South America and Antarctica 5 - We arrive at Iguazu Falls.

The next morning we flew from Rio de Janeiro down to Iguazu Falls (Red A on the map). Iguazu Falls sits between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.  You can see from the map below, (Thanks Google earth. You may need to click on it to see a larger image.) that a little tongue of land comes north in Argentina in order for the main side of the falls to be in inside their border.

We landed on the Brazilian side of the falls and then crossed the border to Argentina, which had the larger town near the falls.
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South America and Antarctica 4 - We continue walking along the Rio de Janeiro beaches.

Copacabana beach was very similar to Ipanema beach in that there was a lot going on all the time.

Here, someone set up shop selling bikinis, but down the way serious volley ball games were in progress.  Here you can also see the curve of the beach lined with wall to wall hotels and the small mountain or large hill in the background.  Behind that hill is the huge cemetery that we saw in a previous post.

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South America and Antarctica 3 - We walk along the Rio de Janeiro beaches.

The next day was high overcast but much brighter.  We decided to "get out of our bubble" a bit and took a bus over to Ipanema beach, where we had a nice early lunch and then began walking back along the beach to our hotel on the far side of Copacabana beach.

But, before we got to the beach, we ran into this life sized fiberglass cow that was decorated in vibrant colors.  I had to take a picture.

The beach was alive with people from all over the world.  Groups of young people like this having fun.
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South America and Antarctica 2 - Christ the Redeemer

Also as part of our tour, that overcast second day of our trip in Rio de Janeiro, they took us up to to see a huge, 130 foot, statue of Christ, which stands on top of Corcovado mountain at an elevation of 2329 feet above sea level.

In order to get us up to the top of the mountain, which is located not that far from Ipanema Beach, we needed to ride a cog train.

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South America and Antarctica 1 - Rio de Janeiro

We arrived at the heart of Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro mid afternoon on December 1, suffering from extreme jet lag.  Weather was beautiful, sunny, bright blue sky, and beach activities were in full swing outside our hotel.

Click on any image in this blog in order to see a larger version.

 I snapped this frame from our hotel window just before we headed out in search of dinner.  Notice how bright and clear the weather is.  Sadly, we were too messed up that evening to do anything other than go to bed early and crash hard.  I say sadly because the next day brought very different weather...

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