Last week, we traveled to Brasil for 10 days with another family from Emerson's class at school. We spent 3 days in Rio, followed by 5 days in Isla Grande, with travel days on either end. We had a wonderful time. The Mom is Macarena (Maca), the Dad is Juan Pablo (Juan P), the daughter in Emerson's class is named Mila, and they also have a 5 year old son named Enzo. Drew started both full days in Rio with volleyball lessons on Copacabana Beach. This was a bucket list item for Drew, so he was super happy. I've never seen so many courts on one beach; they were endless.
On Saturday, we had tickets to ride the tram up to see the Christ The Redeemer statue. Unfortunately, this did not pan out; really the only miss of the whole trip. Our tickets were for 11am, with our check-in at 10:30am. According to google maps, our Airbnb was 10 min away from the bottom of the tram, so I said let's leave at 10:15am. Well, this was a mistake, as our Uber trips ended up taking 40min due to traffic. So we ended up arriving with only 5 min to spare, and it wasn't enough. We missed our check-in window, and so they converted our timed entry tickets into general entry tickets. The line for general entry was MASSIVE, but it looked like it was moving, so we decided to give it a shot. Apparently the week prior had been nothing but rain, and this was the first really nice day, so the entire city came out to do exactly what we wanted to do. 3 hours later, we were still at least an hour away from the front, and Drew rightly recognized that we would have to stand in a similar line at the top to get back on the tram to come down. So we pulled the plug and called it a day. We were disappointed for sure, but everyone was really good sports about it, and the kids did so well in line; no meltdowns at all. It's amazing what being with friends does to kids' behavior, jajaja. Highlights of the adventure were seeing monkeys as we waited in line and getting ample time to talk with our friends.
After our Christ the Redeemer fail, we spent the afternoon at Ipanema Beach, as our Airbnb was only 2 blocks away. Ipanema Beach lived up to its reputation 100% and totally redeemed the day, pun intended. The sand was bleach white and sooo soft. Sure it was crowded, but everyone was kind and enjoying life. Amazing vibes. And the granite peaks around the city are so unique. It was gorgeous. I would absolutely stay at Ipanema Beach again.
Lovely Maca!
You can't go to the beach without digging a really big hole!
And then get buried in it, of course!
On Sunday, we went to Sugarloaf Mountain, and this sightseeing experience was exactly what we hoped the previous day would be like. There were no lines to wait in. It wasn't too crowded. We had great weather again, and the views of the city were stunning.
In the picture below, the long beach in the upper left is Copacabana Beach.
And we saw monkeys! They were so little and cute! Same kind we saw waiting in line at Christ the Redeemer.
After our morning at Sugarloaf Mountain, we went and had lunch at a 1970's hole-in-the-wall diner known for rotisserie spring chicken. It was amazingly delicious and looked like it hadn't changed a day in 50 years.
Another highlight of the Ipanema neighborhood was this bakery that was just down the street from our Airbnb. It was open 24 hours a day and was delicious. Chocolate croissants for days!!
No comments:
Post a Comment