Stacey in Brazil: Day 92

Our tour guide (from tourbylocals.com), Simone, was supposed to meet us at the hotel at 10:00, so we got up bright & early to have breakfast & get ready. The Palace complimentary breakfast was easily the best I've ever had. Everything you could possibly want and then some, and all of it was delicious. I had to be careful not to get crazy so I wouldn't be sick for the tour!

Simone arrived right on time, and we took the subway to the Christo exit. We could've hired a driver, but it turned out being fun to use the transit. Simone turned out to be really cool - about 50 years old and originally from Rio, she's lived all over the world and speaks 5 languages I think. She's a muscian but has been doing tours for 8 years to pay the bills. She was great, really amusing, knowledgable, and laid back. We took a van up to Christo, which turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than the tram I took the first time. Christo wasn't nearly as crowded as when I was first there so it was a much nicer experience. We really enjoyed it.

After taking the van back down, we took a cab up into the Santa Teresa neighborhood. This is the area I stayed in when I came to Rio the first time. It's beautiful and artsy. We walked around a lot, had lunch at a great little seafood restaurant, and stopped for some acai at a place that has it in its original form - nothing added except a little sweetner. It was delicious. We shopped and walked around for a while, then headed down the amazing tiled stairs to the Lapa neighborhood. From there we took the subway to downtown and went to have coffee/dessert at this beautiful bakery - just stunning. Finally we headed over to go up to Sugar Loaf - Cheryl and I agreed this was the best part of the day. The park up on Sugar Loaf was beautiful and the views were amazing. Christo is something you'd really want to just check out once, but Sugar Loaf is one of those things you could go to over and over. If I end up back in Rio I will definitely go back there.

After our tour was over (an hour and a half longer than it was supposed to be), we were exhausted. I claimed I would die if I walked anywhere (it was true) so we had dinner in the more casual restaurant at the hotel, where I had the most delicious steak sandwich I've ever had, and Cheryl had filet. It was a spectacular day! However, it did not involve a foot massage on the beach so not as great as Monday ;)

Christo photos: