Rio de Janeiro - Again!

There are some cities that are worth visiting more than once!

Rio de Janeiro is one of those cities.

We found an English speaking Brazilian woman on the internet
 that could put us all in a little bus
and spend the whole day to see the highlights of Rio.

We saw some amazing views while looking at and from

Pão de Açucár and Christ the Redeemer statue

The children were very excited to see these little monkeys on a trail.

If you look close below, you can see a little baby 

in a pouch on momma's back. They were all friendly

 and willing to pose for photos.

view from hotel :)

Indescribably beautiful~

Christ in our grandchildren's eyes!

Escadaria Selarón, also known as the 'Selaron Steps', is a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  They are the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who claimed it as "my tribute to the Brazilian people"  In 1990, Selarón began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house.  There are 250 steps measuring 125 metres long which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. 

No sooner than one section of the steps were 'finished',

 Selarón started work on another section, 

constantly changing it so that it was an ever evolving piece of art. 

Selarón considered the work as "never complete" and claimed that 

"This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death".  (2013)

All during the visit to Brazil,

Grandpa kept calling the  kids 

Curly, Larry and Mo

So we were very surprised to see these two

tiles on the wall of the steps!

 

This is the world - famous Maracanã Soccer stadium

 and this guy was entertaining the tourists

Very few buildings in Rio divide opinion as much as the Catedral Metropolitana. An enormous concrete cone covered in tiny rectangular windows, the building intrigues some visitors and repels others.  The city's modernist cathedral cannot be fully appreciated from the outside, however. Once inside the cavernous building, those tiny windows begin to make aesthetic sense when, on a sunny day, light streams through them into the building.

 Beautifully ornate stained-glass windows cannot fail to catch the eye.

My gosh - hang gliding over Rio - really~

Shelly and Jeff could  NOT miss this chance to do it~

Grandpa and Ryan watched from below

I stayed with the girls at the hotel and said my prayers....

look at this protective "armor"
in case - what?

This is Shelly 

They do a "tandem" ride with an instructor

and this is Jeff

and at last - what EVERYONE was waiting for:

The Beach

Does it get better than this?

 beautiful flower girl Jane

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

little Heaven on Earth~

cute 15 second videos :)

Back to São Paulo and

good -bye?  :(

On our last day together some Brazilian friends that Craig

works with, Rueben Arias, his wife and 4 kids, drove across town

to pick us up and take us to the 

Soccer Museum located inside this stadium.
They were very gracious and anxious for their children to
interact with American kids.

there were some very cool interactive  exhibits

 after the museum they walked us over to the 

neighborhood sabado feira

(Saturday market)

they wanted to try some coconut water

not really sure if it has enough sugar~?

then to the airport that evening 

sad to say, Jeff had to return to work

 Shelly was fortunate to stay a few more days.

We attended the local Portuguese ward while Grandpa

 went to our regular CTM meetings.

one last stop at the playground

 

For Family Night 

we saw the English version of Cinderella

with Portuguese subtitles.

This is how we do movies here.

At the mall theaters or Netflix.

Then back to the airport -

for our final good-byes, 

and of course, time for us to

get back to work!

See you at Christmas time!

Thanks for the memories~