Arrived!!!!

We are here and brushing my teeth my teeth may have never been so awesome as when we checked into our hotel!  So far I have been up since 6am on Tuesday and had about 4 hours of "plane sleep".  I am looking forward to going to be tonight!  Let me recap some of our touristy touring of today.

 Here is my TAM flight…it was actually pretty nice.

 Super old Portuguese library in downtown Rio!

 St. Fransico Catholic Church

 Steps of St. Fransico

 Motorcycles outside St. Franciso

This may have been my favorite stop today…Cafeitaria Colombo built in 1894 on this old street where back in the day European fashion was sold down this street and folks would take a coffee break in here.  It was GORGEOUS…and their coffee and treats did not disappoint!  I was so excited :)

Look at this stuff!

 Everything was mirrored in this place

 I have a puff pastry filled with chicken and a chocolate hazelnut tartlet…delicious!

 These steps are called Selaron Stairs -- artist from Chile who designed them.  Not a great part of town.

 At the base of Sugar Load Mountain…

 At the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain

Panorama off Sugar Loaf Mountain

Clearly today we have largely toured some of the highlights of the city with the goal of getting acquainted with our surroundings.  Tomorrow we begin our day in a "favela" which is actually originally a Portuguese word for "flower".  And then we begin to dig in more to the learning aspects of the trip.

So far the city has a New Orleans feel to it…narrow streets, French and Portuguese "colonial" influences, smells, etc.  It also reminds me some of Panama.  Not nearly as noisy as India!  And culturally we are much more comfortable in Rio than in India so far…folks dress more like we do…we just simply have on more clothes than they do :)  

Off to dinner - Chao!