Tijuca Forest on Tuesday. What an amazing place! In the middle of Rio there is a preserved Rain forest up on the hills. We ventured up very excited as Zack finishes Kindergarten with a unit of Rianforests. We saw the waterfalls, ruins of old slave buildings, hummingbirds, waterfalls and lots of tropical canopy. An old man from the WWF, world wildlife folks - not world wrestling - generously showed us around. The very sad thing is that these forests are not safe. The Favelas have started to encrouach and the police look the other way. Tourists are sitting ducks! They grab your stuff and off through the jungle. Thus we stayed pretty much in the car and only got out here and there for photos. Whoops this one above is crooked. Needless to say, Zack and Kayla may have missed a week of school, but when the rainforest unit comes, they will have real experience to share! I'll be ready with the power point presentation.

After Tijuca we went to plan B, and Annanda recommended a GREAT restaurant right on the water at the base of the Sugfarloaf. And get this, it had a fully childproofed amazing in door playground. The kids were in heaven...... so were the adults. The children played, we ate and enjoyed the view.

And to cap off the eneving we headed to Copacabanna Palace for dessert and to put our toes in the sand at Copacabanna and be that girl from Ipenima! It is honestly amazing!! WOW, I get the city! I would love to come here again and stay right in downtown Rio and experience the city on the beach! Don't let the scary crime stories scare you! Yes, you have to keep youir witts about you (a not so blind, blind man tried to picpocket me at the hippie fair, luckily my pockets were bare) but this city is blessed by that Cristo above for sure!

Monday Monday, la la la la la la. They are a quiet day in Rio. Especially the Monday after the Carnival holiday week. We enjoyed the beach at Iticotiara practically to ourselves. It is at the bottome of the hill (uh mountain) from the house and there is a sheltered area where there are no waves and the children could play more free than at the big beaches. We explored the big rocks, made sandcastles and Zack made himself a little Brazillian Amigo. After the two of them followed each other around for a while Zack comes over throws his arms up in the air and proclaims, "we just can't communicate"...... what could I say to that? Kayla enjoyed more Monkey enoucnters and built sandcastles on the beach. She wasn't so quick to make friends with the little brazillian girls in bikinis and they all looked at her with quizical looks as she was in her pink surfer suit.... sorry girls, but my girl isn't going to shrivel up like a raisin at 25.

I did the brave, and unpredicted according to Jack, we got a babysitter! Zack was feeling much better, had a great day and I wanted to experience Rio. So we headed out to the Zha Zha bistro tropical for a lovely dinner in Ipenima! Wonderful atmosphere, fair and some quiet conversation. Marcella, the sister of the hospitality manager, was out sitter, she teaches pre K here in Brazil and the kids loved her! WAHOO! Bet none of you saw that one coming!

XOXO

because photos take so long to blog, I am redirectng you to www.theheraldsgosouth.blogspot.com to read and see more of the amazing soccer game. Honestly, I have been to the famous Fenway many times, sox fans don't know passion like this! The crowd litterally pulses in unison movement to cheer on their team. I walked out of that stadium ready to rhumba!! SPECTACULAR!

PS. Please comment so I know my mom isn't the only one reading! Miss you all!

H A Z K!

Sunday Sunday.... Another day of Yin and Yang. Zack woke up feeling much better which was great! Bad news was he slipped and put his hand through the fan and managed to chop his pinkie and ring finders to bits! Fortunately he was not returned to Dr. Mcsteamy Brazil as it only needed a spot of ointment and some bandaids. I was beginning to wonder if Zack and Brazil would mix.

Later in the day we ventured to the hippie fair in Ipenima, a street fair, I should have done a lot more shopping than we did! I fell in love with a marble mozaic of the world..... not suew how we would get that one home. We lunched at a chopperia in Ipenima and then off to the HIGHLIGHT the soccer game at Maracana!!!!! OH WOW! This was amazing. The energy, the passion, the feelings the crowd! We watched brazillian culture at the Sambodrome we experienced it at the Maracana soccer game.

I will try an up load photos, it takes forever from here and we have had no iternet at the house lately so it's a bit of a trick.

Needless to say Zack LOVED the game as did we all. AWESOME time.

XOX
H

PS BE SURE TO CHECK OUT:

WWW.THEHERALDSGOSOUTH.BLOGSPOT.COM

For more photos and stories!!

Thanks for the comments mom! xox

Ohhhh Saturday......what a day. They say for every yin there is a yang, for every action there is an equal reaction. We had all that today.



Zack woke up in the middle of the night unhappy with his ear..... Hmmmmm I lay there in bed thinking and descided that we need to see a doctor in the morning. After all if he does have an ear infection we cannot fly home till it's clean. So I called Steve, the Rio Holiday owner and he got Marina, our hospitality manager todrive Zack and I to the clinic. Zack, as you can immagine was not pleased!We gritted his teeth and punched and actually considered heading for the door at the clinic, but I do believe fear of what was out the door was worse than who would be behind the door of the waiting room. Well, the Brazillian version of Mcsteamy was our young docotor, but the room was right from Chineese torture stories. No bed or cot, just a metal chair with an orb to hold your head....AND Dr Mcsteamy sports one of those round mirrors on his head like a head lamp! Well.... You all who know Zack know his pain, he was shaking, crying, threataning and I hadtogrip him with all my might so that mcsteamy could look in the ear. Phew.... that was awful. The skin in his outer ear is infected, and he gave us an antibiotic hydrocortozone prescription and told us Zack can't swim for a week!!!!! Poor Zack (and it only gets worse tomorrow.) We got the script and a big stash of candy and went home to watch movies, eat pizza and breath.



Well on the other hand.... Saturday night is Sambodrome, we have tickets and it only happens three times a year. We had planned an English speaking sitter, but there was no way I was going to leave Zack. Betsy graciously announced that she would stay, she has had many amazing adventures and did not want me to miss Sambodorome. THANK YOU!! She and the kids were great and all was well with Zack in the evening.



So, after a quick shower and change we are off to Sambadrome, The show must go on, and it did. I can little in words tell you about it, all I can say is we think we know shows, sparkle, pizazz, showmanship....... This was unreal! Including a float catching fire, but that did not stop the samba, they putitout and the parade went on!



Sunday we are off to the Hippie Fair and Soccer Game.



XXOO




more photos later I promise they take a while to load.

Friday.

On Friday we went to the beach near by that looks over Rio.

Again, beautiful beach, and dare I say touris attractions?

Very nice people stopped to admire Ms.Kayla beach girl

The children enjoyed playing on the beach.

Oi! That is Hi in Portugeese. Sorry we have not posted sooner. I can only get photos off the Cannon and some of the good shots are on the Sony. I can't wait any longer to share so here is what I have.

DAY 3. We loaded into the van around noon and headed to Corcovado to ride the cograil tram up to Cristo, Christ the Reedemer statue. We drove into Rio, past the favelas, which are so interesting, I am starting to see the apeal in taking a tour, though I have no intention. Zack was complaining that his ear lobe hurt, so we put some aloe andhad him wear a hat all day for extra sun protection. We rode up the cog rail, they have a samba band play along and many tropical plants line the ride up. You can't see what's coming at all. You get to the top, ride up an elevator and walkout and there is the back of Christ. I have to admit, it was not as dramatic to walk out and look at his back as it would be to walk out and be greated by open arms, but we were learning that though tourismo is a big business, they have some oportunities to ceatch upon. We ate lunch at the top, Jack chose the tropical fruit plate, Ishould have taken a photo. The fruit is AMAZING here! But there was no English menu, no enlish speaking folks. I realize Isound like an American snob, but don't you think at possibly the largest touristattraction there would be some other languages available? I was surprised, but it was no big deal, the bigger deal was Zack's growing unhappiness. You all know my sweet Zack is not the captain of the "suck it up and deal" team.... he doesn't even play in that statium. Hmmmmm I wondered, was he just hot and stuck schlepping through tourist stuff or was there something up? Kayla thought the statue was very cool. But the highlight for the kids was the lizard hanging on the edge post. We came down and took adrive along Ipanema and Copacabanna. HOLY HANNAH! These beaches are HUDGE and wall to wall bodies and umbrellas. There is a cute flea market I hope to revisit. Rio is a city, yet on an amazing beach. It's like city chic meets beach bum (and I mean beach bum in these bikini's!)
When we got home, me and my pal google descided that Zack has swimmers ear, not a surprise since he has hardly gotten out of the pool. So, as Carrie predicted I would, I called Erik back home who prescribed a cocktail of viniger and rubbing alcohol for Zacks ear. We called our people here at the house, and they actually called the local PEDI who sent us ear drops and ear numbing stuff. Between the drops and some pain relief Zack has made a full recovery today which is highlighted with the monkey's today playing in the yard that he is determined to ceatch!
OK, I have been inside way too long..... back to the pool. Love to all! H, A, Z, K.

Zack hatched a great plan, with a rope and a dozen banannas he was going to get himself a monkey! Here hed feeds our little friends banannas.

Look closely, the big monkey in the foreground is actually a mommy with two teeny tiny babies attached to her back.

The beach at Iticotiara. This was day 2, slow on the photo up load.

Day 2
We woke this morning, came down and enjoyed our first breakfast. Eggs, bacon, amazing mango, breads, meat, cheese and coffee. The children quickly dove into the pool and played. They love the pool. We descided to check out the local beach, Iticotiara. The beach is beautiful, clean, no seaweed, and BIG waves. Lots of surfing and playing. You see cultural diffrence here BIG TIME. In the states, unless you are perfect you cover up....Here, it doesn't matter, young, old (I mean really old) big, small: You show your skin. I observed one young lady adjust her swim bottom..... remove the wedgie? No, yank that suit right up there even farther. Kayla got lots of looks in her long sleeved scuba shirt, hat and sunglasses as most little girls run around nude. Yup, gringo and proud of it! We played then came back in the afternoon to get back in the pool. Kayla has descided Uncle Rich is better than any floaty in the pool, she looks at him, smiles and says "what ya doing uncle rich, goin' in the pool?" and Zack and Bryce "surfed" on the boogie boards. After we ate another meal perpared at home by bets - grilled chicken, brocolli rice casserole and curried cauliflower soup (which was delicious), we got the kids into bed and started playing Harts..... Somehow, despite claiming never to have played, or not recalled having played, Alex seems to have taken the lead and has started recalling all sorts of strategy! Hmmmm sneaky sneaky..... We will see who wins the marathon.

To answer questions:

It is hot, but very pleasant with a breeze by the ocean. Nothing is "really" air-condidtioned. Our rooms are for sleeping, but not the rest of the house. It seems the heat slows everything and everyone down. There is no sense of urgancy or giddie up. The Brazillian way.

The house is very neat and the kids negotiate fine. We are getting used to it, though the glaring sunrise right in the bedroom windows is my least favorite part because once the kids see the sun they want up! We have monkey's! They are very curious and come right in thehouse to sneak snacks..... not unlike toddlers. The kids love it! But one Monkey managed toget his teeth in a mango. It is really beautiful, like they carved the house right into the hill- literally! Actually the road up is SO STEEP, it makes our driveway at home look like nothing.

I am going to try and post pictures today...... Bets says it's easy. We shall see.

Keep commenting, questions welcome.

H,A,Z,K

Day 1.
After a 20 hour journey we arrived! Our firt encounter with Brazillian culture was great. A young woman comes over to us as we stand at the end of the long immagration line and says "excuse me, follow me please you have priotity." And we are guided to the front of the line because we have children.... They are so much more welcoming and considerate of children in other parts of the world. (More on that later).
We waited for Jack at baggage claim and then breezed through customs. We were greated by Rio Holiday Staff and driven to the house in our mini bus. The drving is a little scary.
The house is at iticotiara beach, one road in and one road out. Our house is behind an iron gate up the hill, we are imbeded in the rocks.
We only drove through Rio near the airport which is Favela after Favela, poverty stricken cement blocks piled high and the only way you know people actually live there is because there is laundry strung between blocks. This is the boring details I will spare you. We have not yet seen Copacabanna or Ipenima..... I can't wait for that.
THE HOUSE. It is a jungle style tree house with lots of levels and stairs and open air and you feel really at one with the outside..... aka HOT :) We look down over the beach and bay and ocean, it is very beautiful. The kids LOVE the pool!
THE HERALDS arrived and I was asleep as I did not sleep a wink on the plane. (K was stretched out over 3 seats snoozing well and I watched her hapilly with envy). I was relieved to see Bets as I knew then I could hand off the rains as cruiz director! Sure enough, she had already arranged for Alfredo to come back and we went off to the grocery store to stock-up.
We ate a nice meal prepared by Bets and then walked....gulp um yes... walked down down down down down the hill to the beach club to the kids party. This was a local beach party just for the children. There was dress up, music and no alcohol alowed for parents because the kids are proirity. We stayed long enough for Z and B tobury K in the sand then we walked... gulp um ah gulp... UP the hill!
Everyone slept very well!

We made it! The kids we're troupers! We just returned from the grocery store. Off to kids carnival at thebeach club tonight. Will post more details later!xoxox H,A,Z,K

You got my email and you found it! We have not left yet, busy packing and getting ready and Zack is taking in the snow before we journey to the heat! We arrive in Rio 8:10 AM Rio time on Tuesday the 20th. I will put up a quick note once we arrive, I am sure the journey will be full of stories: to begin with, have never done the red eye with Zack and Kayla..... For some reason I think they are going to sleep just fine, me on the other hand! Love to all! HH