Day 2: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

We now have internet, yay! Dan and I went into this trip knowing that our access to Internet would be spotty, but until you are without, you forget how much you use it. The hostel administrator, Sebastian, unsuccessfully attempted to fix it, at which point I channeled my inner Marlene to insist upon a discount. Eventually Sebastian switched his modem with ours so we are now in contact with the outside world.

After wasting the morning away on the internet and having, you guessed it!, leftover chicken for lunch, we were  ready to go on our first big outing. Dan and I read in our trusty guide book that we could go to a place called Parque Lage and from there, hike up to the famous "Christ the Redeemer" statue that overlooks the city. We cabbed it to the park, and were so enamored by the foliage that we decided to walk around the grounds and save the hike for another day.

Parque Lage gives you a sense of what Rio must have looked like before it was a city. The trees make you feel as though you are walking through the jungle, but the park also has a mini aquarium, man-made caves, scenic pathways, and some furry friends.

After leaving the park, we decided to walk the three miles home, the better part of which was around a massive lake. The path around the lake was reminiscent of a walk through Central Park, but hot dogs, pretzels, and peanuts were replaced by popcorn, churros, and coconuts. And rather than squirrels, there were these guys (capybaras):

The long walk left us content with lounging in our room for the next few hours. Eventually, we decided to go out for a late dinner at Zaza, a bistro Dan had read about in our guide book. It was a nice (and completely safe- *wink* parents) fifteen minute walk to the restaurant. Even though we hadn't arrived until about 11pm, there was still a half hour wait to be seated. We took that as a sign of a good meal ahead, so we ordered cocktails--or rather, tried our hand at ordering each other's drinks--and made conversation with two Parisians as we waited. Two hours, a bottle of red wine, and a pleasantly full stomach later, we made our way home and called it a night.