South American Adventure: beaches

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The "Marvelous" City...and numero uno arrives!

Sorry about the formatting peeps...weird internet cafe computers again...!
We are officially back on the beaten path. Rio is a major city, with conveniences just like home (and prices too- double any other place we've been in Brazil). For the record, it's pronounced "Hio", not "Rio". Yep, the "r" and "rr" are both pronounced "h". And don't forget all the "sh" sounds that they have here, from the "ch" to the "x". Oh, and "Mexico" is pronounced like the biggest gringo from the states, "Me-ji-co"! It's amazing...

So it turns out that Rio de Janeiro is a mix of Los Angeles and San Francisco. It's a gigantic city with five million people, with a very small part of the city interesting to tourists (the Southern zone) and over 600 favelas (the infamously poor neighborhoods) spread out around the rest of the city. It's a city of major inequalities, from the mall with Starbucks to the poor favela neighborhoods without electricity or running water.
Rio has a lot to offer tourists for a few days. You know most of the major sights, from the Christ the Redeemer statue to Sugar Loaf mountain, to the beaches of Copabana and Ipanema. We think that Rio would be a good city to live in, but it was far from our favorite city. Maybe we just don't like huge cities anymore, or maybe it's just Rio, who knows. Just for the record, our favorite neighborhood was Santa Teresa, an old architectural gem in the hills, and Copacabana was the most overrated. Talk about a has-been beach full of 70's high-rise condos! They've recently renovated the whole boardwalk and beach bars, so at least the beach looked slightly refreshed...
And by the way, winter isn't really winter here...it's still flip-flop weather (unless it's raining, then it's chiiiiilllly...or maybe we're just used to warm beach weather now??)

Oh, and our first VIP arrived the other day too...! Momma Zengel!!

Our all time favorite steak restaurant...and Momma Zengel!

Not too shabby Rio!

Chee-eese!

View from Christ the Redeemer statue

Getting ready for Carnaval...

Are you kidding me Rio!!

It was even more beautiful in person...

The view from Santa Marta favela

The old trolley tracks in Santa Teresa

Controversy behind their cable cars...check it out online..

A delicious cafe in Santa Teresa

Favela behind bars...

Is this an old school cable car or what??

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Paradise at 6 months?

Welcome to Paradise aka Cartagena, Colombia. We have had an amazing trip so far, that I am sure no one would doubt BUT we have not found a single place that we truly love until now. We LOVE Cartagena. If someone would give us jobs, we would live here. I def need to work on my tan so I fit in a bit more, haha.

Cartagena is a colonial city completley surrounded by walls. The architecture is amazing. Every street is narrow with amazing wood balconies and flowers hanging off of them. They have crazy iron doors and amazing plazas. And then to top it off it has a Caribbean vibe with fresh fruits everywhere and the majority of the people laying around at the beach.

We spent our six month anniversary here -- can you believe it has been six months?! Crazy!! We spent the day swimming in the sea and spent the evening strolling around the maze of streets in the Old City. We ended the night with a horse drawn carriage ride around the city. :)

We have been here for about 1 week so far and def plan to come back. However we want to make it to the most northern part of Colombia and the most northern part of the continent. It is known for crystal clear waters, brilliant white sand beaches and.... kitesurfing. We are going to be completely out of touch for the next week or so, living in a beach bungalow with electricity for only a few hours at night, no internet, etc etc. We are planning to make it to the most northern tip of South America which after going to the most southern tip (Cape Horn, Chile) is pretty cool to us.