Honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro: Ipanema Sunset

Last night I realized I hadn’t finished showing you guys our honeymoon photos from Rio.

The photos today are very special to me.

Here’s the story behind them: Jorge and I had just been through one of the worst days of our lives as we missed our flight back to Mexico. I’d spent all morning crying at the airport and making desperate phone calls, then we went back to our vacation apartment for an afternoon nap. We woke up late afternoon, still with no idea how or when we were going to get home, and walked out toward Ipanema because that’s where the Subway shop was (extra vacation days = poor).

When I saw the sunset on Ipanema Beach, I knew that this was the reason we’d missed our flight. God wanted us to see this…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro: Botanical Garden

Moving on with the Rio de Janeiro posts (it’s been awhile)…

On the third morning of our trip, Jorge and I spent about an hour trying to figure out which was the correct bus to get to the Botanical Garden. After getting several different answers from several different people while trying to find out which one-way street was correct, we were finally on our way!

We passed through Ipanema and the uber-fabulous neighborhood of Leblon. I knew we’d arrived at the Botanical Garden when I saw several lines of the tallest palm trees I’ve ever seen just off to my left. (Palm trees don’t get that tall here in Cancun, aka Hurrican Territory!)

Here are the pictures! It only cost a few dollars per person, and it was a great way to spend a few hours:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro: Thongs and Fashion

On our recent trip to Rio, we were very surprised by some of the… um… “unique” fashion trends, and not so surprised by others.

Thongs

Everything you’ve heard is true. Brazilian women love to wear their thong bikinis on the beach! Every single woman aged 15 on up to 90 on the beach was wearing a thong bikini, or a very small bikini that had been “tucked in” to resemble a thong. They seemed to be pretty shameless about it as well, which was shocking at first but seemed quite normal after a few days.  They would bend over, run around with the kids, and even play a game of beach  paddleball in their thongs.

Interestingly, the Brazilian women were quite modest when not on the beach. Even when walking along the boardwalk, the ladies were fully covered… unlike Cancun or parts of the US, where you’ll see women walking along in bikini tops. Not so in Rio. When you’re not on the sand, you cover up.

Everything you’ve heard about Brazilian butts is also true. We did not see a single Brazilian woman there who didn’t have a fabulous butt. Didn’t matter if they were skinny or fat, young or old… amazing butts, all of them.

About 2/3 of the men were wearing speedo’s, but luckily Jorge didn’t feel too left out because there were a good amount wearing trunks as well.

American men will never be secure enough to hug another man wearing a speedo.

Workout Gear

We mostly stayed in the Copacabana and Ipanema districts of Rio, where you’ll find tons of locals biking, playing soccer, playing paddleball, walking and running. They even have gym stations on the beach so guys can do pull-ups!

By Day 2, Jorge had noticed that many of the women were wearing the same workout outfit that seemed a bit odd to us. We saw at least 20 women wearing this trend every day: leggings with knee-high athletic socks. For posterity’s sake, we documented some of these women so you can see it’s actually true:

After seeing it so much, this trend actually began to look attractive. Luckily we left Rio before I had a chance to buy my long athletic socks.

What interesting fashion statements have you seen in other cultures?

Honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro: Ipanema Beach

Moving along with the honeymoon posts, today I’ll write about my favorite part of Rio de Janeiro: Ipanema.

You may remember we stayed in the Copacabana district, which was lovely, but on the 3rd day of our trip we finally made it to the neighboring beach neighborhood of Ipanema. Once we discovered it, we’d spent hours on the remaining days of our trip just wandering around the streets and beach of Ipanema, just a 20 minute walk from our Copacabana apartment. It has a very cool vibe, with lots of surfers, beautiful views and endless restaurants to choose from. Ipanema is the perfect place to just… be.

If we ever make it back to Rio, we’re definitely staying in Ipanema!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Note: I know I’ve been using the slideshow feature a lot lately. Personally I like it better for posts with lots of photos, but if you have a hard time seeing it please let me know and I’ll be sure to use regular format in the future.

Honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro: Sugarloaf Mountain

I hope you’re excited, because I have more Rio de Janeiro photos headed your way!

On the second evening of our trip, Jorge and I made our way via taxi to see Rio’s famous Sugarloaf mountain.

This view is from the Christ the Redeemer platform. The Sugarloaf is the tall hill set on the center peninsula.

To get to the top of the Sugarloaf, you take two aerial trams from the downtown Sugarloaf station. First you’ll be taken to a lower hill called Cara de Cao with great views of the downtown area and the bay, then the second tram takes you up to twice the height at the top of the Sugarloaf. Jorge was scared to death of the tram before we went, but I think once we were on it he was fine.

A tram leaving the downtown station to the first hill (Cara de Cao), with the higher Sugarloaf in the right background.

View from the tram at the top of Cara de Cao, looking down on the station

CARA DE CAO HILL

The first hill, Cara de Cao, might have been my favorite of the two mountains, even if it’s not nearly as tall as the Sugarloaf. It has more space and is less crowded, and the cafe is a heck of a lot cheaper!

Sagui monkeys on Cara de Cao hill... ugliest. animals. ever. But boy, do they put on a show!

View of downtown Rio from Cara de Cao Hill

Yours Truly with Jorge on Cara de Cao Hill, with the Sugarloaf Mountain in the background

SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN

After playing with the scary monkeys for a bit and taking some pictures, we took the second tram to the top of the Sugarloaf.

Looking down on Rio from the Sugarloaf tram station

The top of the Sugarloaf was pretty crowded around sunset, but we managed to find a few more secluded areas for taking pictures and enjoying the views. We also explored some hiking paths going through the woods! I was surprised that they could pack so much onto the top of such a narrow mountain.

View of Rio's "Zona Sul" (South Zone). The super-long stretch of beach you see just beyond the ridge of hills is Copacabana, where we stayed.

Looking out onto the bay and downtown Rio

I love this picture, even though my eyes are closed! I seriously need to get this Photoshopped...

EVENING…

After some pictures and fighting the crowds at the top of the Sugarloaf, we made our way back down to Cara de Cao. Apparently we were on the “party tram” back down because there was a lot of screaming and excitement from a group of Brazilian college students.

We stopped by the cafe for some very, very tiny cups of hot cocoa and paninis, then sat down on some loungers to enjoy the sunset.

Dusk over downtown Rio de Janeiro

Yes, that's Christ the Redeemer in the background.

The trip to Sugarloaf was my second favorite part of the trip. I’ll tell you about my favorite part in a few days… Ipanema Beach!

 

 

Rio de Janeiro Honeymoon: Christ the Redeemer

 

On Thursday morning of our trip to Rio, we got to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. I’d read on Trip Advisor that you should go as soon as they open (8:30 am) to avoid crowds, otherwise you could be waiting several hours just to buy a ticket for the train up the Corcovado mountain.

So we took a bus from Copacabana very early and got there about 8:45 am… absolutely nobody there, except a few people who were on the bus with us.

the "line" for tickets 😛

Even though we didn’t have to wait in line, a decent crowd with several large groups had arrived by the time we got onto the train a few minutes later. The train takes maybe half an hour to go all the way up the mountain, and there are tons of amazing lookout points along the way. If you ever go, I recommend sitting in the seats facing backwards for the best view.

Jorge falls asleep after 5 minutes in any form of transportation. I envy him.

When we got to the top, it was pretty chilly. I remember stepping off the elevator and looking up at the back of the Christ the Redeemer statue and almost crying in awe. We were at the top of the world looking at one of Brazil’s most impressive monuments. There was a small crowd there that got steadily larger over the next hour or two (glad we went early!), and we spent our time enjoying the views and taking pictures.

lots of hang gliders that morning!

Once we were done taking pictures, Jorge and I went down to the cafe for a coffee. Once we saw a simple coffee was ridiculously expensive, we just pulled some apples out of our backpack and sat down to enjoy the view.

I know I live in a big tourist destination and I can spot a tourist trap from thousands of miles away, (Ok, pretty much our entire trip was uber touristy) but I don’t care. Our morning at Christ the Redeemer was one of the best mornings of my life. Absolutely amazing.

Rio de Janeiro Honeymoon: Copacabana

We’ve been back from Rio de Janeiro since Wednesday, after a fun night sleeping in a dirty restaurant booth at the airport, followed by a 9 1/2 hour flight. Good times. (This bad attitude is exactly why I could never be a backpacker… or go camping.) Can’t complain too much, though, because our airfare from Mexico to Brazil was free! (Best. Deal. Ever.)

Now that we’re settled back into Cancun, I can go ahead and start showing photos of our belated honeymoon!

In Rio de Janeiro, we stayed in the Copacabana neighborhood right on the beach. Most hotels were fairly expensive despite not being very exciting-looking, and even a private room at a hostel would have run us upward of $80 US a night several blocks from the beach, and most were booked up. We were very lucky to find out about Gringo Management, who has many apartments for rent in the Copacabana and Ipanema areas for very cheap. Our apartment was on the 12th floor of an apartment building just half a block from the beach, for only $75 US a night! It looked recently redone, plus it had ocean views, Wi-Fi, cable TV, a kitchenette and a small but nice bathroom. We were pretty impressed with it. (Didn’t take any pictures of it, though… oops!)

The view from our window

Our first day in Rio, we spent the whole afternoon walking up and down the boardwalk. It’s a very long boardwalk and it took quite a few hours! The beach and boardwalk were packed that day because apparently it’s a holiday in Brazil. The main road (Avenida Atlantica) had been closed to traffic to allow for more pedestrians. It was a pretty awesome way to start our vacation! After a long walk, we fell asleep on the beach. (Hey, we were tired!)

We didn’t take any photos our first day because we wanted to just take it all in, but here are some photos of the Copacabana neighborhood from other days:

Overall we really enjoyed staying in Copacabana, especially on the busier holidays and weekend. The mountain views from the beach were amazing, especially after years in the flat, flat terrain of the Yucatan Peninsula. (**This was the first time Jorge had ever seen mountains.**) There were also tons of cool little bars along the boardwalk, where I ordered mostly caipirinhas and pizza!

In a few days I’ll blog about our morning at Christ the Redeemer! Stay tuned…

Still Stuck in Rio!

First of all, Id like to apologize for lack of apostrophes in this post (and the last one). I havent quite figured out how to get a good apostrophe on a Brazilian keyboard.

So yesterday I told you guys that we were stuck in Rio de Janeiro after missing our flight. Well, we are still here!

Our airline, TAM, just opened up their flights with Mexico last week, so right now they only have 1 flight going back to Mexico per day. We went to the airport at 4 am today to put ourselves on the waiting list for the flight. They were actually overbooked by 15 people (!!), so we werent able to get on. The girl at the TAM counter told us they were overbooked for Tuesday as well so it wouldnt be worth it for us to try it… but she did manage to get us on Wednesdays flight!!

I know 3 extra days in Rio sounds like an amazing deal, but its not ideal because Im missing 3 days of work and Jorge has a lot of work to do on his final project for school. We really, really just want to be home. Plus we have spent the past 36 hours either at the airport or stressed about what to do… it has NOT been fun and we have gotten very, very little sleep. Were absolutely exhausted. Were also overbudget thanks to the extra days, so we have been living off of Subway, McDonalds and Choco Krispies. Still, were mostly relieved that we wont have to fork over a few thousand bucks for a ticket back… yay!

Now that we have tickets back home and a nice, cheap place to stay today and tomorrow, we can finally kick back and relax a little bit. (We just woke up from a 5 hour nap, our first time sleeping more than 3 hours straight since Friday night).

Anyway, Im off to the beach since I have nothing better to do today 🙂 Gotta take advantage of our time here to make it worth all the frustration!

Where I´m At…

Well here we are, safe and sound back in lovely Cancun, Mexico after a fabulous, worry free honeymoon in Rio de Janeiro!

Oh WAIT…

That´s what I would be saying in an alternative universe where Jorge and I didnt miss our flight!

I wont tell the long story because… well… lets not go there.

Short version: We slept in this morning and missed our flight. Unless we can squeeze into an already full flight leaving tomorrow morning on the waiting list, we might have to pay a very large amount of money to fly back home. (Also, its difficult to communicate with anybody when its 9 am and youre in a time zone 4 hours ahead of the people who can help you.)

Luckily the apartment we were renting is still available tonight, so we came back to Copacabana and just woke up from a nice, long nap! We´re by the beach and the weather is amazing, but we just dont feel like doing anything after the morning we had.

This will hopefully be the last time you ever hear me complain about an extended vacation. Boo.

On a more pleasant note, up until this point it has been one of the best weeks of my life! Cant wait to tell you all about it when Im on the right continent.

Peace out

Our Honeymoon is Booked! Guess Where We’re Going?

**I’d like to apologize to my readers in advance for any excessive use of exclamation points.**

I’d been waiting until it was official to bring this up.

Jorge and I have booked our honeymoon! (over a year late, but ya know… whatever.)

In just a few weeks, we’ll be strolling along the streets and beaches of RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL!!!!

We’ll also be spending some of our time in nearby BUZIOS!!! So gorgeous.

This is really exciting for both of us. For me, I work in the travel industry and I’m surrounded by vacationers all the time, but I rarely get to travel myself! This will be my first time outside of North America.

For Jorge, not only is it his first time outside of Mexico… it’s his first time flying!

We need to save up some vacation spending money this month, and I need to pick up the pace at the gym. (My goal is to be rich and skinny in Rio.)

What’s your dream honeymoon destination?