The Brides Dance

I attended a lesbian wedding tonight. While gay people in Washington state cannot legally get married, they can at least sign the state registered domestic partners (SRDP) registry.

Yellow Brick

Seen on the wall outside the Convention Place Station of the bus tunnel.

Beer and SIFF

Fat Tire truck.



Seattle International Film Festival poster (SIFF). This is a great film festival. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll make it to any of the movies this year.

i hope

I know it's a bad thing to deface public property and all, but this sign amuses me. I wonder if the store right next to it that sells mostly gay stuff had anything to do with it?

Wining and Dining and Doing Laundry?

I spotted this great Oak Cask after eating a good breakfast at the Hi Spot. I'll have to try their wine someday!



Also in the vicinity of the Hi Spot is the Madrona Laundromat.

Cachaça

I brought some Cachaça back with me so I could make my favorite drink from Rio: The Caipirinha.

Waiting

Airport life.

Parque Lage

We ate lunch at Parque Lage which had a beautiful old building with a courtyard. Afterwards we walked around the park. Monkeys were leaping from tree to tree above us (unfortunately, that photo didn't turn out well) and throwing fruit at us. Fortunately, none of it hit us!











Check out that floor!

Graffiti

Rio has a lot of graffiti! Most of it is really well done.


This woman probably has no idea how well she matches!



The scream. This woman is dressed in a typical gym outfit. People here love to workout!

Portuguese Tile

My shower tile. The tile in these apartments is great!

Devassa

My friend's brother visited her while she lived in Seattle and discovered microbrews. He took this new found knowledge back to Rio and started his own mircrobrew called Devassa. Devassa is a play on the word "open" meaning "open woman" (thus the logo) or the fact that the subsequent bar/restaurants he opened were also open to the sidewalks.


This is one of the Devassa coolers in a store.

Samba!

What to do after a day at the beach? Samba of course! I saw this amazing singer and her band: Teresa Cristina e Grupo Semente.

Beach Day

When in Rio, one must go to the beach at least once, right? Though not really a beach person, I had to prove I was there by attempting to get some sun, so we headed to the beach today. Believe it or not, this was not a crowded day since it was Fall. Still, a tad on the crowded side for my liking, but it was a nice day nonetheless.


Nothing like sand between the toes!



Now that is a sandcastle!






Ahhh, young Brazilian love...

Jardim Botanico

Today I went for another quick trip to the Market to pick up some spices as a special request for someone who is supposed to make me dinner using them. With her culinary skills, I'm sure she'll come up with something great! In the afternoon, we went to the Botanical Garden (Jardim Botanico).








I discovered that using a flash with flowers produces quite a nice effect.



Sculpture in the garden. Quite lifelike, isn't it?

Brazilian cow

I spent the day shopping and didn't have a lot of photo ops, but I did run across this cow statue. Apparently Rio has a similar event to Seattle's Pigs on Parade and Vancouver's Orcas in the City. This was a leftover from that event.





Detail of one side.



Detail of the other side.

Two Things Challenge: In the Sky/On the Ground

These guys made the landing look so easy, I may try it someday.

Corcovado

At the end of the day we went up Corcovado which has the large statue of Jesus overlooking the city.





View from part way up.



Our tour guide being interviewed by a BBC journalist that I befriended on the tour.



The base of the statue was remarkably clean!



A bored employee.



You see a lot of this going on.



The rock is amazing!

The beaches

After lunch my tour friends and I walked to Copacabana beach before heading back to the bus. I love the sidewalks on this beach and Ipanema beach.

From the top of Sugar Loaf

Too bad it was so hazy.



You can see Corcovado in the distance.



Can you spot the mountain climber?

Urca Hill - the first step to Sugar Loaf

Unfortunately, it was a hazy day, so most of the photos aren't nearly as good as they could have been. We took two cable cars to get to the top of Sugar Loaf. The first goes up Urca Hill where I took these photos:


The old cable cars.






These kids were doing Capoeira. They were fun to watch!



This neighborhood is called Urca and is where the rich people live. It's at the base of Sugar Loaf.



School Girls (I'm assuming Catholic).



You can see Corcovado in the background.



Riding the second cable car to Sugar Loaf.