After arriving and checking into our hotel, we made our way to the Brazilian side of Iguaçu Falls. The falls are one of the largest in the world and definitely beat Niagara. The Brazilian side offers many wonderful views of the falls from a distance. We couldn't believe how grand they were. Tomorrow we will cross the border into Argentina to hike the falls of Iguaçu. We are hoping the border crossing is nothing like the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border crossing Mike and Jody know all too well. We also thought it is well worth mentioning Mike's medical emergency that happened today. [View Full Entry]

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Tonight we boarded our overnight bus to Iguaçu Falls. Jody was worried about how Mike would handle his first long distance bus ride, but we were able to book tickets on a sleeper bus that was comparable to seats in first class of an international flight. The seats were comfortable and we were able to sleep peacefully through the night until our arrival in Iguaçu in the morning. After reading the entry to Mike, he decided we needed to mention Jody's adverse reaction to Sleepy Time pills. So here goes...Jody thought Mike was going to be the one to have problems [View Full Entry]

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Before we flew out to Sao Paulo today, Jody went hang gliding. It was amazing. She took off from the top of a mountain and flew over the city on a 15 minute flight. She landed on a beach safe and sound. It was definitely an experience she would recommend to others. [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day for Sugar Loaf Mountain. The tour entailed two cable car rides up to the top of a mountain and some smelly European girls that obviously didn't believe in deodorant. The mountain beautiful views of the city. You can make out Christ the Redeemer statue in the distance of some of the pictures. Afterwards, we tried to have high tea at Copacabana Palace, but they stopped serving high tea the previous week. They were very nice and tried to accommodate us with a makeshift afternoon tea. Mike was also very nice to appease Jody and sit through tea [View Full Entry]

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Of course Jody had to check out the Ipanema Hippie Fair. The Sunday street fair dates back to the 70's which is when it got its nickname. The hippies used to display their crafts and other goods for locals to buy. Since then it has expanded to many different types of artisans with their crafts from all over Brazil. Our favorite buy of the day was tapioca. We loved it so much we bought it in 2 different forms-in a bun like form and in cakelike form. It was very different than tapioca pudding back home. [View Full Entry]

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The soccer game was wonderful. It was, however, quite an interesting experience. We had read that we should consider taking a guide and paying extra money because the stadium wasn't in the nicest neighborhood. We decided to do it on our own after discovering it could save us about $60.50 with the exchange rate. (Mike wanted to make sure you knew exactly how much we were saving). The only problem we had was waiting in line for tickets. There were no lines...nothing to distinguish any sense of order. Instead of waiting in line for tickets we found ourselves trying to buy [View Full Entry]

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Christ the Redeemer was beautiful. We were able to navigate our way there with no problems. Afterward we spent some time on the beach. We certainly were able to confirm the fact that all Brazilians are proud of their bodies despite their size or lack of exercise. Those Brazilian bikinis are everywhere. We saw more people wearing them that should not be wearing them than we did people who filled out the suit nicely. It was a little like a car crash...you don't want to keep looking, but you can't look away. The beach was beautiful but we could only take [View Full Entry]

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Hi there, Just wanted to let you know we made it safely into Brazil. On the way down our flight to Miami was delayed an hour. As a reesult we missed our connection to Rio. The airline was wonderful and put us up in a hotel and gave us food vouchers for all our meals. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because we had the whole next day until our flight at 11:00 pm to see Miami. We rented a car for the day and spent the day in South Beach. It was a chance for us to see [View Full Entry]

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Click on the link below to see a map of our trip. [View Full Entry]

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