Another great Rio day! We had Italian food leftovers for breakfast and took our time getting ready for our tour guide Reinaldo to get us at 9am. He does his job very well, keeps me talking and listening in Portuguese and focusing on the sights of the city. We first visited the botanical garden and spent 2 hours roaming around the trees and flowers and fountains. Very hot and very pretty! We drove a bit to get to Tijuca bairro and national forest and were suddenly in a jungle with tall trees, wild animals and waterfalls. We went to the Chinese vista and then to the cliff they launch parasailers and hang gliders off and watched them take off and land miles away on the beach. We saw a lot of monkeys eating jackfruit and Weston got bit by mosquitoes all over his legs. The waterfall we stopped at was stunning. Reinaldo had made us some of his homemade Bolo de Cenoura, carrot cake, and in between attractions we ate cake. Reinaldo took us to Maracana stadium, biggest soccer stadium in Brazil, which was fun to take a tour through. He then took us across the longest bridge I'd ever seen that takes you to Nitoroi, the island across from Rio, another bustling city with beautiful views. Another hang glider vista, some tour guides tried to convince Weston to do it but he didn't and I was ok with that. Him just doing a handstand on the edge of it made me nervous. It was a long drive to Nitoroi was getting a little burned out of speaking Portuguese by now and I was hungry, so I was quieter on the way back to Rio but so thankful to be in Rio and with these guys. Love them all. We got back to the Copccabana beach about 6 and Reinaldo showe dus the best booths to buy souvenirs at. Said Tchau to Reinaldo and went to another fancy restuarant at the edge of the street we were staying on and it was wondreful! We found some ice cream to end the day, probably the last ice cream I will have in a long time, tasted very sweet! Reinaldo was a perfect guide and a great contact to have--saved us a lot of money and time. God led Jared to him. God was in our trip from start to finish, I'm very thankful.
