Congrats, Team Canada!

Q and the Mins have been watching the Olympics as much as possible via the CBC website. They especially enjoyed the opening ceremonies, as well as the swimming, gymnastic, and running events.

Congratulations, Team Canada! We're proud of your performance at Rio 2016 and your your current Olympic medals!

In Rio: Land & Sea

We spent a wonderful morning at Ipanema Beach! We rented chairs and an umbrella, read magazines, and drank lots of coconut water.

Buddy and Tim working on their tan.

 We wanted to go to Christ the Redeemer earlier on during our stay but it was too cloudy. Luckily the skies were clear on our last day in Rio.

The views from Corcovado mountain were stunning! The track to the right of Buddy's head is for horse racing.

Looking out toward the Sugar Loaf and Copacabana. Bar Urca (mentioned in our previous post) is close to the Loaf.

Tim and Buddy had a memorable trip but they were excited to be reunited with their friends back home. Obrigado, Brazil for an adventure of a lifetime!

In Rio

Rio was the last leg of our trip. We stayed in a treehouse, right in the heart of the city. We enjoyed it and our hosts very much!

Tim and Buddy claimed their sides of the bed.

Monkeys visited us at the treehouse almost every day! We gave them banana pieces. Can you see the baby monkey?

We toured Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio.

Over 400,000 people live here.

Buddy and Tim are standing in front of an aqueduct that was built in the mid-18th century. The pyramid looking building is a church.

We snapped photos at the famous Escadria Selaron. There are about 250 tiled steps in total. Lapa is the bohemian part of town. 

From the steps, we walked up to Santa Teresa to have lunch. It was very steamy out. We didn't realize there was a tram until we reached the top of the hill!

We thought this structure was cool. It's the new Museum of Tomorrow. We think this may form part of the 2016 Olympics site. It looked like they were building an athletes' village down the road.

We learned about Bar Urca from a TV show (Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations). It's known for its fried snacks. We ordered a bunch of nibbles and sat on a stone wall to watch the sunset.

The views were fantastic! It's hard to tell, but Christ the Redeemer is at the top of the highest hill on the right.

In Sao Paulo and Foz do Iguacu

On our last day in Sao Paulo, we trekked to Beco do Batman.

It's a paradise for street artists! There was lots to see in the alleys.

Close by was Coffee Lab. It's a school for baristas with a cafe. We did a flight of three Brazilian coffees and ate some corn cake. Buddy and Tim liked the second tasting (the one in the middle) the best.

Taking a break around some nice foliage. It was quite hot at humid.

We made a quick pit stop in the central business district to do a bit of sightseeing, but more importantly, eat Portuguese egg tarts at Casa Mathilde. I kick myself because I accidentally deleted a photo of the egg tarts. They were certainly the best I've ever tasted!

After Sao Paulo, we hopped on a plane to visit the famous Iguazu Falls. It's a set of several waterfalls at the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. We were lucky because it rained heavily after our visit. If it rained during, it would have been difficult to see the falls.

One of many, beautiful panoramic views.

My camera doesn't do the falls justice! It was quite misty in this area so Tim and Buddy took shelter in my purse.

The falls were incredible! Mother Nature was at her absolute best for us!

In Sao Paulo

Tim and Buddy had a great vacation! They went to Brazil, and their first stop was Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo is a huge city. It reminded me of Toronto in some ways, with more street art.

On Sundays in the summer, the city closes down a main avenue for people to run, bike, watch performers, etc. This huge rubber duck was in the middle of the street.

We really enjoyed the Mercado Municipal Market. It was bustling around lunch time.

There were so many spices, nuts, and fruits at the market. We bought almost one of each of everything pictured here and ate it at our AirBnB condo throughout our stay.

Sao Paulo is home to the second largest population of Italians outside of Italy. As a result, Italian fare is abundant. Mmm...mortadella!

Sao Paulo is also home to the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan. This is Japan Town.

 We ate lots of gelato on our trip to stay cool. Bacio di Latte was our favourite!

Buddy and Tim horsing (or elephanting) around!

We were extremely satisfied with our AirBnB place. It was a duplex condo in Jardim Paulista.

Apparently, eating pizza is a very Sao Paulo thing to do on a Sunday night. We ordered in and watched the Raptors game. Back home, our team was on a winning streak and we didn't want to miss out!