May 17th Last night in Brazil...

Last night in Brazil! We were going to go the Museum of Modern Art but all the muesums and galleries are closed on Mondays... And the weather is cloudy so we cant get any sun. So we went to see the new Woody Allen Movie "Whatever Works" with Larry David. It was a great movie, very unique and funny.

That night we got a ton of her friends together and had a little send off party for me at this bar that served a "torre de chopp" which translates as "Beer Tower". There are no pitchers of beer here, you usually have to order small chopps which are just over half a pint. There are a few restaurants that serve this Tower of Beer which is either 2.5L or 3.5L depending on which size you order. You don't pour it but there is a small tap which you use to fill you glasses. Good times, good beer, good people.

The normal Chopp (300ml) and the small Chopp (200ml)...


The 2.5L tower of beer...


We approve...


The 3.5L tower of beer...

May 16th Beach Day again

Nothing much to report today. Just another day out at the beach. Also went to a Art and Craft show that happens every week in the park near the section of beach we go to. Lots of great local artists showing off their work. Pick up a few cool items, maybe a gift or two

May 15th Beach and Nightclub

This was only our 2nd day at the beach actually... The beach is a weekend place and last weekend was rainy. Most of out time in the sun has been at the Yacht Club. So we called some friends and headed to the beach.

That night (saturday) we decided we would go out the a brazillian night club.

May 14 Botanical Gardens

Today we went with Lu's mom to the historical area of downtown Rio. She was able to give us a great little walking tour of the area. Lots of the historic buildings have been turned into public spaces which are free to access. They have cafe's, meeting places, and art galleries in them and are huge beautiful buildings. I didnt take many images of these places since we were in the busy downtown core and many of the galleries of course dont allow images to be taken. We had a fantastic lunch in this amazing building with very old 30 foot mirrors linning the ceiling. It was great to see all the great history that the city has, mixed in with the modern buildings and the organized chaos of everyday business.

After this we did a 180 from the city centre and headed to the Botanical gardens again since we got rained out the last time we tried to go. This time the weather was perfect and we were able to see the elements of the park the way they were ment to be seen. Most of the trees there seemed to be older then Rio itself judging by their size. I will let the images speak for themselves. Remember to click on the image to see a bigger version.

May 12 The Rainy Gardens

Today we went to the Botanical Gardens, stayed dry for a half hour and then the torrential rain started. We ran into a greenhouse and advoided getting soaked but it kind of put a damper on the rest of the visit. So we are going to try again on our next sunny day. Stayed in tonight and watched a movie since the next few days we have a busy schedule of night time plans with friends.

It started out nice...

Had some fun taking pictures...

Then the clouds moved in...

Then the rain started...

And it stayed like the for the rest of our visit to the gardens...

May 10th

Nothing much to report today but we did go on a walk around town when the rain stopped. It was just the right time of day with the sun slowly setting so we got some good shots.

May 9th First Day of Rain

First Day of Rain but we managed to get out of the house for a bit to see some of Lus friends but just hung around the house playing Wii and chatting. Yesterday (the 8th) we went had a great lunch for one of her Friends Bday's at another all you can eat, meat on swords place. Then later that night went to a place called Devassa which is a Micro Brewery with some great beer with Bella.

But the exciting news is the amazing steak restaurant that Lus parents took us to on Friday the 7th. Best steak I've ever had. Not only was the meat flaourful and tender but the side of fried onions that came with it was enormous and they were the best steak topping a guy could ask for. See Below (half finsihed)

May 7th Sugarloaf day!

Today was Sugarloaf day! It is actually 2 gondla rides and 2 mountian tops. I took some great shots with the SLR but wont be able to post them till I get home since there is no RAW converter on the computer I am using. Took a bunch with the Lumix so I could post them on here today.
The weather conditions were great for going up to the mountian, or so we thought. You will see in the pictures that it was a beautiful day except for one clould at the peak of the mountian. In fact that one clould covered the entire peak allowing for dense fog on the mountian top for our entire stay.. It was sureal, we were standing in a cloud, it was also dead calm 300m up. Little to no wind which I found very strange. Some of the photos with the SLR better show the spooky-ness but these Lumix shots will have to do for now.

Remember that clicking on the image will take you to a larger version.

Getting to the first summit...


The clear sky with a few clouds on the first summit...


The single cloud covering the summit of the Sugarloaf...


The gondla just coming out of the fog...


The "view" from the top of the over 300m summit...


The clouds moving in on the 1st summit (on our way back to sea level)...


Finally, the weather and night sky with the helicopter pad in the foreground

May 5th Lazy Day

Nothing much going on today. We went to the yacht club, lazed by the pool, cooled off in the pool. We were going to go to the top of the Sugarloaf today but my camera battery needed to be charged so we will be going another day. We did walk to the mall and take some cool shots of some of the grafitti along the road with the little Lumix.




I like this one becuase you can see the context of where we are.


The detail in this one is great

May 4th Anniversary

Today was our 1 year, and Lu took me to this amazing cafe along the shore with a great view of the beach and the city. The cafe was within a historic fort so we were able to expore a bit after we ate. We had a snack there and watched the sun go down and then walked around the rest of the fort. I was able to get some great sunset shots with the little Lumix camera. After that we had dinner at a great pizza at this Italian place in Ipanema.

The view from our table...

May 3rd Marmosets on the Sugarloaf Trail Walk

Today we went on a walking trail at a nationally protected park. I took the little camera and took a bunch of images. The huge mountian you see is called the Sugarloaf, as you can see there is a gondla system that takes you up there. It's one of highest places in Rio not as tall as the Christ statue but pretty tall! We will be heading up there at one point this week and I will be sure to take both camera's so I can get some shots online that night. Here are some shots of the trail that runs along side the foot of the Sugarloaf.

Yacht Club and Photo Walk

Today Lu and I went to the yacht club that her family is members at and spent some time by the pool. After that we went on a nice walk along the coast and I took some images with my Rebel but I do not have the programs to covert the RAW Files so I cant post them online for you guys to see yet. So those images will have to wait until I get home. At night we went to this awesome restaurant called Oasis which serves "Rodizio" which is a style of service, servers come around with different kinds of meat on swords and you tell them if you want it or not. Its all you can eat and was quite expensive but it was soooo good. This first image is of the yacht club's pool. The 2nd a little harbour with some interesting looking boats. If you see the building in the background, just to the left hiding behind some trees is Lu's high school. The 3rd image is us with some of Lu's highschool friends at dinner

May 1st

Beach Day!

After waking up to a phone call at....11:30 (little later then planned) we realized the weather report was wrong and it was a bright and sunny day! So Lu called some friends and we headed to the beach with Vi and met up with Bela and then later Felipe (Vi's boyfriend). After getting lunch we went to the beach and thats pretty much it. It was nice to see Rio during a bright sunny day, the weather makes such a differnece, so many more people are out and about (especially since today is Labour Day here) , everything is brighter and more colourful. Its not the best idea to take a camera to a beach so unfortunatly I have no pictures but tomorrow Lu and I are planning to do a walking tour of the bay and that will make for some very nice images. Plus it's a safe neighbourhood so I'll be able to take my Rebel.

These are some images from the flight...

-Pete-