Rio de Janeiero-Brazil, part2

Now I see that I will have to make more than 2 parts for all of my Rio pictures. Here is part 2 (more to come soon).

I met some good people and made some new friends during my stay in Rio. I was eating dinner at a restaurant called Nativo, and I was invited over to a birthday party by a local family. I met the family and all of their friends and heard some great live music. Later, I was also invited back to their home. I had a good time and just want to say how great it was spending time with them. Thanks to Carla, Luiz, Zaka, Dini, Jean-Marc and everyone else for all of the great hospitality!!!

During my stay in Rio, I was at the Hotel Sheraton Barra. This hotel is located in the Barra da Tijuca section of Rio. The hotel faced the Barra da Tijuca beach. Here is a picture of the front of the hotel.


This hotel was designed so that every room faced the beach (at an angle). Here's the view of the beach from my room's balcony.


There is a tiled walkaway down the entire length of beach. They had fish patterns made into the tiles of the walkway at Barra da Tijuca (other beaches had tiled walkways as well, but they used different patterns). Here are some pics from the beach in front of my hotel and the walkway.








Along the beach walkway there were many kiosks that sold drinks and food. One of the specialty drinks there was coco drink. It was the juice form a coconut. They chopped off the top of the coconut and you have to drink the juice directly from the coconut with a straw. It is suppose to be good for your health. I tried one and here is a picture of it.


Rio has many beaches. The beach where I stayed was called Barra da Tijuca. On my tour, the tour guide tried to explain the meaning of Barra da Tijuca and I think he was saying that it meant something like "way to the beach". Barra has good beaches and many surfers like it for the waves. I saw many places on the beach where you can get surf boards and even take lessons for surfing.

Some of the other popular beaches are Copocabana, Ipanema, Sao Conrado, Leblon, etc. Here are some pictures of some of these beaches that I took on the tour.










Check back later for part3

Rio de Janeiro-Brazil, part1

I worked in Rio de Janeiro for 2 weeks in August. I stayed over the weekend so I could do some sight seeing. I have so many pictures from Rio that I will probably make two blog posts just for Rio.

Part of what makes Rio so beautiful is how the mountains come down to the beaches and contrast the rugged sharp drops from the mountains with the flat, white, sandy beaches. It really makes for some beautiful pictures. Of course pictures can't be exactly as good as being there, but they can be close. Here are a few pics that show the contrast between the mountains and sea.
***Remember that you can click on each picture for a larger version if you like. Just remember that you will have to click the back browser each time to go back to my blog page:





I took these photos while I was on a tour. The first picture above was taken from the top of one of the tallest and most well known mountains called Corcovado. This mountain has the well known statue of Christ on top. It is known locally as Cristo de Corcovado. The statue can be seen over much of the city of Rio. It took 9 years to build the statue. It is 120ft tall (38 meters). The Corcovado mountain is 2300 feet tall (700 meters). It was opened to the public in 1931. It was meant as a symbol to encourage the acceptance of Christianity. Here are some pictures I took of the statue and some more views from the mountain top.











Our tour guide had a specific spot that he insisted that we use to pose for our picture with the Cristo statue. Here is mine!


Also, in the base of the Cristo statue at the back, there is a small chapel. I got 2 pictures of the chapel here.




The Corcovado mountaintop is one of two mountaintops that are the most popular tourist attractions and great locations to view the city. The other mountaintop is called Sugar Loaf.
Here is a pic of Sugar Loaf (the tall pointed mountain on the left). I took this pic was from the top of the Corcovado mountain.


As part of my tour, we visited the Sugar Loaf mountain. The Portuguese name is Pão de Açúcar (loaf of sugar). One popular belief of where the name came from is that it resembles the shape of sugar loaves. Sugar cane was a popular crop grown in the Rio area and when it was cured it was usually in this shape. Another theory is that this name was first given by some of the native Indian tribes before the Portuguese settled there.

The Sugar Loaf mountain is a popular location for many people to climb too. We saw a few climbing the day we were there.

The Sugar Loaf mountaintop is accessed by cable car ride to the top. The cable cars held about 30 to 40 people each. The cable car ride is two stages. The first stage took us to the smaller mountain beside Sugar Loaf. The smaller mountain is named Babylon Mountain. This next pictures are the entrance to the cable car facility and a picture of one of the cable cars:




Here are some pictures of the cable car ride up to the top and the views from Sugar Loaf and Babylon Mountain:

















It was getting late in the day when we were ready to leave the top of the Sugar Loaf mountain. We could see the Cristo statue on the top of the Corcovado mountain. Here are two more pictures looking back towards Corcovado mountain.




I have more pics from the many beaches in Rio, from my hotel, and other interesting places. I'll post part 2 with more soon.

Santiago-Chile

In June, I made 2 trips to Santiago Chile. Their fall season was just beginning then. Santiago is located in a valley beside the Andes mountains. On a clear day, you can see some snow capped mountains. The mountains surround the city in most directions. However, sometimes the mountains are barely visible due to smog. Since the city is surrounded by mountains, the smog can build up and make it difficult to see long distances. Usually the air clears up very well after a good rain.

I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express which was very convenient since it was only one block from my work office at Sony Ericsson. The following picture shows the tall glass paneled building where Sony Ericsson is located and just to the right is a hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. (***Note that you can always click on any picture to see a larger version of the picture, but then you have to click your back arrow on the browser to get back to my blog):


The next picture below shows one view from my hotel room looking towards the building where I was working:


The next picture below is one view from the work office (19th floor) looking over the city towards the Andes mountains:


One task for my job was to test the cell phones while driving from the city and part of the way up into the mountains. It is a good drive with lots of good views of the mountains and a river. The following pictures are some samples of the view on the road going up to the mountains:










While in Santiago, I also visited an arts and crafts center located in the Santiago city. The center has multiple names. I believe the official name is "Los Graneros del Alba", but it is also known as "Centro Artesanal Los Dominicos" and as "Pueblito Los Dominicos". It is a collection of small business shops arranged in a village with small streets for pedestrians only. The picture below is at the main entrance walkway into the artesanal.


The arts complex contains many small shops with arts and crafts such as wood carvings, stone statues, hand made jewelry, copper items, native indian art and paintings, leather goods, etc. It would take much of a full day to visit every one of the shops there. The picture below is me standing in front of one shop where there were many handmade clay pots, statues, and indian art work. I bought a clay statue here for Pat to hang on the wall.


Here is another picture taken as I was walking down one of the many pedestrian streets in the arts complex:


The arts center is located adjacent to an old church called Los Dominicos. I was not able to go inside the church while I was there due to being short on time, but hopefully I can get back there for a visit again on a future trip. The picture below is me standing in front of the church:

A visit to Pikes Peak Mountain in Colorado

On Tuesday June 17, I drove to the top of Pikes Peak Mountain in Colorado. Pikes Peak is a little over an hours drive from Denver Colorado. I have been in Denver working this week. My co-worker and I could not resist the chance to drive up the mountain. Pikes Peak is 14,100 feet high. The drive up the mountain is over 20 miles. Here is a picture I took at the first overlook on the way up the mountain. This is looking over the UTE Pass.

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On the way up to the main mountain, the road took us by a small reservoir/lake. The water was so clear and clean we could see far into the water depths and see the fish. Here is a picture of me beside the lake. You can see the Pikes Peak mountain range in the background.


The 12000 foot level is called the "timberline" or "treeline" and no trees generally grow above that elevation due to the thinness of the atmosphere and the colder temperatures. As you can see in this picture, there are still some traces of snow here and it is summer. This place would not be very comfortable in the winter. In fact it is dangerous and they close much of the park and the main road leading up to the peak during the winter.


The temperature dropped very fast as we drove up the mountain. When we started up the mountain road, at the bottom of the mountain, the temperature was 85F. At the top of the mountain, the temperature had dropped to 45F (at 3PM in the afternoon). And it was windy. Here is a picture looking down on the winding road as we were on the way up.


There were several places to pull over on the way up (overlooks). Here is one of the overlooks when we were getting close to the top.


At the peak of the mountain, there is a small shop for drinks and food and souveniers. The atmosphere was so thin at 14,100 feet that it was very hard to breathe sometimes. Even when we didn't really do much physical activity, I was breathing hard. But it was worth the trip for sure. Here is a picture of me at the sign at the summit.


They have a train called the COG Train that takes passengers to the top also. I am glad we drove to the top instead of riding the train, beacuse we enjoyed stopping at the overlooks and getting more pictures. Here is a picture of the train as it was arriving at the summit.


Pikes Peak is part of the Rocky Mountains range. And of course the upper mountains are very rocky once you get past the timberline. Here is a sign that was posted at the top of the mountain proclaiming the Rocky Mountains to be the longest mountain chain in the world.


These pictures can't really tell the whole story, but at least you can get some idea of how awesome the view was from these pics. Here are a few more various pics.









At the base of the mountain, ther are many birch trees growing. These trees are unusual since they have a white/grey bark. here's a picture of a few of them.