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Thursday April 24 Day 8

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  Thursday April 24 Day 8 After breakfast we jumped into the boats and headed deep into the forests in search of wildlife. Like Indiana Jones middle of nowhere in the Amazon jungle type stuff. If our boat died, I have no idea how on earth we would ever find our way back to the River kind of stuff. We saw a few different species of birds but were looking hard for monkeys. We saw a troop of howler monkeys but by the time you see them they scurry deep into the trees where you cannot get photos/video of them. Our first official stop was near some smallish Squirrel monkeys who came out of the forest to eat the bananas we brought with us. They climbed right onto the boat onto people’s shoulders and heads and were rewarded with the sweet fruit. 5 bananas and 15 monkeys later we headed to the next stop. There used to be a huge Amazon lodge built 10 years ago by a very rich man from Manaus. After 5 years, some major fines from the government over improper pollution and a failure to pay his ...
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Thursday April 17th - Day 1

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Thursday April 17th - Day 1  After three busy days of teaching and meetings 430-10pm, a quick 4 hour nap and off to the airport in an Uber bound for Toronto. 5 hours later we arrived to a beautiful 10 degree blue sky and 8 hours to kill. Not one to sit still, I twisted Krista’s arm and onto the train headed for downtown! Got a day pass for $12 so that worked out great! Arrived at Union Station and walked under the CN tower and around downtown for an hour before grabbing lunch at Jack Astors. No Blue Jays game today sadly   but a million Leaf fans downtown for the last regular game of the season against Detroit that they managed to win 4-3 in Overtime. We walked along the waterfront to get some steps in and then grabbed a train back to the airport. An hour wait to get into the lounge, bite to eat and boarded at 930 and gone by 10 in a giant 787 for a monster 10 hour flight to São Paulo, Brazil! Spring break 2025 and 26th Anniversary trip is underway!
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Friday April 18 2025- Day 2

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  Friday April 18 2025- Day 2  Thank goodness for Gravol because I was out cold for a good six hours. We arrived in São Paulo, and of course, our luggage was the last of the bags to arrive. Lol. As you can imagine, a major world city of 20 million people has a ginormous airport! But at 8 AM, it’s a ghost town. We breeze through security and customs in a heartbeat and made a beeline for our next flight. Dropped off our luggage and we’re on an immediate quest for a Starbucks for a certain fanatic I am travelling with. Success! A chai latte and caramel macchiato calm the nerves before grabbing the shuttle to change terminals. We found a little homemade pizza place and chilled for a few hours before our next hopper flight to Rio. The views coming in from the ocean were spectacular as we flew past the Christ the Redeemer statue on the mountain top. Intermittent cloud with some blue sky and wispy clouds were perfectly picture postcardesque as we touched down. Hotel wanted $125 for a...
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Saturday April 19th 2025 - Day 3

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  Saturday April 19th 2025 - Day 3 630am alarms suck on holidays.  Quick sunrise breakfast overlooking the coastline from the 26th floor and off on our tour at 7am. My rockstar wife booked several tours that pick us up at the front door of the hotel and I don’t have to drive in the insane traffic of Easter weekend in Rio. Our amazing tour guide Monica speaks at least 6 languages and has been doing this 30 years. 6 stops picking up folks from DC, Birmingham and numerous countries which she communicated to Us in Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese! Thousands of cars, buses and motorbikes weaving in and out of traffic as we climbed cobblestone streets steep into the mountains to the Christ the Redeemer National Park. Thousands of people queued up but we moved quickly in shuttle vans to the top. It looks so much larger in movies but it is still a marvellous structure. We took many photos/video before finding a little chapel in the back to sit and reflect on ...
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Sunday April 20th - Day 4

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  Sunday April 20th - Day 4 Day 4 started with a sleep in til 8. Breakfast and out the door for 9:30 on a private tour with Russo - pronounced Yusso. He lives way up the cliffs in the tenement Flavellas and grew up in Rio. We hiked up some serious stairs for a long while with legs burning before getting into the sketchiest shuttle van jammed with 18 of us into 14 seats. We climbed the steepest streets for 10-15 minutes chugging along with absolutely no suspension hoping the brakes wouldn’t fail.  We passed by hundreds of giant overflowing garbage bins and thousands of makeshift electrical wires hanging everywhere. They only got electricity in the late 80s and running water after that but the higher you went, the less services they had. We stopped near the top of the mountain and began our trek downhill through thousands of stairs - some not so bad - some you held onto the railings or ropes for dear life. Water dripping from many rooftops made a few places a bit treacherous whi...
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Monday April 21st - Day 5

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  Monday April 21st - Day 5    Technically our day started in the sky after midnight flying from São Paulo to the Amazon River/Rainforest. Enjoyed watching our luggage come off the plane and right into the door where we stood. Uber to Hotel quick and cheap. King bed was huge. Room was ice cold. Probably 15 degrees. No blankets. One sheet! Ordered two more sheets. Tired to turn down AC but it was a CHILLY NIGHT! Asleep by 330 Breakfast at 10. Roof pool by 11. Downtown for 2. On the River cruise boat by 3. Meeting people from all over the world. River boat has 4 floors and only 100 guests. Only 20 English speaking people. 3 couples from the states. An amazing couple from South Africa. 2 Dads and their 2 boys from England - surrogate mom best friend had the boys 10/12 years ago. Dads originally from California - professors at Westchester University south of London. Sold all their property before new capital gains taxes came in April and are travelling the world with the boys...
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Tuesday April 22 - Day 6

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  Tuesday April 22 - Day 6  7am alarm?! We’re on holidays! Sigh. Breakfast 730. Tour at 8. Onto 25 seater powerboats and off to the shoreline. 2 hour hike through the jungle. Amazing guide Arand who’s lived here for 30 years and speaks perfect English. Flora and Fauna galore Reminders from our guide include my personal favourites : ‘Put this in your mouth’ ‘Don’t eat that’ ‘Don’t touch that. That could kill you. ‘ ‘Here, drink this’ ‘Don’t step on that’ lol 2 hours flew by as we traipsed through the rainforest hearing so much information about biodiversity and Amazon life. Back to the ship for lunch and a few hours of pool time and a solid sunburn with our new friends from Colorado. Snacks and then onto the boats again and headed for the riverside and several lakes for a couple hours. Macaw. Parrots. Egret. Tricoloured Heron. Three toed Sloth. Red capped Cardinals. Ducks. Hoatzin bird- Two stomachs. One for poisonous leaves to fart at enemies - the other for digesting food - k...
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