Waiting it out on top of Pao de Acucar

After a 7-hour ride to Rio, our first stop was Pao de Acucar.

It's a mountain that overlooks Rio. It was covered in

clouds, as was the Christ statue, so we waited it out

as long as we could.

We're beginning to get concerned for Chris B.

He's got this obsession with Sandi Patti.

These things hanging are jaca. It's a fruit that tastes

like bubblegum.

Rio Botanical Garden

While we waited, and hoped, that the clouds

would make their way away from the Christ

statue, we took a side-trip to the

Botanical Gardens.

Chris B making his way to through the impressive

entrance of welcoming palm trees.

Bamboo!

Colby taking shots of some of the flowers on display.

A view from the top of Corcovado...

The view from the Christ statue is

amazing. I've been here 7 times

and I never get tired of it. But

pictures don't really do it justice.

Coffee at the Copacabana Palace

We ended our day at the Copacabana Palace. The CP

is where celebrities and world leaders make their

home-away-from-home while Rio.

We didn't see any celebrities but we did enjoy

about an hour poolside in conversation

and coffee.

Yeah, we used the bathroom to brush our teeth.

No celebrities in the stalls either.

;

Taking a stroll on Praia Copacabana

After our afternoon coffee at the Copacabana Palace,

we took a walk along the beach.

Some type of nativity scene. The artist was in the

middle of his work. Not sure what it is made of.

Beach soccer!

Sand sculptures on Praia Copacabana

After our afternoon coffee, we walked the beach coming

upon this sand sculpture. I couldn't post part of it.

(She's on the left and x-rated.)

It says 2:33 am

Our ride TO Rio ended an hour late. We just assumed our

ride FROM Rio would end in the same manner.

However, we had Freddy Krueger as a driver and actually

got into Sao Paulo in less than 6 hours.

The metro and busses stop running at 1:30 am so we took

a taxi from the bus station to our neighborhood.

With very limited traffic, our taxi driver decided to have

a bit of fun driving like he was Formula One.