South American Adventure: Brazil Edition

Hey everyone! It's time for the final installment of our travelogue through South America. Sorry it took me a while to publish this post, but I was recovering from the bizarre South American flu-type illness that Sarah brought home from Chile and subsequently passed on to me. The good news is the doctor told us we don't have dengue fever, so we should be alright. Anyway, Brazil was awesome, and a great end to our trip through South America. The first few days we spent exploring the colonial areas in downtown Rio.


We also had to go up the two big mountains in Rio that everyone talks about. The weather cleared up a bit towards the end of our stay so we were able to get some great views of the city. On Thursday, we went to the Sugar Loaf hill overlooking the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. This picture was taken from the cable car we took up to the top.


The view was incredible, and there were even monkeys up on the hill, although Sarah said they looked scary so I wasn't allowed to get too close.


The next day we went up the Corcovado mountain to see the Cristo statute, which provides an even more amazing view of the whole city.


We had an amazing time traveling through South America. We were sad to go home, but it really was the trip of a lifetime. And don't worry, I still have plenty more pictures to post of all the food we ate on our travels. Adios.

South American Adventure: Chile Edition

Well, it's time for the next update on our trip through South America. After spending a week in Argentina while Sarah finished up her classes, we hopped on a place and headed to Santiago, Chile. It was still pretty cold while we were there, but the city is very beautiful, clean, and has a sweet subway system. Here we are in the Plaza de las Armas, which is considered the center of the old colonial part of town. We were able to visit the National Cathedral and the several Pre-Columbian art museums.


This is at the top of a huge fortress/palace that was built on a hill in the center of town. Santiago is surrounded by mountains on three sides, so it offered a great view of the entire valley.


We also managed to take an old trolley car up to one of the larger hills on the outskirt of town to see their statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks the entire city. It was amazing, but I suppose it kind of pales in comparison to Cristo statue that we visited in Rio de Janeiro (spoiler alert). Santiago was surprisingly a very modern, cosmopolitan city, and the people we're really nice, but we decided to take the last day in Chile and take a bus to...


Valparaiso! Valparaiso is a coastal fishing town that is built up into the hills surrounding the beach. There wasn't much to do there beyond walk around and look at the ocean, but we still had a great time wandering around.


All of the small neighborhoods in the hills offered some amazing views of the city and the ocean. We had a great time in Valparaiso and Sarah was able to get some tasty seafood before we finally headed back to Santiago. After that, we hopped on another place for the final leg of our journey to Brazil. Stay tuned!

South American Adventure: Argentina Edition

Hey everyone! Sarah and I are finally back from our trip down South. We had an amazing time in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil. I ended up taking 572 pictures, so I figured I should devote one post to each part of our trip. Today we have our trip to Argentina, along with my side trip to Uruguay.


Buenos Aires is an absolutely beautiful city. It is filled with colonial homes and turn of the century, hotels, mansions, and opera houses. We had such a fun time wondering through all of the different neighborhoods around BA. One of the first things we did was head to the San Telmo Antiques Fair, which takes place in one of the older colonial parts of town.


One day when Sarah had class most of the day, I took a ferry across the Rio de la Plata into Uruguay. I visited the historic site of Colonia del Sacramento, which was a colonial port that constantly changed hands between the Spanish and the Portuguese. It's a cool little village that was lots of fun to explore.


BA is full of amazing parks. The city planners originally wanted the city to have a feel similar to London or Paris, and they included plenty of green areas and cafes to relax. This is one of the main botanical gardens, which is inhabited by about a thousand friendly cats. I made friends with a one-eyed pregnant cat, but I figured it was best not to take her home.


Everyone kept telling us that we had to visit the Recoleta cemetery, which is the final resting place of Evita, but I couldn't figure out why everyone wanted us to go see it. It was pretty cool. It's basically a cemetery village, with huge walls and corridors that you can get lost in. It's set up with streets and plazas and all the monuments are so large that it's hard to find your way around. It was cool, and would have been the perfect place to film an action movie shootout.


Finally, we had to head to the southern part of the city, which is considered the birthplace of the tango. The whole city is amazing with tons of interesting things to do. Stay tuned for an update on the other parts of our trip, as well as a post devoted to my favorite part of any vacation: food.