Brazil!

This morning my mom and I returned to US soil after an eventful and fun week in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Here's a short run-down of our trip: catch up with Cris and Cris, explore and shop in Copacabana, travel to Piraí for wedding, attend civil ceremony, party with close friends and family, explore and shop in Piraí, attend "real" wedding and reception, return to Copa, jeep tour of Tijuca forest, hang on beach, botanical gardens, drink from coconut, dinner at Columbo, taxi to airport, home.  And in the midst of all of that we ate a LOT of food and soaked up a lot of Brazilian culture and language.

The language thing wore me out, to be honest.  As a Spanish speaker, I worked really hard to understand and communicate with people in Portuguese; I learned a LOT about the language.  Having the Spanish was really helpful in many a situation, but I was so ready to get back to a land where everyone speaks English.  It humored me quite a bit that I was so exhausted after only a week.  I heard a group of Argentines talking in the airport when we were waiting to board in Rio and even that was music to my ears - being able to understand everything without any effort!

The happy couple!

Copa, Copacabana!

It was cloudy our first day, but bright the rest of the time.

The hotel breakfasts were soooooo yummy and plentiful!

In Piraí the beds were SO tiny and the coffee SO black.

There's that happy couple again on the civil wedding day!

 

 Piraí was such a lovely town: some of the most enormous palm trees I've ever seen, beautiful flowers, friendly people, sweet plaza full of families enjoying the sun and park.

 

 The wedding!

Um, cutest favor idea ever?!

Cris LOVES to dance!

CONGRATULATIONS MR. AND MRS. CRIS JARDIM!!!!!

Things were not so busy that we had no down time.  In fact, it was quite a treat to stroll city streets, eat leisurely meals, write postcards, read books, etc.  I have a couple more days of photos, but this post needs to be wrapped up.  Stay tuned for photos from the Jeep Tour of Tijuca and the Botanical Gardens; Cris and Cris were off on their Honeymoon Monday and Tuesday, so we spent our last two days as tourists!