welcome! welcome to rio!

I just really love this picture. Sums up the kid interactions during the week.

My promptness in trip recapping was too good to be true, I know. Figured I'd better get back at it before I forget what exactly we did on our trip. I don't have the usual hundreds of photos to sift through—either I've become more of an efficient photo-taker or we just don't do as much while traveling with a toddler—so I get to pack in the whole week's events in one post!

After Iguaçu we hopped on a couple more planes and landed in Rio. (The title of this post is a reference to the classic Mickey Mouse Disco hit "Welcome to Rio," which you'll definitely know if you grew up in my house as it was in frequent rotation on the ol' record player. It was also stuck in my head during The Entire Trip.) Rio is amazing! It was so hot and sweaty and decidedly less luxurious than Iguaçu since we stayed in an Airbnb, but it was such an amazing few days. Our first item of business after getting in late Monday night was getting a good night's rest and hitting the beach the next morning (and every other morning and/or afternoon during the week) since it was just across the street! We stayed in the Leblon neighborhood just past Ipanema, which was nice since it was a lot less crowded than a lot of the other places along the beach, like Copacabana. Beach culture is huge in Rio and there are lifeguard towers all along the beach around which certain groups congregate—families are usually further down the beach at Posto 12 where there is a playground, locals hang out at Posto 9, etc. We were somewhere in the middle and it was a most excellent spot without too many people.

After naps that day we went to the Santa Teresa neighborhood to see the Escadaria Selarón, which are a really cool set of stairs that have been tiled by a local man with the last name Selarón who thought that the steps were too boring as they were. People caught wind of his projects and ended up sending him tiles from all over the world to add to the mosaic, so there's a really cool assortment of tiles there to be seen. It seems that I never got a picture of the full set of stairs so you should definitely search for a picture on the internet to get the full scope of the project.

Some Dutch (presumably?) contributions

Seriously love these girls. And Rhoda's romper that looks like it came from the set of Chariots of Fire.

Pretty sure I can pinpoint this moment as the one where I realized Rhoda would never be content being carried around ever again once she realized she could climb all the stairs herself.

Typical Rhoda moment from the trip—sweaty and yawning. Actually probably a typical moment for all of us that week.

On Wednesday we woke up early to get to Cristo Redentor before the heat and the crowds became too overwhelming (a good idea in hindsight, should you find yourself visiting Rio any time soon). We took a cab to the foot of Corcovado and then took the funicular up the mountain, which was fun for the kids and was a pretty speedy mode of transportation. It was pretty cloudy for most of our time on Corcovado, but the clouds parted later on and gave us a beautiful view of the city below as well as a lovely breeze.

Discovering the joys of the teeter totter in a playground by the tram station

Can't ever get enough of this statue. I love that Christ is portrayed in His resurrected state rather than on a cross.

One angle of the lovely view from Corcovado—to the left you can see Morro da Urca and Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain)

The Hamilly

I also couldn't get enough of Rhoda's bubble suit that day. And she couldn't get enough of "walk. WALK." and wriggling out of our arms.

We went home for naps and then post-naps we took a walk to the Jardim Botânico. I think that we all agreed that our biggest regret wasn't allotting more time for this outing because it was one of the group favorites! The walk took us longer than we thought it would so we only got about thirty minutes in the gardens before closing time but they were thirty wonderful minutes. The garden is in a really cool part of Rio that we wouldn't have discovered otherwise and it was just a really nice way to wind down at the end of the day. Afterward we ate at a super random burger place that ended up being pretty delicious.

Part of the Avenue of Palms—the trees did a great job of protecting us from the noise of the traffic just across the fence

Rhoda and what I'm pretty sure is a Whomping Willow

Over it

Corcovado and a tiny Cristo Redentor in the distance

Another Hamilly photo

Thursday was our last big touring day and we hit up the cable car to Morro da Urca and Pão de Açúcar. I didn't get many pictures of this day because Rhoda was being a pill and I was feeling sick (too many fresh fruit juices—my only love was my only hate) but the sites offered more lovely views of the city from a different angle.

A pretty view of Copacabana beach

Cristo Redentor in a cloud

Rhoda pointing out the various animals and planes of interest

We spent our last day in Rio (Friday) taking turns at the beach with and without our kids. Jess and I got some body surfing time in without the kids (who were kind of hating the beach at this point) and it was so much fun. It was the PERFECT beach day. Great waves and clear skies made us really sad because the weather hadn't been that perfect all week, but it was a beautiful note to end on.

Till next time, Rio! We heart you.

that time we went to brazil

We went to Brazil a couple weeks ago for Robbie's spring break (spring braaaaaaake y'all) and it was awesome! So awesome that this is how Rhoda felt about it:

Just kidding. Actually, Rhoda was so awesome during this trip, and she deserved all the animal crackers that I had to bribe her with to not fuss in endless cabs and planes. Fortunately for us, Brazil is only one time zone ahead of Philly, so there wasn't too much we had to adjust to in terms of naps and everyday schedules. Unfortunately, the flights to Brazil are 10-hour red eyes, so I was all worked up about that leading up to the trip (in addition to getting worked up about our flight maaaaybe getting canceled because of the random epic snowstorm the day we left). It really wasn't that bad though—barring the 40 minute meltdown that Rhoda had on the outgoing flight. It was definitely harder on Robbie and me because Rhoda just conked out once the cabin lights dimmed and slept till morning, while Robbie and I slept as soundly as one does on a plane without the assistance of a sleeping pill. But whatever, first world problems.

Robbie was originally planning on doing some travel with classmates during spring break, and I made him feel guilty that he hasn't done any fun travel with his family in the past two years. In fact, I haven't been on an international trip since we went to Istanbul in 2012, so I was kind of dying to go somewhere fun. I was thinking maybe we could go somewhere warm, like Florida, and then Robbie said "why not Brazil?" I could actually think of 100 reasons why not but I'm a good sport and then we found ourselves booking tickets. And then we connected with our college friends Nate and Jess who happened to be figuring out their spring break plans too, and we found ourselves planning our first international friends + family vacation together. Which ended up being So Awesome! Nate and Jess used to live in Singapore and they're up for pretty much any travel adventure, which makes for great travel companions. They also have a 3.5 year old daughter and a daughter Rhoda's age, which ended up being so great for so many reasons—Rhoda still gets a little anxious around other kids, but Sage (3.5 year old) is a great playmate and Nora (Rhoda's age) got Rhoda accustomed to being around a kid her age all the time. It was just really, really great. Nate and Robbie served their missions together and Jess and I didn't meet till right before we all left Provo, but we did take a Pilates class together and have stayed in touch through blogs and Instagram so it's really like we've been living in the same place all these years.

So anyway. We flew to São Paulo and stayed there one night with some other friends from BYU days. A good little diversion as we got to nap after the overnight flights, but we didn't really get to see the city. We've heard it's a great place to live, but hard to visit as a tourist since the traffic is bad and the sights are far apart. So after São Paulo we hopped a plane to Iguaçu Falls:

Just terrible, right? For those of you who love Jeremy Irons and "Gabriel's Oboe" you may recognize the falls from the classic film The Mission. Unfortunately they're most prominently featured in the scene where a Jesuit priest is tied to a cross and sent over the falls by the indigenous people.

The morning after we arrived, we followed the crowds of tourists to see where the paths around the hotel led. We were ill-prepared for the jungly heat but thanks to cloud cover for much of our walk, it wasn't as bad as it could have been!

So wet! And sweaty!

It's awful. I know.

The group!

Jess and me in the Devil's Throat—where 50% of the falls flow into a very narrow (and loud) (and wet) section, and apparently also the name of a talk by James E. Faust, which I just found out when I googled "Devil's Throat." You can also see Argentina from the walkway that extends into the Devil's Throat!

I think Argentina is hiding behind the mist somewhere

Rhoda was such a good sport for our hike down to the falls. She mostly wanted to get out of the Ergo and pet the coati or try and stick her head through the railings (NOT STRESSFUL AT ALL).

Ah, there's Argentina! I knew it was in here somewhere.

Robbie took this picture from a helicopter. That's our hotel at the bottom left, and the Devil's Throat is the part with all the mist rising above it.

At the recommendation of our friends the Eyres, who visited the falls a couple of years ago, we stayed at the Hotel das Cataratas, which is inside the national park where the falls are located. Totally worth the splurge! It was super relaxing and just so, so nice. It's not like we really had a choice as the other hotels are very far away from the park, and most of them are actually hostels and not hotels. So, we went for the nice hotel. We took advantage of all of the amenities, including a massage at the spa and babysitting from the nicest Brazilian babysitter I've ever met (the only Brazilian babysitter I've ever met, but I really wanted to take her home with me). We also lived at the pool for most of our stay and ordered endless virgin mojitos.

Rhoda also got her own amenities, including a tiny bathrobe, tiny Havaianas, and a tiny stuffed coati wearing a bathrobe. Maybe more for my enjoyment than for hers.

We tried to get as much wear out of the bathrobe as possible, really

"Garçon! More mojitos please!"

Rhoda would NOT let Robbie take her swimming in the pool (a duty reserved only for me, I guess) but she did take advantage of post-swim cuddles with dad. Also, I love post-swim naps. Who knew Rhoda could sleep for almost 4 hours straight in the afternoon?

Giant pool lizard

Classic Nora/Rhoda situation. Nora always posing for the camera, and Rhoda trying to get away as quickly as possible.

Parting shot of the falls on the day we left—crystal clear! (The sky, not the river.)

Iguaçu was definitely a highlight of our trip. My only regret is that it wasn't the last stop on our trip, because it was just so relaxing. Way to go, Mother Nature!