We arrived late at night and caught a bus to Copacabana. On our bus ride, we met a Brazilian named Marcela (Ma). She was as friendly as could be giving us tips about the city with the biggest smile. We chatted for nearly half an hour and exchanged info before parting ways.

The following morning, we decided it was time for a beach day. We headed straight to one of the most famous beaches in the world, Copacabana Beach. Copacabana is home to some immense waves. So large, that beach goers are not even allowed to enter the water. The only people that can be found in the several meter tall waves are the surfers. We watched in amazement as some of the surfers boarded along the small mountains of water and cringed when others misjudged a wave and got pummeled. After strolling down Copacabana beach, we visited the equally famous, Ipanema Beach. We threw down a blanked, bought a couple beers, and relaxed in awe at the waves crashing in front of us and the bustling city behind us tucked in the mountainous topography. It was a worthy way of kick starting our week in Rio.

The following morning, Maggie headed to the pro surf competition, and I caught a bird’s eye view of the city of Rio while hang gliding. My adventure started out at the top of Pedra Bonita Mountain. After a very quick rigging up of the hang glider, my piolet gave me a quick talk on how to run off the edge of the mountain and harnessed me up. It was our turn to take off and I thought he would ask if I was ready or maybe count us down. To my surprise, mid-sentence I heard him say “run” and with that we began running 20 feet towards the edge as fast as we could in unison. The ground ended and we started plummeting downward until the wind caught us and we began gliding over the jungle below. In total, we had about 10 minutes in the air. When it was time to land, my piolet began a sharp downward spiral towards Pepino Beach below and easily landed the glider on the soft warm sand. Hang gliding was an insane way to view Rio De Janeiro with a view that only the birds would normally get.

The following day it was time to pick up our friend, Susanne! We originally met Susanne in Singapore just before Christmas. Susanne is from Germany and was also going to be traveling South America for a bit and decided to join us for the next six weeks. Marge and I made the executive decision that we needed to have an initiation for all of our friends as we pick them up along the way. We decided that the first day a new friend joins us, they must 1: Wear a temporary tattoo on their forehead for the remainder of the day 2: Go down on one knee and chug a Smirnoff Ice. We definitely got a laugh out of Susanne’s initiation into our travel gang and she took it like a trooper.

That afternoon we decided to go for a long walk around Lake Lagoa. Logoa is an oasis in the middle of the city. It is surrounded by buildings and noises of the bustling city, but it is home to many species of fauna and flora. As we walked along the lake’s edge, we spotted many different types of birds and even stumbled across four juvenile capybaras, the largest rodent in the world!

The next morning we met up with our friend Marcela (Ma) and headed to the main tourist attraction in Rio, Christ the Redeemer. Situated on the top of Corcovado hill, Christ overlooks the city of Rio de Janeiro with arm’s spread. The view from beneath his immense wingspan is hard to top as you can see many details of Rio. Flavelas (slums of Brazil) dot the mountainous edges of the city, sugarloaf protrudes from the eastern point of town, and Copacabana and Ipanema beach border the edge of city against the Atlantic Ocean.

As one would guess, the Christ statue is a huge tourist trap. You can barely push your way through the crowds to take a picture. Luckily for us, a rain cloud engulfed the mountain while we were atop, clearing all the other tourists out. We waited out the rain for about 10 minutes before the sky drew back its cloudy curtains leaving just us and a hand full of other tourists nearly alone with the statue to take pictures.

One of the hottest places to visit in Rio is Lapa. Lapa is lively night area full of bars, street venders, and people partying along every sidewalk. We visited the party area with about 10 people from our hostel. We spend the evening drinking street beers, snacking on food, and people watching as we wandered around the area before heading home at nearly 4am.

The following day, with the remnants of Lapa’s street drinks still lingering in us, the second Harry Potter movie came on the TV in our hostel…in ENGLISH. We relaxed and watched it and then the 2^nd, followed by the 3rd, 5th, and 7^th. It was an unplanned Harry Potter marathon that skipped several movies, but it was a great relax day in our cozy hostel with friends.

On our second to last day in Rio, we realized we needed to get Susanne a Yellow Fever shot to enter Bolivia! After a bit of a wild goose chase, we found a medical facility that gave one to her for no charge. After the needle prick, we headed to the beach to round out the day.

The last day in Rio we decided to try our luck on a hiking trail, Dos Primates. We read that we would come across several large waterfalls and monkeys. The waterfalls were a bit of a disappointment, but as we were hiking, the trees seemed to come alive as we staggered across two different troops of monkeys. The first was some small type of tamarin and the second was a larger species unfamiliar to me. They curiously watched us from the canopy as we tried to get a better view and quickly continued on their way. The hike was a great way to appreciate a bit of Rio’s wildlife and catch a few stellar views of the city.

Our next stop: Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina!