Cristo Redentor and Sugarloaf Mountain

We had a fun day yesterday. I've never traveled Rio by bus and metro, so it's been a fun challenge to navigate the city. It's particularly fun how eager and willing people are to help. All we need to do is just a bit of initial planning and then we can be confident that we can ask along the way and people will go out of their way to make sure we know what we need to know. Better than Google Maps... or at least more interesting. I love this about Brazil.

But anyway, yesterday was a fun day of hitting the two most important sites in Rio - the big Jesus statue that overlooks the city and Sugarloaf Mountain. In a lot of ways the journeys there were just as fun as the sites themselves (because of the above mentioned and other people we met along the way)... so here is just a glimpse of our day yesterday....

We first made our way up the mountains to see Christo Redentor - this is from a lookout point on the way up. And that's Sugarloaf Mountain to the right of me.

This is halfway up the mountains and Jesus still looks tiny

But he wasn't so small when we actually made it all the way to the top.

Lots of gorgeous views of Rio.

And we kept our eye on our next stop - Sugarloaf Mountain.

It was a zoo up there. This picture doesn't really capture the strange magnitude of people sweating in the glaring sun at the feet of Jesus.

We debated whether Jesus or the Statue of Liberty is bigger and we decided that the Statue of Liberty is definitely bigger, but Jesus definitely has a presence. We have done no research to confirm or deny our conclusion.

But then we went over to Sugarloaf Mountain and looked back toward Jesus. He's perched on the top of that narrow tallest hump there.

Jesus is on the little lump to the left of Jachin. This view is actually from Urca, the mountain you stop at on the way to Sugarloaf.

There was a renovation project happening on Urca, so we didn't see nearly as many monkeys as anticipated. But this one was actually hanging out eating a banana. A bit trite, but cute.:)

The view of Copacabana beach from Surgarloaf.

We traveled by gondola - first stop Urca and then the gondola kept going to the second stop at Sugarloaf. 

We watched sunset from Urca... and it was really lovely.

Sunset meant a bit of relief from the heat, too. Phew. :)

It's so easy to enjoy this city. :)

Always beautiful in Rio

Seriously. Rio de Janeiro is such a beautiful city. We landed here yesterday afternoon. It was sad to leave Salvador because it meant saying good-bye to good friends without knowing when we'll see them next. But it's fun to discover new places. I've been to Rio before but only for brief visits, and this too will be a brief visit, but it's already been a very worthwhile one. Just wanted to share a few photos before we venture out again today...

Us at Copacabana beach

Sunset from Ipanema beach

Serious.... it was a gorgeous senset

Post sunset view from Ipanema

Late night soccer on Copacabana beach

Fun, friends & food

Our time in Salvador has been great fun. It’s fun to walk these streets again. And there has been no lack of good food to consume either (so much good eating). Regretfully we learned today (much to no one’s surprise) that we have to be much more diligent with sunblock… but tomorrow’s a new day and a new chance to act on that realization.:)

So to keep things simple… here’s a very brief update in photo form…

THURSDAY

On Thursday we had an adventure to a neighborhood called Ribeira... which involved this very tasty seafood salad...

...some coconut water to keep us going as we walked up and down hills...

... and some beautiful views of the city of Salvador.

What Ribeira is mostly known for is this church (the Church of the Good End - Igreja do Bom Fim)...complete with ribbons tied to the fence in front of the church as a way to pay homage to the Lady of Bom Fim in hopes of prayers being answered. The ribbons make for quite the site.

And we had our first little monkey sighting as we hung out in front of the church.

Tadeu met us after he got off work and took us to get some very tasty ice cream....

... before we ended the day with Tadeu and his wife Diana. We went out for moqueca... which was soooo good.

FRIDAY

Friday we wandered Pelourinho... the historic center of the city....

... which made for lots of good views.

You'll note this plaza in part of this Michael Jachin video. And the way people remember it makes it seem like it happened last month.

The historic center makes for lots of great opportunities to check out churches, too.

This is the main Cathedral.

And this is the Cathedral of Saint Francis, which is covered in gold.

And our day of wandering Pelourinho led us to the Museum of Modern for a free orchestra concert... with a mix of poetry readings. It was a fun gathering...

... but anything is more fun with these guys. This is Clarissa and her boyfriend Guilerme (William).

 SATURDAY

And then today (Saturday) we had a lovely beach day at Praia do Forte (Fort Beach), which is about 1.5 hours outside of Salvador...

... and the beaches really are wonderful...

... but so was the food and the company.

Praia do Forte is known for it's sea turtle shelter/preserve (Project Tamar)... so we of course checked that out, too. This turtle is the first thing we've seen that's taller than Jachin here.:)

But before we made our way back to Salvador, we had some coffee and brigadeiros. We gave it a try... we tried to see if Jachin would like coffee more if it was Brazilian coffee consumed in Brazil. Our results were conclusively no.

And we just got back from seeing the 300 sequel in 3D (pardon the orientation of the photo - i can't rotate in this blog editor... #bloggerfail). So needless to say, I can only assume that I'll dream of decapitations tonight.

Eating well in Salvador

We arrived in Salvador late Tuesday night and once again travel was flawless. It was fun to wake up to the sites of a new city yesterday. We stepped into warmer temperatures and a lot more humidity, but it's also accompanied by a lovely ocean breeze, so we'll take it. :)

We're staying with Clarissa and her mom Solange. Clarissa was an exchange student at my high school before I was an exchange student at her university. And it's great to be with her and Solange again. It's fun to come be back in their home - it all still feels very familiar.

Jachin and I spent some time yesterday wandering other familiar sites. We checked out the neighborhood I that lived in when I studied abroad here, we ate Ovalmaltines (pronounced "ovaulmalcheenies") at Bob's Burgers (a Brazilian burger chain that feels shockingly like McDonald's even though it's based out of Rio - ovalmatines were my favorite thing to eat when I was homesick), we walked down to the iconic lighthouse in Salvador, and then spent some time on a lovely little city beach not too far from the lighthouse. The beach brought with it a whole new slew of foods to enjoy... including the long awaited queijo coalho! :D Sometimes you wonder if you remember a cheese too fondly (as I'm sure we all often do)... but then you have it again and you realize that you can't overestimate how tasty it is.:)

We ended our night with Brazilian pizza and amazing company - we met Tadeu for dinner, who is the good friend whose wedding we originally planned our trip around... missed the wedding, but we still get to hang out with him.:) I loved sharing pizza with Jachin, Clarissa, Clarissa's boyfriend, AND Tadeu all at the same time. And I've also not underestimated how good corn on pizza is. Soooo good.

Anyway. Off to more adventures today. Tchau.

Mmm... Bob's Ovalmaltine... :)

The Farol Da Barra. It's looking as lovely as it ever did.

Beach cheese! Jachin was a fan, too... so I can't totally be making it up.

Our view at the beach.

Jachin tried acaraje for the first time yesterday, too.
It's probably the strangest thing he'll eat while we're here... and said he liked it.

Waiting for sunset at Porto da Barra

And it was a classically beautiful Salvadorian sunset.

Already in vacation mode

We made it safe and sound to Sao Paulo yesterday morning. Everything went really smoothly - no delays, great movies on our international flight, and we were both well stocked with the most amazing neck pillows known to man. My favorite moment of our time in transit was when we got called up to the desk at our gate... and the woman hesitated over the intercom with Jachin's name but then decided to go with "Jack Daniel Rupee" (Jachin's middle name is Daniel) - a guy sitting near us immediately starts to look for who stands up and says to Jachin, "Man, that's not really your name, right?"

But it feels great to be here. Laila picked us up from the airport, we wandered around the USP (the University of Sao Paulo) after a shower, then we took a hefty nap before dinner with friends. Really. A great start. And it was extremely easy to settle into vacation mode already by last night. We're heading to Salvador tonight, which is likely to challenge our ability to slow down our pace (because Salvador is sensibly yet extremely slow-paced), but we are ready to take on the challenge.:)

Having Tapioca for lunch at USP. Soooooo good.

Juice at a restaurant called Sweden at USP... we spend lots of time here.

Sushi and Maki for dinner... at a gas station, no less. But we reassured Jachin that eating at gas stations is not normal.:) It's good to eat good sushi. We loved ending our first day in Sao Paulo with Bruna, Laila and Fernanda (L to R).

Brazil-bound and grateful

I'm brushing off the travel blog once again. It would appear that everything is in order for us to depart for Brazil tomorrow. And we can't wait. Being able to pack our bags up and head to the place that still is like a second home to me feels like such a gift.

We originally anticipated this day to happen five weeks ago... but rather than spending the day packing before our original departure date of February 2, we spent that particular Saturday coming home from the hospital as we waited for Jachin's body to recovery from surgery. We learned a thing or two that week about root canals, abscesses, breathing tubes, the importance of clear airways, and the benefits of having good humor after our four day stint in the hospital. During Jachin's unplanned surgery (on the abscess that developed in his neck following an extremely routine root canal), the surgeons actually listened to Brazilian music in support of our hopes to make it south. So I'd like to think that they'd celebrate with us today if given the opportunity - Jachin's recovery has gone very well and we are very ready to boogie to Brazil.

So we celebrate that although this was five weeks ago:

...you would never guess it as he packs today:

Tomorrow we're off. We leave MSP tomorrow afternoon and fly overnight from Detroit to Sao Paulo. We'll get one night in Sao Paulo before we take off for Salvador (where I studied abroad in college). After a bit of quality time in Salvador, we'll hit Rio de Janeiro for a few days (we'll of course hum The Girl From Ipanema as we walk Ipanema beach). And then we're back in Sao Paulo (where I lived for a year after college) for a strong finish to the adventure. We've only got two weeks in Brazil to pack as much meaningful fun in as we can... but we're prepared to make the most of it.

Jachin's never been to Brazil. I thought about making a trip to Brazil a heavily weighted prerequisite before marriage... yet that somehow slipped my mind the night that he proposed. But here are just a few (of many) things I am really looking forward to finally getting to share with Jachin (mostly listed in no particular order)...

1. Dear friends. Jachin has heard a lot about friends in Brazil, so it'll be very fun to finally make those connections. While I'm regretfully challenged when it comes to maintaining contact from MN, these friends remain dear to me in a very special way. The two substantial amounts of time that I spent in Brazil (study abroad and campus ministry internship) were incredibly transformative experiences... and by in large it was the the friendships that made the experiences so meaningful. I continue to be grateful for each of them. While we won't be able to see everyone I would like to, I can't wait to see those we can.
    
2. Brazilian concept of time. I realize that vacation in general makes for a very different rhythm of life, but I look forward to the glimpses of a different pace of life that we'll get to experience. It'll be particularly interesting because Salvador, Rio and Sao Paulo each have their own take on pace. But in general I continue to remain forever grateful for what I learned in Brazil in regards to prioritizing relationships over tasks... and if you structure you're day around that, it sure does look different or might not go quite as planned.
    
3. Calvario Church. This church community represents a turning point for me in terms of how I valued church. Community comes in many forms and I'm grateful for the different ways in which I can experience God and friendships that encourage me to seek after God. But it was at Calvario that I learned to appreciate and cherish the diversity of experiences that come together within a church community. It's a gem of an authentic community.
    
4. Cheese. Or most specifically it's "queijo na brasa" or "quiejo coalho" is pretty much the most amazing cheese ever. It's probably the Brazilian food that I talk about the most. It looks like a stick of butter on a wood skewer, but it tastes like amazing cheesy goodness. The photo on Wikipedia looks awful, but it still serves as a reference point. I look forward to sitting on the beach in Salvador with Jachin, waiting for the cheese vendor to walk by, a plastic tub of cheese in one hand and a coffee can of hot charcoal briquettes in the other. Seriously. Some freshly roasted cheese, with a cold Coke, on a sunny beach, with Jachin. Can't wait.
    
5. A day at the beach. But while we're on the topic of beaches... there's more to look forward to. Jachin and I did a bit of beach time in Colombia, but we didn't really have enough time for him to get the full experience. It's about arriving in the morning to get a good spot, renting some reclining chairs and an umbrella, and settling in for some quality time. A book. Some napping. Some swimming. Lunch from a food vendor... perhaps fresh fish or fresh crab with a cold Coke or beer. We'll eat right under our sun umbrella. Then there's the other food that will wander by throughout the day... the cheese, fruit, popsicles, acai, passion fruit juice, etc. And it's all so good. But it can't be rushed. It's simply to be enjoyed.
    
6. Meat. More about food, because it's just that good. Jachin and I have been to the two Brazilian steak houses that are in the Twin Cities... but it'll be great fun to get to be in Brazil and enjoy a wider spread of options. I'm especially looking forward to eating picanha at a restaurant in Sao Paulo... they'll drop a cast iron grill right in the middle of the table so we can continue to cook the beef and the onions... which will be great, because Jachin eats meat much rawer than I do.
    
7. The view from Edificio Italia. Sao Paulo is an absolutely incredible city. And it's sheer scope is a little unimaginable. So I look forward to going up to the top story of Edificio Italia (Italy Building). There's a restaurant up there, so we'll get a drink of some fresh pao de queijo while we take in the view. And the view reeeeeally is incredible. During the year that I live there, Sao Paulo was a very overwhelming city initially... but it was the place that I fell in love with the city, it's potential, it's diversity, it's influence, it's magnitude. I hope it's a clear day when I go.:)
    
8. The monkeys at Pao de Acucar. If I remember correctly, the little monkeys are called micos. I think they're this kind, but someone correct me if I'm wrong. But Rio usually makes the list of most beautiful cities in the world. So I can't wait to gawk at the city and the small monkeys from Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain).
    
9. Sushi in Liberdade. I've tried to not make this list all about food... but let's get back to it. Liberdade (which means liberty) is the Japan Town of Sao Paulo. And it's where I learned to really enjoy and appreciate sushi. A lot of the restaurants have those private rooms with sliding doors, where you slip your shoes off, step up onto a platform, and fit on that platform at the table to eat. And it'll just be fun to share it with Jachin.

So much more to say... but enough said for now. Back to packing.