Fully embracing vacation mode we had a leisurely day that started with laying by the pool and beach, reading and taking a short nap while listening to the waves. I can’t think of a much better way to start the day! We showered and heading into Impanema to walk the main shopping street, get some lunch and just enjoy people watching. After a bit of walking we found a local brew pub type restaurant called Devassa, and sat down for a late lunch, I ordered a pasta salad with pesto, sundried tomatoes, and arugula. It was really good! Mike had a burger with Brazilian cheese and a few fries.
We finished lunch and kept on walking around town, stopping in the occasional store that looked interesting. It was more fun just doing the people watching! Around 5 we stopped at a juice bar to cool off and rehydrate, it has been around 30 celcius here so it is pretty warm! I ordered an Acai Milkshake while Mike enjoyed a Pineapple and Peppermint juice. They were both very interesting, not sure I would it again though. We pulled out our books and read for a while and tried to relax before venturing out to find somewhere for dinner.
Our total walking was around 5 hours and the feet were getting really sore, we stopped at a bar called Jobi for a Brassa (the local beer) and to figure out our game plan for dinner. We walked towards the neighborhood that the restaurant was in but they ended up not being ready to serve yet, this turned out to be a bit of luck. Right down the was a Spanish Tapas restaurant called Venga!, the food was amazing! I love the tapas style of eating, you get to try a few dishes and experience new flavors. We ordered octopus and potatoes, a ham and cheese style sandwich, a traditional tortilla and asparagus. To further highlight the tapas style experience we had strawberry Sangria 
The whole evening of food was delicious!
We ended up meeting a few expats who gave us a lead for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, lets hope it pans out!
After almost 9 hours of glorious sleep we finally got moving for the day A good workout was in need and the hotel has a pretty nice gym. Since we had a beautiful weather we wanted to get the outdoor sightseeing out of the way! We left the hotel around noon to go see Cristo Redentor (the large Christ the Redemer statue that Rio is known for). It is best to see it on a clear day see you can take in all the incredible views of all of Rio. Cristo gets an average of 600,000 visitors a year! To get up to the statue you take a train straight up the side hill, it takes about 20 minutes but you see some pretty unique views.
After seeing Cristo we were pretty hungry and knew that we are somewhat close to one of the top rated churrascaria’s- Porcao Rio’s. A churrascaria is a meat lovers dream that originated in Brazil. It is every kind of meat that you can imagine, so much food! They had an incredible salad bar with seafood, risotto, veggies, salad, and fruit. I had a few samples but I was saving room for the meat! Posing with my green light bring on the meat sticker
Plate 1
Plate 2
Sides that we barely touched!
After a very large lunch we ended up walking about an hour and a half to Sugarloaf Mountain, it felt good to walk off some of that food! Pao de Acucar is a great vantage point to see all of Rio and experience going up 395 meters in two cable cars. Those with a fear of heights beware, this is one step ride!
We finished with Sugarloaf and walked around a charming fishing village Urca and grabbed a beer and sat by the ocean to cool down. We were ready to call it a night, we hoped in a cab and headed back to the room.
Since our room was not ready we opted for some sightseeing around the hotel, these were a few of the views. It is such a beautiful spot!
We walked into Leblon to get snacks, beverages and some fruit for the week so we wouldn’t have to eat out every meal. One of my favorite things about travel is going to the local grocery store to find what interesting things you can find, local soda, chips, fruits we don’t usually see. The walk into town from where we are staying is about 20 minutes and it felt great to get some movement after sitting on a plane all night! Before the grocery store we stopped for a quick snack and my first Caipirinha (the local drink). Belmonte looked appealing with its open area and sign proudly stating it had been open since 1952. I got a Caipirinha while Mike got a beer and a mystery appetizer that we are guessing had salmon in it. The boteco was really cute, I loved the Pepsi lights and jars of Since we had a few heavy bags of food and beverages we opted to cab it back and by that time our room was ready! The pool and a hot shower were calling my name- 30 hours without one is not much fun
We got checked in and opted to hit the pool for a quick swim before we showered. Thanks to Mike’s platinum status we were upgraded to a junior suite with a pretty nice view!
After a snooze at the pool and a heavenly shower we walked back into Leblon for a pub crawl recommend in the Lonely Planet Guide book. It was a walking tour of Leblon with some stops at some botec0s and bars, sounded like fun to me! We started with Ac
ademia de Cachaca for their famous Passion Fruit Caipirinha and an appetizer of cassava and cheese that was fried. These were pretty tasty!
The second place we visted was Bracarense, which had great outdoor seating. They were known for their codfish balls, I had one tiny bite but it wasn’t something that I loved. We sat and enjoyed the steamy weather for a bit and opted for a continuation of the pub crawl another night. It was almost 10:30 and we were exhausted!
We had a 2pm flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta and is uneventful, which is always good! After an on time landing we booked it through the Atlanta airport to the opposite side and grabbed a quick dinner at Sojourners Restaurant. I give them credit for doing something different at the airport. We both had a fried egg and andouille sausage sandwich and a Sweetwater Beer.
The Atlanta to Rio flight was also uneventful although really really long! We did manage to get a few hours of sleep though and watched a few movies and tv shows on the personal tv’s. Those tv’s make long flights so much better. Our anticipated arrival was 9:30 and we were a few minutes early. The immigration process was pretty slow, it took us about an hour to get through immigration and to pick up our luggage. Brazil does reciprocal Visa’s and since the US.S. requires one of Brazilian citizens we needed to get one. You need to apply through a consulate office and send in your passports and forms and a return envelope. Sending my passport away always makes me nervous but thankfully it was a painless process. The total fees for 2 Visa’s and mailing was about $350. That seems expensive but it is what the US. charges. Thankfully customs was really quick and we just needed to show our entry forms. We got a cab and headed towards our hotel, since it was only 11:30 our room wasn’t ready so we opted for some sightseeing in Leblon.
