Bye Bye Rio!!!

We have about one more hour in our hotel room in Rio and then about 10 hours until our late night flight and then about 12 hours of flying plus a 3 hour layover!!!!

Yesterday:  Boat cruise on Guanabara Bay for a couple hours in the morning and we could view Sugarloaf Mountain and the two stage cable car we would be taking to reach the top.  This is a beautiful city!

 A fishing boat on the bay - we saw a lot of small boats like this and the guide said the bay water is polluted but there were kids and families swimming in it at the beach.

 First stage of the cable car and since I'm so short there are always some nice young people that make a space for me at the front where I get the best view - I guess that is an advantage of being short!

 Stage 2 going up - again someone lets me get up in the front and thank goodness I am not a bit afraid of heights.  Now Ross is a different story.  He can be found hanging on tightly in the center of the cable car and mostly looking straight ahead and never up or down.

 If you look closely you can see a climber in an orange shirt in the center of the picture - I am not that crazy:)

 This was at the Hippie Arte Faire and it was great.  I bought something from this guy and we have managed to communicate in Portugese often with hand gestures.

 Last night was our group bye bye dinner and we had cocktails first on the hotel rooftop 23rd floor pool area.  I looked outside about 7pm and this is the view - spectacular.

 The group dinner was at Fogo de Chao - a typical Brazilian steakhouse and yes, there is one in Minneapolis and it is a chain.  Fortunately I had never eaten there so it was new to me and quite the experience and again lots and lots of food and MEAT!!

 We went for a walk after breakfast this morning and this is Ipanema Beach right across from our hotel.

So it's time to pack up, check out and wander in my quest for Brazilian coffee beans to take home and at the same time not sweat too much before we head to the airport.
The trip was good but not for the frail, feeble or faint of heart.  I think most everyone ranged in age from mid 60s to 80 or so with a few having hip and knee problems.  Again we are very thankful every day for good health and the means and ability to travel the way we do.
More later.......