do you want a marriage?

After the 2ish weeks of the cold of Peru we finally arrived in the Brazilian heat.

Rio de Janiero, Brazil
We spent 4 days in this awesome hostel in Copacabana (O Misti) about 400m from the beach, enjoying the sun and fun of Rio. We experienced the crazy night life of Lapa- a HUGE street party complete with samba and capirinhas (an amazing combo of a mojito and margarita) and VERY forward brazilian men (hence the marriage proposal Mandy got). Went to a pre-carneval rehearsal in Sambodromo and took a city tour hiting all the hot spots- Christ the Redeemer, Sugar loaf mountain, and Maracana Futbol Stadium. But mostly we enjoyed the amazing beaches (Copacabana and Ipanema) and doing nothing before our tour started. Note: It is perfectly acceptable to wear a thong bikini no matter your shape, size or gender.

Ilha Grande, Brazil
The first stop on our tour, this beautiful island off the shores of Rio. We hiked through the mountain jungle to the most amazing beach Lopes Mendes. And then explored this cute town, purchasing some cool jewlery, and chilled.


Parati, Brazil
A few hours away we arrive in this cute Portuguese style town. Took an amazing boat ride for most of the day- grilling, drinking capirinhas, cliff jumping and swimming in the clear blue ocean (aka paradise). Alba went on a jeep tour hiting up some amazing waterfalls and cachaça distilleries while Mandy just wandered around the cute little town. For such a small town, there was a lot going on - in one night we managed to see a marching band, a concert, a festival complete with skeleton and goblin costumed men running around, and Capuera (a brazilian artform that is a mix between dance and martial arts).



Iguassu Falls (Brazil and Argentina)
After a five hour bus ride to Sao Paulo, we boarded our overnight bus to Iguassu Falls that ended up being more eventful than we expected. After about an hour the bus broke down and we had to wait on the side of the road in the middle of the night for a mechanic to come fix our bus. We finally arrived in Foz do Iguaçu and after checking into out hotel headed straight to visit the Brazilian side of the falls. We have never seen this many HUGE waterfalls-- they are everywhere! We spent the night grilling at our hotel pool. The next day we went to the Argentinian side of the falls, experiencing them head on-- a speed boat tour of the falls/ through some of the falls. We spent the day walking through the park checking out the many waterfalls of the Iguassu Falls.




Ciudad del Este, Paraguay
We hopped over to Paraguay to do some "cheap" shopping and have lunch, but really just an excuse to add another country to our list.