Just Keep Swimming: Climb Ev'ry Mountain...Literally

To celebrate Ash Wednesday, we went to church at St John the Baptist of Lagoa in Botafogo. The church is located just a few blocks away from our villa. The mass was a little different than what we are accustomed to, and they said everything in Portuguese of course. Still, it was beautiful both culturally and religiously. When my dad was traveling for the air force back in the stone ages, he said that attending mass always made him feel closer to home because he knew that the same scriptures were being read, no matter what language they were in. As I sat listening to the priest, I was reassured that my family will always love me and be there for me, no matter how far apart we are from each other.

Later that day... To celebrate our last day off of Carnaval, we decided to visit Sugarloaf, a famous mountain peak in Brazil. To reach the top, there are two sets of cable cars; one takes you to the top of the neighboring mountain, Morro da Urca, and the second takes you from Morro da Urca to Sugarloaf. We heard that it would be cheaper to go up by climbing Morro da Urca, then buying a ticket for only the second cable car. So... we decided to be cheap and adventurous by climbing the mountain! For the record, Morro da Urca is 220 meters high. Good thing we decided to wear our hiking shoes! It was steep, sweaty, and a little unsteady at times, but the monkeys, the beautiful views of the ocean, and the reward of making it to the top made it a complete success. As luck would have it, they did not sell tickets at the top. You can only buy tickets on the ground for the entire cable car package. At that point, we just laughed and decided to fuel-up with açai, fruit, and granola before starting the trek back down.

After hiking back down the mountain, we decided to take a break before going up to Sugarloaf again. Thanks to Beth, we decided to try paddle boarding. It was a BLAST and ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be. Eventually we made it up to Sugarloaf. Although there were many other people, it felt as if the whole view was meant just for me to see (if that makes sense). I'd say it was an extremely rewarding and fantastic day :)