bread straight from a Carioca´s hand.


Ah, the photo glut that is my generation. This is one of many of Mia practicing her photography skills.


View from the top of Pao de Açucar. After taking this photo Mia and I busted it down the tram so we could hike down from the second tram station before dark; thus not getting mugged and saving R$11.

A Romantic Getaway

View down one of the streets in the historic district.

We arrived in Paraty last night, quickly discovering it´s a couples getaway. The hostel worker found us at the tourist office and seemed surprised to find us a pair of friends (as opposed to a pair of lovers) -- he had booked us a room with a double bed. The seaoned travelers that we are, this didn´t present a problem; especially considering that we shared a bed the whole time we stayed in Amersterdam 3 years ago. Luckily neither Mia nor I have a bad case of the jimmy legs.

I now understand why the Brazilians we spoke with in Sao Paulo seemed so glad that we planned to come here -- it´s beautiful. Yesterday after arriving we took the hostel´s complementary kayaks out in the ocean for a bit of exploring. It was the I-can´t-quite-believe-how-amazing-this-experience-is type of experience: huge green mountains that end at a lovely beach with lightly choppy waves and the late afternoon sun.

The town is super cute and touristy. The UNESCO basically considers the entire old town a historical monument, which is nice since it keeps the cars out. Today we have plans to rent bikes and explore some waterfalls. Thank goodness for travel!

It´s a Small World After All

Mia and I safely arrived in Sao Paulo after almost a full day of travel -- it would have been a lot less but the universe thought we needed to circle the city 4 hours before arriving. No worries; it gave me a chance to take another nap!

We both are pleasantly surprised by the city. Beautiful and interesting architecture, plenty of trees and parks, and friendly people. One of my favorite parts so far is that people don´t speak English to us (the slightly obivous foreigners -- is that an oxymoron?), thus forcing us to practice our ever evolving Portugeuse.

Yesterday and today was spent attacking the city with our feet -- we must have walked 20 miles in the past two days. We went to the MASP (an art museum), rented bikes and biked around the big park, went to the Mercado in the city center, and gossiped our hearts out. It certainly is nice to travel with a girlfriend.

We´re staying in a lovely little hostel. There have been a steady influx of travelers to chat with, including someone who went to Mia´s high school in Hawaii (hence the title of the post). I stopped an intense game of Frustration to write this (Mia was kicking my behind -- I was almost happy to stop. Almost.).

But things are good so far. Tomorrow we hop an 8 AM bus to Parati, then off to Rio the next day. We both are very much looking forward to relaxing on the beach.