Brazil: Day 5&6

Wednesday Moises and Eliane drove us to Rio de Janiero.  It is really difficult to pick a favorite part of the trip but this might be it.  We loved spending more time with Moises and Eliane.  Moises was constantly entertaining us!  Rio is a beautiful city!  We arrived Wednesday evening just in time to take a walk on Copacabana before it was dark.  We watched a beautiful moon rise over the ocean!

Friday we enjoyed a run on Copacabana and then were off to the tourist sights.  We decided it was safer to navigate the city with taxis.  Moises was hilarious with the taxi drivers.  It was the one time I really felt like I was missing out on something by not understanding the language.  They were talking way too fast for Jason to translate but Moises had everyone laughing and having a great time.  We got to Corcovado mountain and found out there was an hour and a half wait until we could catch a train to the top.  Before long Moises was talking to some of the people who worked there and got us moved up to the next train that was coming!

The ride on the train was entertaining with a very fun group of Brazilians singing the whole way up!  On the top of the mountain sits the statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer.)  The view of Rio was breathtaking!

After a quick lunch we headed over to Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf.)  There is a tram we rode to the top of this mountain.  Here's a view from the parking lot at the bottom and the tram we rode on.

I wasn't sure it was going to be worth going to the top of Sugar Loaf after we had already been to the top Corcovado but I think the view was even better on top of Sugar Loaf!  There were also some beautiful trails we could walk on through the forest at the top of Sugar Loaf.

Finally we made it back to enjoy the hot afternoon at Copacabana.