WE LOVE RIO

To backtrack a bit:

Iguazu Falls
So after Buenos Aires (which we thought was the best city in South America), we hopped on a 20 hour bus up to Iguazu Falls to see the beautiful waterfalls. We walked around for hours and saw as many of the 250 waterfalls that comprise Iguazu as we could see. There were boardwalks and bridges everywhere that allow you to stand above the falls as they plummet below you. Throughout the jungle, there were also hundreds of butterflies that surrounded us and even landed on us. After a day of waterfalls, we were Rio bound. In an effort to save some money, we took a bus that stopped in Paraguay. The bus company assured us that no visa or money would be needed to enter or exit Paraguay. Lo and behold, our friends at the border patrol, stopped us, confiscated our passports, and demanded $50 from each of us... Of course, we didn't have any cash on us, and even if we did, we would not have given it to them for spending ONE hour in their country... So, I put on some tears, and Jonny kept saying "no entiendo". Eventually our bus driver came to our rescue. He fought for us, got us our passports back, and we were on our way!






RIO
WE LOVE RIO! After around 25 hours on a bus, we arrived in Rio, and stayed in Copacabana at a hostel called "Stone of a Beach"...it was pretty great. The first day there, it rained...poured, so Jonny and I spent the day up on the rooftop terrace, watching the office and laughing out loud. It felt nice to have a down day after all of the traveling.
The next couple of days were spent playing in 12-15 foot waves..SO BIG...visiting the Cristo Redentor statue (which is truly unbelievable and quite powerful), hanging out with some awesome people we met at our hostel, and drum roll please....going to the Brazilian championship futbol (soccer) game! Our hostel took a bus down to the stadium, handed out free beer (which people can drink on the beach, on the street, in a car..wherever you want...see pic below), and let us loose. The stadium is the largest in the world and used to hold 180,000 people. They have since cut it back to 110,000 due to safety regulations. We didn't have official seats, so we made our way through the crowd, all the way down to the second row of people, right next to the field. It was complete madness. I'm really happy the favored team (Flamengo) won, because there would have been riots afterward had they not. Apparently, when they lose, people tear up the chairs and throw them at each other, on the field, etc. Instead, everyone sang, jumped, chanted, and celebrated their first league championship in 17 years. Jonny and I were welcomed into the celebration with the help of several sweaty Brazilian men, who lifted us up and threw some high fives. It was such an amazing experience.









O I forgot to mention...Men in Brazil wear speedos. Everywhere you look, speedos! On the beach, no the street corner. It doesn't matter. So my husband, wanting to blend in with the locals (as if the stache is not enough) bought one and has been rocking it. Watch out Minneapolis:) He also tried to skimboard in it, and well, the picture below says it all.






Ilha Grande
Now we are sitting on the porch of our hostel looking out at the ocean on an island a couple hours southwest of Rio. Its pretty much paradise here. It has been raining quite a bit today, but Jonny and I walked around, got soaking wet, and stumbled upon a pretty secluded beach, where we swam and played in the sand. Sun or no sun, Ilha Grande is where its at!

One more week in South America and then.....off to AFRICA!