Monkeys & Marmosets!

Yesterday on our walk near Sugar Loaf Mountain, we saw all these cute little marmosets in the trees along the trail. They are less than 8 inches in length (their body... their tails are quite long). Aren't they adorable?!?Then last night we went to a soccer game between two rival Rio de Janeiro teams. It was wild - in the background you can see the flares and flags waving after a goal by the Flamengo (red & black) team.

Today, it was still a bit cloudy and misty, so we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were very pretty - we saw more monkeys in the trees! Here is one in action.When I saw this bit of bamboo across the trail, of course I had to do the limbo to get past it. hahaThe guide book said this was a popular place to do wedding photos. As it was a bit muddy and rainy today, we didn't see any brides wandering around. Tonight we had dinner at Porcao - an all you can eat meat & buffet place. I did as Mark told me and got my money in meat before eating any side dishes. It was super good!! And then to top it off, for dessert, we each had a fantastic chocolate covered strawberry... it was like a strawberry that was encased in some yummy creamy stuff and then dipped in the hard shell chocolate. It was the best chocolate strawberry I've every had and the perfect small bit of dessert to end the meal.

Wild Soccer!

Today we took the free shopping shuttle out to this mall but then walked on to a pretty walk by Sugar Loaf mountain, where there were all of these cute, tiny marmoset monkeys along the way! This evening, we went to a wild soccer match between the two rival Rio de Janeiro teams. There was a LOT of energy in that stadium. I'm on the free lobby internet right now, so will post pictures later!!

Brazilian Side of the Falls & Birds!

Yesterday as we left Argentina, we went to see the falls from the Brazilian side. They were just as gorgeous there! Here's me & Mark and part of the view. :)This is close to the Devil's Throat, but you couldn't see it as good as looking right over it from the Argentina side. There was a spot on the path where you took an elevator up for a better view and I believe this was at the top of the elevator.After seeing the Brazilian side, we stopped at the Parque das Aves (Bird Park) for a little while. There were lots of pretty colored birds there! And these toucans were so pretty, we thought they looked fake... but I promise he was real! I don't think his name was Sam, though. In the last aviary, there were some very aggressive birds... this blue macaw really seemed to like Mark and his jacket. I think he was trying to eat the zipper. We had been warned to enter at our own risk!! Then we went to the airport and got there a little early for our flight. Our flight was about 2 hrs from Foz do Iguazu to Rio de Janeiro. Then we had a bit of a taxi drive out to our hotel and it was dark by the time we got here. Today has been a bit rainy, so it was good we had planned our lazy day. :) Here is the view from our balcony!

In Rio de Janeiro!

Yesterday we went to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls - it was another gorgeous view!! Then we went to a bird park with lots of pretty birds and toucans up close and even a macaw that tried to eat Mark's jacket. Then we made our flight to Rio de Janeiro and got all checked in. Unfortunately, the internet in our room is fairly pricey, but we get 30 mins free / day in the lobby. I'm currently using that! You may not get as frequent updates this week, but know that we are fine (just cheap)! Today it is raining, but we had already planned to make it a down time day and not do much but sleep late and lounge around! We have 6 more nights here, so plenty of time to see the sights! Our hotel is right on the beach and has a really nice pool. More later!

Devil's Throat & Churrascarria

Yesterday we woke to a bit of rain and a cold day, but it didn't stop us! We got up and rode the little train in the park over closer to the Devil's Throat... and then had a bit of a walk over bridges out to this area called the Devil's Throat of Iguazu Falls. It was crazy! See my video below. This is the part of the falls where about half (the left half) is in Brazil and the right half is in Argentina.Then instead of the train, we took a little fun boat ride back from Devil's Throat. Along the way, we saw a toucan in a tree. We scheduled for a driver from the hotel to drive us to Paraguay so that we could pick up another country on our map. We stayed in Ciudad del Este for about 30 minutes, and ended up heading back to Brazil. As we drove around Brazil, we decided it would be good to stop and get lunch. We chose a churrascarria called Rafain. For those of you that do not know what a Churrascarria is... its a place that serves all you can eat meat which is being grilled right before your eyes. Needless to say, Mark loved this place, as you can tell by the meal below!

Devil's Throat at Iguazu Falls!

Here is a video I took yesterday ... we took a little train ride over closer to this area and then a short walk out to look over Devil's Throat. It is a massive amount of powerful water!! It was pretty amazing. Enjoy!

A Little Bit of Macuco...

Yesterday morning, we were on the Macuco Nature Trail by 8am... we walked all the way to the end (about an hour) without seeing any other people! It was a lovely walk thru an Argentinian rainforest!

At the end of the walk, we found this lovely little falls. We sat here a little while to enjoy the beauty and take a few photos, before heading back up the trail.Then we took the lower trails to see different views of the falls. This one is a nice one to show you how tall some of the falls are!! That's me at the bottom.At the bottom of the trails, we took a ferry over to the island (the land on the left in the picture below) and walked to a few lookouts. Then it was time for our speedboat ride... if you click on this picture, you can better see the boat in the bottom middle. We went on one like this and it takes you very close to the falls here and in a couple more spots and at the end of the trip, everyone is soaking wet (even if you are wearing a pancho or raincoat, somehow your clothes underneath are still soaked). I think the boat ride was Mark's favorite thing for the day. Then yesterday evening, we split a taxi with another couple at the hotel and went in to the nearest city here in Argentina for some dinner and a little shopping and looking around. This spot below is a place where you are standing by the river and looking at both Brazil & Paraguay.

Yesterday's pictures!

This is a picture from yesterday on the upper trail walk we took - this is a part of the falls... there are sooooo many of them! Here is another shot where you can see a bit of a rainbow.

And the cheeky monkeys that were playing above our balcony...

Another gorgeous shot of the falls... on the left is the really crazy part where I think no one could make it down in a canoe or kayak or barrel or anything!

Here is the interesting animal called a coati.

Mark got this excellent shot of the pretty bird called the plush crested jay.

We have already had an exciting day today and I will post more pictures tonight. Right now we are headed into the closest town here in Argentina for some dinner!

Iguazu!!!!!!

Mark and I made it to our hotel today about 3pm (1pm in Texas) and were tired, but did a short, AWESOME walk that was the upper trail to view the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls. It is soooooo huge and gorgeous!! I will try to put some pictures up later! Also we got upgraded at the hotel to a huge suite with this enormous balcony with a view of the falls!! It is lovely!! Now we have showered and are going to have some dinner before we crash. Then hopefully we will be ready to get up early!

And we have also seen some interesting wildlife... on the walk were several of these little mammals called coatis that have a raccoon tail and a kinda anteater head! Then we we came back up to the hotel, we saw monkeys playing on the balconies and a couple were right above our balcony! So we ran up and photographed them. Hope everyone is doing great!

Packer Extraordinaire!

One good thing about travelling all the time is that I have really learned how to pack compactly. Mark decided he wanted to try to just pack in carry-ons for our upcoming 11 day vacation. I have just packed in my small rolling carry-on and fit in 2 casual dresses, 2 skirts, 10 tops, 2 swimsuits, swimsuit coverup, all unmentionables (oops, did I mention that?), 2 shorts, 2 capris, pjs, & 1 pair of shoes (the comfy flops). On the plane I will wear a pair of pants, t-shirt, light zip-up hoodie that goes w/everything & the dressy flops. (I should be ok even if I happen to lose a pair of flops in a subway!)

Mark's packing is harder to compact, but he requires less clothing, so it works out. Hopefully we will fit everything in his rolling carry-on.

Then he will take a backpack and I will take the cosmetics bag and fit my small backpack into it when going thru security and such.

I do believe we have this down to an art.

South America Itinerary

Mark & I leave Thursday for our trip to South America. Whoo hoo! Here is our itinerary:

Aug 23 - leave DFW
Aug 24 - arrive Sao Paulo, Brazil & transfer to Iguassu Falls, Brazil where we'll drive over the border to Argentina to spend the night
Aug 24 - 26 staying at the Sheraton Iguazú Resort & Spa and viewing the lovely falls! We will probably cross the border into Paraguay one of these days.
Aug 27- Sep 2 flying to Rio de Janeiro & staying at the Sheraton Rio Resort & Hotel
Sep 3 - flying out late from Rio to Dallas
Sep 4 - arriving DFW early morning!

I'll try to post some blogs & pictures during the trip, if I can!

Another Bighorn Sheep!

The day after we had been on a Bighorn Sheep hunt for awhile, we just happened to pass quite a few hanging out just by the main road. We caught this fellow in action as he ran down the mountain.

Wyoming and a bit of Utah

Today we wandered around Wyoming a bit and stopped at this ski lodge in Pinedale, Wyoming to have lunch at the lodge and then we decided to ride the ski lift up. I took off my flip flops so I wouldn't lose them... and here are my feet and the mountain. :)Then after checking in to our hotel in Rock Springs, WY, we took a little loop scenic drive down that went in to the corner of Utah. We went on a side loop that told us we might see some bighorn sheep and when we were almost out of the area, we stopped at a pullover and saw 5 of them on the side of the hill! They were a bit far off, so this is the best picture I could get. Then we stopped at Red Canyon beside a pretty little lake to eat our picnic dinner. It was very peaceful and pretty!

Grand Tetons!

Today we drove quickly back down through a corner of Yellowstone and into the Grand Teton National Park.

About the first thing we did in Grand Tetons was head down to a popular lake to try to beat the crowd. We made it while it wasn't crowded and decided to take the 2.5 mile hike around part of the river that the lady said was 'rolling hills'. It wasn't too bad, but I probably should not have worn flip-flops :D We made it and walked up to see the Hidden Falls before taking the $5 boat ride back. It was a nice ride across the pretty lake! Below are Mom and Aunt Becky further ahead on the trail.There was this nice fallen log along the trail, so I had to try to dance on it like in the movie, Dirty Dancing. hahaWe saw many pretty views with lakes and mountains and we even seemed to see more wildflowers in Grand Tetons than Yellowstone.We were making a last attempt to see a moose at a location close to the southern tip of the park when we parked and a couple showed us a moose way out in the distance and down in this little valley. They said they had walked closer to see it, but it was a little steep... but Mom and I decided to go for it. After sliding down a few places on a rocky hill and jumping a couple of creeks, we were pretty close to (but still across a stream from ..phew!) the moose! There he is relaxing!!

A Bit more Yellowstone and a Ghost Town

Yesterday we went back in to Yellowstone and saw several more things... this was one of the steamy thermal pools that was quite colorful.

Then we left Yellowstone and took a pretty drive through some of Montana in to the ghost town of Nevada City... this is Mom and Aunt Becky at the barber shop in the ghost town.

Mostly what seemed to be living in the ghost town was a family of bunnies. This teeny one was so cute and didn't seem to be too scared of us! Mom and I tried out the stagecoach and were glad we didn't make the trip from Texas in one of these!!

Cute Girls at the Falls

I was too tired to post last night, but we had a good day wandering around some of Yellowstone. Here was the stop at the Lower Falls... we just took the shorter walk to the top view and didn't take the walk down to the bottom of the falls. Aren't Mom & Aunt Becky cute?

Deja Vu

I knew there was a reason I was having deja vu when I posed on top of the natural bridge yesterday... here are me & my friend, Amanda, posing atop a Mayan ruin in Belize in 2003... I'm the taller one :D

Why Wyoming?

Today we spent most of the day in Wyoming... after we left Fort Collins, we soon entered Wyoming and saw a few sights on our way up closer to Yellowstone. We stopped at this place below that had ruts left from wagons that travelled the Oregon Trail around the 1830s - 1860s. That's Mom & Aunt Becky at the top of the ruts. We also stopped nearby at Register Cliff, where the pioneers on the trail stopped to camp and many would carve their names in the cliff.

During the afternoon, we were driving along and could tell from far away that we were driving in to a storm... just about the time we came to a rest area, the storm was upon us, so we stopped... As I ran in to the bathroom, it started up and even hailed a tiny bit! I ran back out in the crazy wind and we sat in the car just a few minutes while the worst of it blew over... you can see some of the effects of the wind here on the American Flag and Wyoming State Flag.

We stopped for lunch at a little state park with a natural bridge. We had our picnic by the little river flowing under the bridge and then had a few pictures.

When I saw the sign that there was a trail to the top of the bridge, I had to climb it!! If you look close, you can see me there atop the bridge.

More than Meets the Eye!

Somewhere in the Panhandle of Texas on our drive to Colorado today, we stopped at a very nice looking rest area that was pretty and new... but when we got out, we saw the fine print!! But don't worry - Dad checked everything out for us girls! :D