Corcovado

We hiked up to Christ the Redeemer, but there were too many clouds for us to be able to see it! We're thoroughly enjoying Brazil so far (Nick particularly loves bodysurfing in the waves off the Copacabana, despite the sunburn), but the heat in Rio de Janeiro is really getting to us both. We are looking forward to the sea breeze and higher latitude (and thus lower temperatures) of Valparaiso, Chile next week!

Edited later to add: whew! The downhill was rough! It was raining pretty steadily and instead of mud on the descent (which we probably could've handled better), it was basically hard clay and rock face. Anyway, we made it, and it was fun! On the way down we also got to see some decent views of the city. During the hike we saw monkeys, a beautiful blue butterfly, an awesomely hairy caterpillar, little copper frogs, birds, and lots of ants of course.Read more