Brazil anyone ?

Our next stop on this years big trip was Rio De Janeiro.  I always wanted to see Rio. I've had more than one relative live there for a few years because of their work but we never could make visiting work - so I finally got to visit! 

we stayed in a hotel at the famed Copacabana beach- You know it's going to be an interesting stay when the elevator is a work of art. Next thing you realize the hotel is so old that the ceilings are maybe ten or twelve feet high? Felt like we were in a palace! and the views from the room weren't bad either! 

frankly - as you can see from the first photo above - I have no idea what's so special about this beach, why it became so famous - shrug.  What I did like was the sidewalks- they are wide mosaic in the shape of black and white waves - if you click on the first photo below, you can see it on the ground in front of the Rio sign.  We did have a lovely afternoon snack after a very long walk from one of the many beachside cafes. The views were nice and it was a religious feast day for one of the original religions of the country. This meant we got to watch people tossing flowers into the ocean (an offering for the sea goddess - sigh) and other jumping off the side cliffs seven times each - don't ask me what the reason was for the seven but it's part of the rituals. If you look closely at the third photo - you can see the guy in the air having jumped off! 

or our second day in Rio - we did the typical tourist stops - Sugar Loaf (and much like the beach I have no idea why this little mountain is so famous lol) and Christ the Redeemer statue - for me this wasn't that big a deal because I've been to the same statue in Cali Colombia that is only a few feet shorter.  It was supposed to be cloudy and rainy our entire stay and yet - the sun kept peeking out and the rain mostly stayed away- though we did get a good shower at the Redeemer statue and had to wait for it to blow over in order to take the elevator back down to the train - this little writer was NOT doing 220 steps down :) 

And that pretty much wound up our trip - it was SO hot and exhausting in Rio - A lot of the reason was that even though most establishments all had central a/c - they kept all the doors and windows open too!  It was SO hard to just cool down for a little bit. As a result on our third day we opted to stay in our cool hotel room and enjoy the view from the window! LOL. 

All in all, it was a lovely trip with a good friend and crossed a few things off my bucket list! 

Now we're getting ready for grandbaby number three who should arrive this week! And of course getting all the book biz caught up.  Tomorrow is release day for the Sweets first box set - Honeysuckle Texas books 1-3.  If you have any friends who prefer box sets to individual books - let them know more of these are coming out soon!  And don't forget about Ryan coming next month - If you haven't put your preorders in - now is the time! 

And that's it for today!  

I'm curious - does anyone have one bucket list place they have always wanted to go? Post below in the comments!