We had an easy bus trip back from Trindade to Rio and got to spend a couple of days in the city before heading on.  We stayed at a hostel in Le Blon, a nice neighborhood in the far south of the city.  The only problem with this was that it is a little far from the areas with stuff to do, so when we arrived at the bus station we immediately had to deal with a long trip through town and then out the other side.  We made it eventually with the help of a friendly local and got settled into an 8 person dorm.  Everyone at the hostel was really friendly, but it was a pretty noisy place, so not so much with the sleeping there.

Our first day in the city we walked up the incredible beaches and just took a good look around.  Rio is a beautiful city and the beaches were worth spending some time on.  We saw Le Blon beach, Ipanema beach, and Copacabana beach.  It was sunny in the morning, but then we had a pretty strong rain in the afternoon.  They said the weather was going to improve though, so we signed up for a city tour the next day so that we could see some of the big city landmarks.

We had an amazing sunny day and were picked up at the hostel in a big 16 person van.  Our first stop was the famous statue of Christ that looks down over Rio.  It is up on a mountain behind the city and was pretty crowded with tourists.  We had fun looking out at the views and taking a ton of pictures.

Christ the Redeemer

Views of the city

Justin with the statue

Rio's famous soccer stadium

Our next stop was in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, a bohemian neighborhood with lots of shops and bars.  This was a pretty quick stop, and not so scenic, so no pictures of that one.  Then we headed to the downtown cathedral and had a stop to take a look at that.

It was probably the most unusual cathedral I’ve ever seen!  It really fit in with the city because it was shaped like one of the mountains.

Cathedral in Rio

Inside the Cathedral - the stained glass meets in a cross at the top

After the cathedral we headed to the Lapa neighborhood, which is known for its nightlife.  We went to see the steps, which are an incredible piece of art with tiles from all over the world.  It was fun running up and down, finding the tiles from places we know.

Lapa Steps

San Francisco

Philadelphia!

Our last stop of the tour was at the Sugar Loaf mountain, a set of mountains right in the city with a cable car ride to the top.  It was dusk when we got there and it got dark while we were up there taking pictures of the city views.

View from the Sugar Loaf

We had a nice view of the Christ statue, as well as all of the beaches and the city lights.  It got stormy while we were up there and there was even some lightening on the way back down!

The tour driver recommended a place for us to get a feijoada (a traditional Brazilian meal with black beans stewed with all kinds of delicious pork) and they dropped us off there.  We loved it!

Feijoada!!!!

It was an awesome tour and we were so glad that we had a chance to see a little of the city.

Our next adventure (a 10 hour flight) brought us to New Jersey where we get to spend some time with both sets of parents!  Two weeks back in the USA and then we head on to Europe!