Rio de Janeiro

Here it is... our last post from South America. We are in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil right now and our plane leaves in a few hours for Charlotte. We both have mixed emotions about coming home. We are sad to have such a wonderful trip come to a close, but at the same time we are excited to come home, see family and friends and not be living out of our backpacks for a while. We have spent the last couple of days here in Rio (Copacabana) and have really enjoyed it. We were braced for more hot weather, but were pleasantly surprised to find chilly temperatures and only a little bit of rain. Our first day was a little too cloudy to try and see anything, but yesterday and today were great days to see Cristo Redentor and the beach. Since we are a little pressed for time, I will get straight to the pictures.

 Rio´s famous staircase- an eccentric Chilean artist has decorated this with tiles from all over the world. He has a studio right off the stairs and is continually changing the tiles.

 At Copacabana beach

This was the view from the top of the mountain where Cristo Redentor is. The beach on the right of this picture is Copacabana, the area where we stayed. 

 Cristo Redentor

 A little sand castle we whipped up... ;)

Today we walked from Copacabana over to Ipanema, another beach. This is Ipanema in the background.

 Ipanema

Another shot of Copacabana. The weather was perfect today. What a great way to end the trip!

So that´s it, nine countries in 100 days. We have traveled by bus, car, moped, bicycle, train, boat, and plane. We have seen snow, glaciers, desert, jungle, mountains, plains, waterfalls, small towns, large cities, and ancient ruins. Tomorrow morning we will wake up in the U.S. and it will all be over. But we are thankful for the opportunity that God has given us to take this trip. We have seen more than some people see in a lifetime and we are excited about what God has in store for us next. Thank you to everyone who has followed along with us through the blog. We will be seeing you soon!

Panamá City, Panamá

We arrived in Panama the morning of May 20th. Our friend Ghinno picked us up from the airport and took us to his apartment where we would be staying for our six days there. Ghinno and his wife live in the center of the city in a high rise apartment building so we had great views of the city. We had sunny weather most of the time we were there which is rare for this time of year. We kept hearing that we were lucky to see so much sun since Panamá is currently in its rainy season. With the sun came extreme heat... we weren´t crazy about the heat and humidity but at least it wasn´t rain!

the view from Ghinno and Adriana´s apartment

Our main goals in Panamá were to see the Panamá Canal and visit some neighborhoods where my grandparents, dad and uncle used to live. They lived in Panamá because my grandpa was a police officer in the former Canal Zone. The first full day there we went to the Miraflores Locks at the canal. At the visitor´s center there is a museum, theater, and several observation decks where you can watch boats of all sizes pass through the locks. There are constantly boats going through all day every day. We happened to see a set of 6 small boats go through first, then a large cargo ship an hour or so later. We learned that the locks are all powered by gravity. The water that is used to fill the lower locks comes directly from a lake that is at a higher elevation so there are no water pumps necessary. Another interesting fact that we learned is that the canal makes about 4 million dollars every 24 hours just in tolls paid by the ships that pass through.

Miraflores Locks

These are the 6 small boats. They each paid anywhere from $500 to $2000 to use the canal.

This larger ship paid around $124,000 to use the canal. You can see in this picture how tight of a fit the locks are for the larger boats. The little trains on the sides are what are used to guide the boat through.

We found one of the houses that my dad lived in when he was a kid!

On Sunday we went to church with another friend, Betsaida. There we saw many more people that we studied with in Argentina. Some of us went out to eat after church at Don Lee, our favorite chinese restaurant in Panamá (Panamá´s food is very similar to what we eat in the U.S... you can find a little of everything). After lunch we took an hour bus ride to Betsaida´s house and got to meet her family.

some of us at Don Lee

Us with Betsaida, her husband Pablo, daughter Tiara, and Betsaida´s parents. Her son, Matias is the one in the yellow shirt on the little bike. He wasn´t too excited about having his picture taken. :) Before we left they gave us a fresh mango and avacado from the trees the have in their backyard. Yum!

Between all of the friends we have in Panamá we had a lot of people willing to take us around and show us different places. We were really fortunate to see so many places in only 6 days. Here are some pictures from the rest of our time in Panamá.



This man is making a raspado (shaved ice) in a park downtown Panamá City.

We love raspados!

This little fella is a ñeque. The look a lot like rats to me, but a little bigger and no tail. Wherever there are lots of trees you can find them running around.

We also saw lots of trees with this fruit (we can´t remember the name). The seed that grows on the bottom of this fruit is where we get cashews.

Inside the Iglesia San Jose in the old part of the city. This altar is made out of pure gold. It is famous because supposedly when pirates were plundering Panamá the alter was painted black so it wouldn´t be stolen. I guess it worked!

 We also spent some time relaxing at the apartment pool.

 An overview of the city

The Gatún Locks. There are three sets of locks in the canal. These are the locks closest to the Atlantic Ocean. There is no visitor´s center here, just a bridge that you drive over that takes you down to almost the level of the water.

 Sunset at Shelter Bay

 Ghinno and Seth with some Spanish ruins from the old Panamá.

From Panamá we flew back to Rio de Janeiro with a layover in Sao Paulo. We are so glad to be done with buses! Our plane into Rio was all decorated for the movie Rio!



Quito

Well, we finally made it to Quito. Arriving here marks the end of our land travels. From Ushuaia, Argentina (the end of the world) we have now traveled all the way to the equator (middle of the world) in Quito, Ecuador all by land. In the last two months we have spent more time on buses and trains than we ever thought possible. We have literally seen South America go by through a bus window.

Our three days in Quito were action-packed. We saw several friends from Word of Life, visited the Monument of La Mitad del Mundo (middle of the world), saw a city built inside a volcano, and even had time for salsa dancing lessons! We will have to keep this post short, but here are some pictures that will sum things up.

Plaza San Blas- where we stayed our first night in Quito

Visiting a friend, Eli, at the Word of Life property in Quito

We finally made it to the equator!

Us at Mitad del Mundo

Another friend, José Luis, and Seth discussing which hemisphere is better.

Kids balancing an egg on a nail head at the equator. I think Myth Busters needs to do an episode on this...

The second night in Quito we stayed with some other friends. This is their son, Huguito.

This is inside a crater of an inactive volcano. There is an entire town down there!

This was our favorite part- the salsa dance lessons! We had a great time, but we´re going to need a lot more than one lesson!

Our last morning in Quito our friend Carolina took the mystery out of cooking plantains for us. They are a very typical food here in Ecuador. Here I am mashing some that have been boiled before they get mixed with cheese and butter, then fried.

 The beautiful city of Quito

These are the friends we stayed with our second night- Renato, Carolina and Huguito. They were so nice to take us to several places around the city.

We absolutely loved Quito. The weather was much cooler than in Guayaquil. As with every other place we´ve been, we only wish we had more time! From here we have one more day in Guayaquil before we fly to Panamá. We can´t believe how quickly our trip is coming to an end! Our next post will be from Panamá!

Guayaquil

From Lima we took our last extremely long bus ride. It was supposed to be 26 hours from Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador but our stop at the border took so long that we finally arrived in Guayaquil three hours late... for a grand total of 29 hours. We had planned on only changing buses in Guayaquil and heading straight to Quito, but we were too exhausted for eight more hours of sitting on a bus.  We found a hostel in Guayaquil and decided to stay there for the night and see a bit of the city the following day. 

Guayaquil is located on a large river so one of the main attractions is a long boardwalk (El Malecón) with lots of shops, restaurants, playgrounds, etc. This is one of the cleaner cities that we have seen in a while, so we enjoyed walking along the river and relaxing without seeing lots of trash everywhere. The only part we weren´t crazy about was the extreme heat. Lots of humidity and lots of walking... ick. We also visited the Plaza de las Iguanas (Iguana Plaza) where there were literally hundreds of iguanas sitting in the trees and crawling through the grass.

El Malecón

Plaza de Las Iguanas

Don´t make eye contact!

¨Chifa¨ is Chinese Food. Not sure what they were trying to say here...

After a day of seeing the city we caught a bus to our next stop, Quito. After spending a couple of days in Quito (which we will discuss in our next post) we returned to Guayaquil to catch our flight to Panamá. We arrived a day early to see a little more of the city of Guayaquil.  Our friend, Ruth, from Word of Life drove four hours to spend the day with us. It was fun to see her again. We spent that day walking around the Malecón a little more and walking up Cerro Santa Ana (Saint Ana´s Hill) to get an overlook of the city.

These houses are on Cerro Santa Ana. They are some of the first to be built in Guayaquil.

On top of the cerro with our friend Ruth

Another view from the top

Coming up next... Quito!

Lima

We arrived in Lima extremely tired on Sunday, May 8. The first night there we stayed in a hotel in Miraflores, the nicer part of the downtown area. We were able to catch up on some sleep and also see a little bit of that part of town. The Miraflores area is very touristy... there is a Starbucks, McDonald´s, KFC, and other restaurants that you can only find in neighborhoods here that are geared toward the upper class.
The next day our friend Santiago met us at Starbucks and took us back to the part of Lima where he and his wife Elise (from Alabama) live. Santiago and Elise are missionaries at a Christian school and live really close to the school´s property. We stayed on the property in one of the cabins that they use for visiting groups. We had a great time with Santiago and Elise and another missionary, Ruth. It was a nice few days of rest with a little sightseeing, too.

 Elise and Santiago took us to a beach nearby where they hold an international surfing competition. Lots of surfers!

main plaza downtown Lima 

We took a tour of a former monastery/church from the 17th century. This is the library with many books from that same time period.

 Beneath the monastery there are catacombs with lots of human bones. We´re not sure why they felt the need to arrange them like this...creepy. 

Elise surprised me with an American birthday cake! (If you have ever had cake from South America, you will know that there IS a difference)

Us with Ruth, Elise, and Santiago 

Lima is a huge city on the beach, but in the middle of a desert. As you come to the edge of the city, everything turns back to sand.

Santiago, Elise and Ruth took us to a water park in Lima one evening. There was an amazing water/light/laser/music show that featured traditional Peruvian dances along with music.

 More fountains at the water park. There were about 20 totally different fountains. 

Us at a ¨Chifa¨ restaurant... the farther north we go, we see more and more Chinese restaurants. Yummm!

Well, those are the highlights from Lima. It was great spending time with friends and seeing some of Lima. Unfortunately, we had to keep going... on to Ecuador!