Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Natal - Rio

Well, I will try to consentrate on updating my blog however there is this counter that keeps on incrementing in the upper right hand part of my screen. The internet I am using keeps an account of how long I have been on line and keeps on getting to be a larger number. Scary! I am at the airport in Rio De Janeiro. We leave in 40 minutes for Washington D.C. so these are my last few moments in Brasil. So many wonderful things have been happening but I haven´t been able to spend as much time on line in this second half of the trip. I will skip forward to today because it is still fresh in my mind and update the previous later.

We left from Natal this morning and changed planes in Recife. We arrived in Rio a few minutes before noon and we realized we couldn´t get our boarding passes or check in until 3:30pm. Instead of waiting at the airport, we rented a taxi van and we went on a 3 hour tour of Rio. We first went to see the huge statue of Jesus on the hill above the city. Wow! What a sight! It is on this mountain in the middle of the city. The drive is a windy road that is very steep. Add to that the crazy driving here in Brasil and it was quite an experience. From the top you can view the city. I believe the driver said that the mountain is 709 meters tall that is (2326 ft). The statue was beautiful and it was amazing to think of all the work that went into making it. The Statue is 98ft tall and arms stretching 92ft wide and it was completed in 1931.

We then drove down to the Beach. The area of Rio and the Beach we went to was called the Copacabana. The sand was the consistancy of sugar. The softest stuff I have ever walked on. Justin, Caroline and I walked into the surf and I was surprised by how warm the water was. That was quite an experience as well. Then we drove by Ipanema beach. It is just around the corner from Copacabana and is just as well known. We saw the Soccer stadium, the Carnival location and many beautiful churches from the outside. And then we came back to the airport. Today has felt like we were on the amazing race. Well, I can´t stand to watch the money go by any more. I will write more when it isn´t so expensive. We will be back at 11:11am on Wed. If all goes well. We fly into Washington D.C. which is a change in plans of which I will explain later.

2 comments:

Luke Storer said...

A 3 hour tour? Hope nothing bad happened. (smile) (a reference to Giligan's Island)

Wow, what a short trip. You had to head back home so soon. I am glad my time here and in China is much longer.

Everything sounds excellent as usual.

-Luke

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