Back from Brazil

Hey kids, I'm back from Brazil! I just wanted to share some photos with you of my trip to see my lovely friend Val, and be the first one to meet her boyfriend Hercules. They are a really really cute couple, and I am pretty sure I'll be at their wedding in a few months ;-) Anyway, here it is:

This is the Cathedral in the center of Curitiba, the city where I stayed with Val. It's about 4 hours south of Sao Paulo driving (1 hour flying).

This is the Opera de Arame (Wire Opera House) outside of Curitiba. It's incredibility beautiful with a waterfall to the left and forests to the right. And it really is made all out of wire and glass!

This is the waterfall the left that I mentioned!

This is a view of the inside of the opera house and the stage.

This is Paseo Publico, a park in Curitiba that has a zoo and beautiful birds and wildlife in it, but is unfortunately known for it's prostitution. If a woman sits on a bench by herself, it's assumed that she's a prostitute and is soliciting men to come sit with her...well, and do a little more than that I guess.

A stork in Paseo Publico.

Beautiful tropical birds in Paseo Publico.

In Brazil, people seem to think that Americans eat these really big breakfasts everyday (thanks Hollywood) and that we consume a lot of bacon. But I discovered, while in Brazil, that it is, in fact, the Brazilians that eat lots and lots of bacon. They have bacon on burgers, bacon on fries....even bacon in popcorn as pictured above!

Jardim Botanico, a beautiful botanical garden just outside of Curitiba.

Me and Val at Jardim Botanico

The sun shining down on Curutiba photographed from Jardim Botanico.

The beach at Coiaba. Very very soft sand and mountains that run right up to the water.

The view from the bus all the way to Coiaba. All mountains and forests, totally uninhabited! Beautiful!

Museo Oscar Neimeyer...unfortunately, it's closed on Monday so we only saw the outside. It's beautiful though, right?

Hercules and Cheago at this yummy Italian restaurant that we ate at the last night I was in Curitiba.

The view of the shoreline from the airplane. No matter what angle you look at it, Brazil is beautiful!

All in all, a very nice vacation and incredible to visit a third world country in it's beauty and vast economic gaps between rich and poor.