Trip to South America: Days 1-4, Rio de Janeiro

Day 1: We weren't actually in Rio on this day, it's the day we left Dallas...flew to Atlanta, ate Chinese food and a McFlurry, then 9 hours to Brasil. I don't remember anything funny from this day.

Day 2: We arrive in Rio. It was really exciting because I just had 20 new pages added to my passport because it was all full, and I got my first stamp on one of my new pages!! Copacabana beach was right around the corner from our hotel, so the first thing that we did was go to the beach. We took our shoes off, walked in the sand and it was wonderful! We still had our clothes on, so we didn't actually swim, but as we walked along the shoreline, a huge wave came and got Grisham pretty good - she was soaked!!! If you don't already know, I don't like museums - and where did we go next?? National History Museum. But don't worry - I made sure that we ate lunch before we went inside. This museum was very boring...I don't think anyone liked it. Next we wandered about downtown....saw a couple churches....and then ate a very large amount of meat. It was pretty good, but my favorite part was the french fries. I had wanted some at lunch, but even though they were on the menu, they didn't have any :(. Everyone was tired, I was the only one that slept on the plane, so we all went to bed at 6:30. Oh! And before bed we stopped at a pharmacy and bought drugs.

Day 3: This was the day of awful, boring tours. Before the tours, we had breakfast, which was very yummy!! My favorite thing was waffles, with warm chocolate syrup. The first tour was to Corcovado, better known as the big Jesus statue. Not much to mention there...we rode the train up to the statue, took some pictures, used the facilities, and went back down. Then our tour guide took us to the shop with the "best prices in town", but I think that it should be better known as the "smallest shop in town". It was so tiny that you couldn't even move in there!! Lunch was included in the tour, and it was okay, but nothing to really write about and describe here. After we finished eating, we walked down to Ipanema beach, which was just a couple blocks away. As always, I was in the mood for dessert, so Grisham and I went to a bakery and bought a snack. I had a nutella tart, and it was oh so yum, I ate it as soon as we got on the bus! For the next 3 hours or so, we rode on a bus all around Rio - I think that the tour guide was showing us stuff, but I'm not sure because I slept the whole time. Finally we made it to Sugar Loaf, which is a mountain-hill place that you ride a cable car up to the top so you can see the whole city. By that time it was starting to get dark, so we didn't have much of a view. Also, when we got to the top, it was super windy. And since we were on a tour, we didn't really even get to hang out and enjoy it because we had to rush back to the bus. We ate dinner at this place where you fill your plate up with food at a buffet and then pay by the weight of your food. This place also had all you can eat pizza. The lady there liked us, so she gave us a special deal and let us eat all the pizza and all the buffet that we wanted for pretty cheap. She didn't even charge us for our drinks. And we went to a market on the beach. I bought a really cool map of South America that's on leather...Grisham got one just like it, only hers isn't as cool, because mine has blue on it. We both liked the blue one best, but luckily for me, Grisham is nicer and let me have it. So it's mine now.

Day 4: Last day in Rio. Two more tours, but these weren't as bad as the day before. The first tour was a Jeep tour, which took us to the Tijuca National Park, and I love parks!! It was raining at first, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. We saw a little waterfall, and some other stuff, then we went to a big waterfall. It was pretty fun playing with these little velcro balls and just walking through the forest. Our Jeep tour was a little late returning, and we didn't have much time before our next tour, and lunch was quite a pressin matter - I refused to go without!! So, Colette and I decided to make a run for McDonald's, which I thought was only a couple blocks away down the beach. We had exactly 30 minutes to go, get the food, and get back. We walked really, really fast for about 20ish minutes, and still not McDonald's. We had no choice but to go back, and at this point I was really hungry, and felt like I had burned a lot of calories, so I really wanted to eat. On our way back, we stopped at this place Bob's Burgers to get food, everything seemed okay, so we rushed back. We opened up and began to eat, but we were one burger short. Poor Colette, being the kind souls that we are, Grisham and I tore off a small piece of our burgers to share. Then our next tour began. This was my favorite of the tours, I think...we went through the favelas, which are the slums there. The guide told us some pretty cool drug lord stories, and I found that to be pretty interesting...the drug dealers pretty much rule society in the favelas and do whatever they want.

And so were our days in Rio. Overall, a pleasant experience, although I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the city in general. I'm not really sure what I was expecting or looking for, but it definitely wasn't a favorite city. I did love the the beach and the rainforest, though.