Travelogue: Rio de Janeiro

So last weekend Rob and I jet-setted to Rio de Janeiro strictly to get some practice in for our future of being independently wealthy, having a private yacht, an indoor bowling alley, our own island, etc. etc.

Friday night Rob came home from work a few hours early and we hustled off to the airport to catch our flight to Rio. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, and a lot of Reais later we made it to our hotel. We'll just consider this a warning to all y'all potential Rio de Janeiro visitors: beware of corrupt taxi drivers.

Although, when you wake up to this it's hard to be too upset. Before hitting the beach for the day we decided to visit the Corcovado and the Cristo Redentor (Christ Redeemer) statue. This is the little train that took us through the jungle...and up a mountain....until we reached this:
Although it's hard to really appreciate how magnificent and awe inspiring the Cristo Redentor is when you're just looking at the pictures, it really was amazing. I thought it was wonderful to see such an incredible testimony of Christ that can be a witness to so many millions of people. I definitely understand, now, why it's one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

After we left the Corcovado we were starving (of course) and decided to start lunch with one of Rob's favorite mission memories: Magnum ice cream bars. They were soooooo good. Then we found a little juice bar/sandwhich shop, called Big Bi, and had the rest of our lunch. We polished it off with one of the best vitaminas (a fresh fruit smoothie) I've ever had of manga e abacaxi (mango and pineapple). We were very happy campers. Next up on our gruelling Saturday schedule was a walk down Copacabana beach. I know, we have a hard life.

There are tons of volleyball nets on the beaches in Rio. And there are tons of people playing volleyball. But there are also quite a few playing futevolei (roughly pronounced "footy-volley," which is volleyball without using hands). It's seriously one of the coolest things ever. These guys do bicycle kicks to spike the ball...and they are usually wearing speedos.
Rob was getting pretty worried about me because after an afternoon of seeing so many guys unabashedly sporting the speedo, I must admit that I was becoming a convert. Man-thighs just aren't as bad as the majority of U.S. citizens believe! He wouldn't let me take any close-up pictures because he didn't want any solid evidence of how truly acceptable the speedo can be...although, according to him, it was because "The speedo betrays everything we hold dear in our culture!" But mark my words, Rob would look pretty darn cute in a speedo...

I wish we had a video clip of this! This guy, below, isn't going to use his hands here....he uses his FEET and gets the ball OVER THE NET, and somehow manages to place it perfectly in the back corner of his opponent's court. It's a Christmas Miracle.
We also saw some very cool sand sculptures...the artists were SO protective of their work because they want people to pay for any photographs they take. The sand sculptors would line up umbrellas in front of the castles whenever their backs were turned so nobody could sneak up on them. We thought it was worth the 2 Real fee. After an afternoon of futevolei, people watching, and sand sculptures we strolled down the boardwalk as the sun set.

Rio de Janeiro is an awesome city. For anyone planning on visiting Brazil, I would definitely schedule a stop here for at least two days.