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We met up w/ my sister Vanessa & went to dinner at an Amazon place.It was very local & the guy spoke no English or Spanish so it was difficult communicating.It was trial by fire w/ my Portuguese!We had an interesting mix-up but after that I was so amazed at how much my Spanish helped me to understand Portuguese.I had almost no problems understanding or being understood.That was such a relief and very exciting!I even learned quite a few Portuguese words in only a week!The fresh fruit here is amazing - mango, acai - almost anything you want!Rio also has tons of tourist places including one of the new wonders of the world - the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado hill.We took a train up which goes through some of the Tijuca rainforest.We saw a coati there!We then walked around the center of town viewing Ghandi park, the Plaza Floriano w/ the Teatro Municipal and other places - the best part was the Sahara district which has a bunch of shops.We all bought Haviana flipflop/sandals since Rachel had told us that they were super in-style in Europe!!We also got some great pastries from the famous Confeiteria Colombo & had street food of grilled tapioca "crepe" w/ mozzarella then a sweet tapioca "crepe" w/ banana & cinnamon, a churro filled w/ dulce de leche, a sweet corn cake, cashews & caramel popcorn.Sorry, but I had to mention some food!J
The next day we did a free tour at H. Stern in Ipanema & learned about Brazil's famous stones then walked a bit on the famous Ipanema beach.It was soooooo hot - perfect weather for hangliding!It was a short trip since there wasn't a lot of wind but it was so peaceful and amazing that I would love to do it every day!We then went to the Pao de Azucar, which means Sugar loaf since its shape looked like the lumps of sugar they harvested from the sugar cane.It is the largest rock in the world; I believe it's even larger than the rock of Gibraltar!We took the gondola lift up to the top & stayed to see a beautiful sunset behind the Christ the Redeemer statue.I saw a capuchin monkey there but it was very different from the ones in Costa Rica.We also saw a giant ant!
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