Today we visited Cristo Redentor, the Christ statue that overlooks Rio. Somehow, when there were no clouds in all of Rio there were clouds around the peak when we got to the top. The view was still good but there were quite a few clouds billowing about and slightly obscuring pictures. We had a good view of Botafogo bay, Copacabana and Ipanema and the statue is pretty iconic so I'm glad we visited despite the weather. You can even take an escalator most of the way up to Cristo (stairway to heaven?) It was quite chilly at the top so we didn't spend a long time there. This tourist attraction was sadly lacking in the adorable little macaquinhos or micos we saw at Sugarloaf so I think the latter was my favorite of the two.
After getting down from the mountain we walked around Langeiras and were tempted to try some popcorn from a sidewalk stand. This stand had a tasty caramel popcorn and a version with seasoning salt. Both were delicious but we may have stopped too soon because we later saw stands selling bacon flavored popcorn (in addition to carmel, plain, and buttered). So now that I've tried every kind of churro filling (chocolate, doce de leite, doce de leite con coco), popcorn flavors will be my new frontier. There were even double sided popcorn/churro stands, which may have been the greatest invention ever in addition to the plastic ketchup packet opener we were given at a restaurant over the weekend. Sarah put ketchup on her pizza for the sheer joy of opening the packet.
I'm pretty sure the world might end because tonight I did not have chicken for dinner. Instead it was meat and potatoes with a side of chopped cooked vegetables (with requisite r&bb). My host dad and I had a conversation about Brazil's World Cup chances (in Portuguese of course) and it sounds like there's not expectations of a win for this team. Spain is the favorite. No one likes Dunga as a coach because he's so 'zangado,' which he explained as unhappy and as one of the seven dwarfs from Snow White, so I believe it translates to 'grumpy.' He said Brazil's playing efficiently but not beautifully and that the game against the Netherlands is supposed to be a tough one. I hope Brazil does keep winning though, three day weekends are nice.
As an aside, my phone is fully functional now :D
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Lazi wore his Spain soccer jersey on his travels across the world. It seems many of the airport security guards have an affinity to Real Spain. Lazi was quite stressed on several occasions when a security guard would single him out and point and motion to him. At first he thought he was being pointed out for some further investigation but no, the guards were only commenting and showing their approval of the Real Spain soccer team. This World Cup has been exciting.
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