Brazil

Back in December we took a little trip to Brazil.

Sean first went to Brasilia and I met up with him a few days later in Rio di Janeiro. We stayed in the Sofitel right on Copacabana, so we had some great views of the bay. 

That's the view of Copacabana Beach from our hotel balcony. When we first arrived in Rio it was really cloudy (and everyone consequently was really bummed out by that) but I thought it looked nice- and it was a bonus because it wasn't so hot. 

 While our husbands were visiting the consulate on our first day in Rio, Debbie, her kids and I rented bikes to ride around. The areas around Copacabana and Ipanema beaches are fairly bike friendly. There are designated bike lanes in the roads. We rode from the end of Copacabana beach all the way down to the end of Ipanema beach and then we rode the 7k loop around the Lagoa Rodrigo de Frietas. 

Biking in Rio

Capybara sighting! 

Debbie and the Capybara 

After a couple hours of riding around we were all pretty famished. So we stopped at one of the many food stands that dot the beaches. 

A feast of brazilian snacks: fresh coconut water, bolinhos de bacalhau (cod fish balls), and of course some acai with granola

The next day was a day off for Sean so we headed over to the ticket counter to buy the entry ticket and a bus ride to go see the massive and iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. Luckily the cloudy weather cleared up, so we had a nice (and very hot) sunny day to enjoy the Christ the Redeemer monument. Clear skies meant we'd get some amazing views of the city from the top. 

Elaborate and well constructed sand castle seen while waiting in line to purchase tickets to see Christ the Redeemer

One of the many artisan fairs we saw while in Rio

Cute little marmosets in the trees as we walked up the seemingly endless stairs to the top of the monument

Christ the Redeemer from all sides.

Looking down on the Lagoa as well as Ipanema Beach where Debbie and I rode our bikes around the previous day.  

Another view of the far end of Ipanema Beach

A glimpse of Pao Azucar, where we would visit later in the day to catch the sunset.

In the afternoon we walked around the neighborhood surrounding Copacabana. It's a very nice area. And I was surprised that there was so much greenery and plant life growing in the city- at least, coming from Lima where there are hardly any trees along the streets (though there are lovely parks, so I can't diss my own city too much.)

Can't resist photographing horses, no matter what.

I was surprised at how casual everyone dresses in Rio. In Lima, you'd never see anyone wearing shorts or flip-flops. So it was kind of nice to be able to dress like a normal person in oppressively hot weather and not stand out like I normally do in Peru.

Now we all know where the show Bob's Burgers came from....

So much jackfruit! Growing everywhere! I wanted to steal them all and bring them home in my luggage. 

In the early evening a group of us hopped in a taxi and headed over to the base of Pao de Azucar (aka Sugarloaf) to take the cable cars up and enjoy the sunset. To get to the top of Sugarloaf you have to take two sets of cable cars. It's a pretty fun ride since the whole car is windows you get a really good view of the city. 

Looking up at the actual top of Sugarloaf while waiting for the next gondola to take us to the top. 

Looking down at the first part of Sugarloaf from the gondola.

Posing with a tiny Cristo Redantor in the background

More spectacular views of Rio.

The day after Sean and I went to the National History Museum. It's a pretty small museum in the old part of town. But its housed in the really gorgeous old mansion. And there was a lot of really cool stuff about the colonial period when Brazil was colonized by Portugal. I didn't take many photos of the interior because the lighting was bad and the guards were telling other visitors to stop. 

The whole courtyard was filled with different sized canons

Pop art

Later in the day we took a quick trip to the Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro, which I highly recommend if you ever happen to find yourself in Rio. It's just north of the Leblon neighborhood of Rio.

There were lots of turtles in all the different canals and fountains

The grounds of the botanic garden are huge, we only walked around for about two hours, but I think you could easily spend three or four hours wandering through the place. It is absolutely amazing. It started raining about halfway through our time there- so that was why we cut the trip short. I took tons of photos of every orchid in their greenhouse- but to save you, my wonderful readers, the time I'm just sharing my three favorite ones. 

Pretty, pretty orchids.

The next day we flew into the heart of the Amazon to Manaus. Manaus is a fairly large city in the State of Amazonas, located roughly near where the Rio Negro and the Rio Amazonas converge. We stated at the Hotel Tropical, which is annoyingly far outside of Manaus and took about 45 minutes by taxi to get into the city itself- frustrating when you're hungry for dinner. Hotel Tropical was adequate at best- it has the feel of an old resort that used to be very popular and well maintained... oh, lets say about 20 years ago... However, it did have a pool, which is crucial when its 90 degrees and 100% humidity in the Amazon. And they had their own zoo of jungle animals; all of which were rescued from animal trafficking instances. 

Some scenes of the main plaza in Manaus. We only went there on two of the four nights we were in the Amazon because, as I mentioned before, it was kind of a pain in the butt to get to and from the city center. We were there about two weeks before Christmas. And down here in South America they go all out with their decorations. The tree in the above photo would periodically shoot out fake "snow" to add to the holiday ambiance. 

This is the Teatro de Amazonas. Back when this area was far more economically prosperous a massive opera house was built. In this photo its all decorated and lit up for Christmas. 

The jaguar in the Hotel Tropical's zoo- it was super hot out that afternoon, and I got to watch him play with his tail in the water for a good 20 minutes. I have never seen such a large animal that I normally think of as being aloof manage to look so goofy.

In addition to the small zoo run by Hotel Tropical I also got to visit the zoo at the Jungle Warfare School located in Manaus (the reason why Sean and his FAO colleagues went to Manaus in the first place). The zoo at the Jungle Warfare School was much bigger with a wider variety of jungle wildlife on display. Of course I hardly have any photos to share because it was so bright none of them came out particularly well. We got there right as the zoo opened in the morning so we got to see the cadets from the school feeding all the different animals. 

Cute tortoises feeding on some lettuce

The zoo has a panther, a puma, and a jaguar. The only one that was out in the morning was the panther- he was pacing back and forth on this small patch of cement- I assume he was impatiently waiting to be fed.

The other exciting thing for me to see was the ocelots. As a child I was weirdly obsessed with ocelots- and did tons of reports on them in grade school, so for me it was exciting to finally get to see them up close. 

SO CUTE

On Sean's free day we chartered a motor boat to take us up to the "meeting of the waters" where Rio Negro and Rio Amazonas meet. Initially that doesn't sound that exciting. And you're probably thinking "Why would they pay to go see where two rivers merge??" Well, you're about to see why.

As we went up river towards the confluence of the two rivers we passed the main port of Manaus, all of those boats that you see are river cruise ships. But not the nice kind of cruise that Carnival runs. These cruises take weeks to get from port to port on the rivers and you have to sleep in hammocks and share bathrooms with your fellow passengers.... That sounds less appealing than a Carnival Cruise. 

So excited to see a natural phenomenon!

So, this confluence between the Rio Negro and Amazonas is a natural phenomenon because each body of water flows at a different speed and is a different temperature. The Rio Negro flows at 2 km (or 1.24 miles)  per hour and has the average temperature of 28 C (or 82 F). And the Rio Amazonas, which is sandy colored, flows at 4-6 km (or 2.5-3.7 miles) per hour and has the average temperature of 22 C (71 F). Because of these differences the two rivers can flow side by side without mixing.

The confluence between the Rio Negro & Rio Amazonas

After our day on the river, Sean would fly back to Lima about 48 hours earlier than originally planned (due to budget nonsense in DC) and I got to have a solo vacation for two days in the jungle! I was not too sad to leave Brazil in the end, though. In general we had a great time in Brazil. I really enjoyed Rio de Janeiro... but the Amazon, not so much, it's too humid and hot there for me. 

Stay tuned for some posts about more of our travels inside Peru!  Thanks for reading. 

Adventures in Peru Pt. 3

Arequipa & the Colca Canyon

Earlier in November, Sean and I took a long weekend trip to Arequipa and the Colca Canyon. We stayed in Arequipa for a full day and two nights before we headed out to the Colca Valley.  We stayed at a really cool boutique hotel called Hotel Casona Solar, that is a renovated colonial mansion and UNESCO national monument. It had a lot of old world charm, and our bedroom had vaulted ceilings and a chandelier! 

The hotel's patio and garden was my favorite place to sit and read.

Private courtyard for the guest rooms.

Vaulted ceilings AND a chandelier! 

Plaza des Armas and the basilica lit up at night.

Day time Plaza des Armas

Cool old colonial architecture

During the full day we had in Arequipa we walked around and explored a little. Right around the corner from the hotel is the Mercado San Camilo, which is the main market for the city. One of my favorite (and free) things to do anywhere we travel is explore that city's markets, I'm always interested in seeing what kinds of produce and other goods are sold. And here in Arequipa we got to see some pretty interesting things.....

Yes, those are llama fetuses, and I still can't figure out what they are used for. Or WHY

Witch doctor stall selling various herbal remedies

After I surreptitiously snapped a bunch of photos, we moved quickly away from the creepy witch doctor stalls where old women were putting together what looked like little voodoo packets of herbs, flowers, and other bits of things. The rest of the market sold normal things... I wanted to buy and eat all of that luscious looking tropical fruit. And of course they had their millions of varieties of potatoes on display.

The other weird thing we came across in the mercado was near the bakery stalls. The bakers were selling these loaves of bread that had little babies heads painted on them....

Creepy baby head bread....

After our stroll through the mercado we headed towards the Plaza des Armas. Now, pretty much every city in South America has a Plaza des Armas, each one varying in size and prettiness. So, I'd say now I'm something of an expert on Plaza des Armas-es. And Arequipa boasts a very pretty and clean one. All the buildings surrounding the square are constructed of white volcanic stone so the whole effect is really nice to look at. 

Once you've see one Plaza des Armas, you've seen them all.

There aren't a whole lot of tourist activities to do in the city itself, Arequipa is mainly a stopping over point for people coming to or from the Colca Canyon. There's a small national museum that hosts the famous "Inca Ice Maiden"- the mummy Juanita, an Andean woman found up on Mount Ampato. And there is also the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. The monastery is massive, we spent about two hours walking around the complex, and I think we still didn't cover a few parts of it. 

View of the volcano Mismi from the monastery.

Interesting church door.

The next day we were picked up by our driver bright and early and we headed out on the long drive to the Colca Valley. It takes about 3 hours just to get to the beginning of the Valley and then another hour or so before you get to the actual canyon itself. 

A cool lagoon in the valley.

Before we even got to the Mirador del Condor, we saw a pair of juvenile condors sitting together.

The drive to Cabana Conde, the town we would stay in for the night, took most of the day. We stopped at a few places to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery and landscape. 

Hiking along the edge of the canyon rim.

Standing above the Colca Canyon

Looking across the canyon at a small village, in the foreground you can see the terraces the Inca people constructed for agricultural purposes.

We stayed the night at a hostel in Cabana Conde and got up early the next morning to do a bit of hiking and then head back to Arequipa for the night. We stopped at Mirador del Condor early before most of the crowds of tourists showed up, pretty much the only reason  why people stay in towns in the Colca Canyon overnight. I didn't share any more condor photos because all of mine are grainy since I only used my iPhone to take photos on this trip.

One of the many churches we saw while drive through the Colca Canyon, this one under a grant from the Spanish government, is being restored to its original designs after years of disrepair.

Views for days

It was a pretty short trip, but we managed to pack quite a bit of activity into just four days. Arequipa and the Colca Canyon are definitely two places that I would like to visit again, if we ever get the chance to come back to Peru. 


Thanks for reading! See you soon!