Rio De Janeiro

The first day in Rio we headed to beach.  It was so beautiful even in the middle of winter.  I am so glad we went because it rained the rest of the time we were there.  We stayed on Copacabana.  Our hotel was great at recommending great places for us to visit and eat.  Our first few days of speaking Portuguese were a little crazy. Our first night, I went to buy some food at the grocery store and asked for a tartlette de frango instead of morango.   Translation a chicken tart instead of a strawberry tart.  In true Brazilian style she said, "tartlette de frango" loud enough so the whole store could hear.  I had to explain we had been on a plane for 20 hours and I was a little tired.  I was never shy about speaking Portuguese when I was on a mission but there were many occasions where Tom and I just looked at each other hoping the other one caught it. :)

Eating at the restaurant below Pao de Acucar.  It was an overpriced tourist trap but the food and view were awesome.  We had a great meal and great service.
We had to take a picture of the picture because the clouds were hiding the view.  It was so beautiful up there.  It is crazy that they have such high mountains right next to the beach.
This is the tram loading dock on our way up. There are two trams and you go up two mountains.  They are both protected reserves full of wildlife and jungle.
We caught a small view on the way up before we got too high.
We walked around the top of Pao de Acucar.  There were monkeys just hanging around and we were able to get really close to them.  Tom had monkeys every where on his mission so he was excited to see his old friends.  We spent a lot of time watching the movie and hanging out in the jewlery stores due to the rain.