Category Archives: Uncategorized

Paqueta Island visit

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Today kids and I ventured out again and went with some awesome friends to Paqueta Island. It’s about 1 hour 20min  ferry ride from the city center to the Island.

And the price was a shocker to me…with nice looking ferry too. It cost us $2.50 per person for both in and out and kids under 6yrs don’t get to pay. So it really was a low cost, but super fun activity for me and my kids.

When we arrived there, first thing we noticed is that there are no cars.  horse and tricycle and bicycle are their form of transportation….

So we first walked around and had a pretty tasty lunch and after we decided to have acai for dessert…and oh my…acai made right with caramel was the bomb…it was sweet and nutty and yummy…

After our acai experience we decided time to rent some bikes and ride around the whole Island.

We spent 1 hour 30min  riding our bikes around the whole island and it was really an awesome experience for me and my kids.  Watching them ride and stop and pose for a picture and making friends and just living to the fullest was very rewarding for me as their mother.

Thanks to our awesome friend Danilo and Leslie for inviting us to have this amazing experience with them.

Here are some pitures of our day in Paqueta Island…

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His first tapioca on the streets…with banana and Nutella inside

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She is marveled by the amazing view

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Ok so that’s the public restroom but I think it’s really made for the men in brazil but in Ghana it can serve both genders…

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My little carioca superman…Carioca is what they call people from rio

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Loving the island life

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Our rides are ready

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Had to kiss and make a wish at the Baobab tree on the Island…my wish was for my kids to grow up and know that I gave them my all and the best way I know how to be a mother to them. And have them feel  my love for me. This was my wish.

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Destiny’s time to do the kissing and wishing stuff

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We are family

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Such wonders of our CREATOR

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Riding in the yellow cab…

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Mj found a new friend on the island

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Let’s get this party on the island started

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Welcome to the Island

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Most rides …

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Snacks we had while riding the ferry…made out of flour…first originated in the early 20’s

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Our ferry

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Beautiful sites on the way

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A castle in fisco Island…wow it’s really pretty

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Me and my twin…

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Taxi station…lol…

Brazil Exploration Continues

Handpan musical instruments

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Learning to play the handpan on the street was really cool and fun…

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This is an instrument from Switzerland and it was invented 15yrs ago. And it’s called Handpan…pretty awesome the tune you can make out of that…

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Taking tips from the master…

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My kids are so cool…willing to learning from strangers on the street…

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I got the hang of it now….

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It’s so much fun…

Brazil Exploration Continues

Hiking Sugarloaf mountain

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Such a beautiful day and thanks to great life long friends…the kids and I got to hike the famous sugarloaf mountain in rio de Janeiro.

While others took the cable ride up the kids and I decided to take a more challenging way up to see the beautiful city of Rio…and from the pictures below you will see that it was worth it…

It cost R $71  per person to take the cable…but to hike it cost us 2 bottles of water and some serious breathing techniques…but we made it to the top and enjoyed every bit of it.

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Cable ride to the top…

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Hiking up there…

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And the fun started…

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We will make it up

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Not easy but we can now say we did it..

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At the top you can scream and it’s all cool…

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They love the view

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The first cablecart

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Beautiful restaurant at the top

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At the mesuem on top of sugarloaf

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Beautiful view of rio

Brazil Exploration Continues

Capoiera in Brazil

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So when we visit each country we fund out one thing we can learn and add to our soon to be our book of travel.

Now in brazil we knew that while here we have to learn capoiera which is originated from Africa.

The slaves that where brought from Africa by the potuguese people created this capoiera..the slaves where not allowed to communicate to each other since the masters thought they are planning something so the capoiera was a dance and expression that the slaves used to communicate with each other. When brazil got independent capoiera was banned in the country.
And year later a capoiera Mastre  found a way to take capoiera to the government house and convince them.
So that’s when capoiera become a national organised passionate form of martial arts in brazil…it is filled with dance, and expression of love and drumming all on one single move.

Here are a few of our capoiera moments while in brazil

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That’s marcus and I doing Ginga  (probably got the spelling wrong but that’s how is pronounced )

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Some capoiera moves and marcus having a time of his life…lol!!!

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Drumming is part of capoiera

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Marcus posing with our Mastre at the school of Senzela

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Part of the fun…

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Our new capoiera family in rio…

Awesome is what we are all about.

Brazil Exploration Continues. ..

Visit to the 8th Largest library

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Today we visited the National library in Brazil and it is the 8th largest library in the world.

It was really interesting getting to learn about it.

We had a tour guide who was so nice and took us around to tell the histroy behind the national library of brazil.

The library has about 20 million books and they have to keep some of the books at a different location in a warehouse.
They get their books in two ways. One of this is by Donations and the other is called legal means. This is the law in brazil that any book published in brazil, a copy of the book must be sent to the national.

The library is so organized and I was so impress how they have been able to maintain the original desk in some of the readers rooms.

Here are a few pictures to show

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Beautifully designed

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Entrance to the library…being renovated

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Marcus on that day surprised the kids and I at the library. On that day he was suppose to be on his snowboarding trip in Paris. But to our suprise when we got to the library he showed up and really surprised us all. He surly made our day extra special.

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Standing in the room where they keep all the books. The books are sent down to the readers room in a books only tiny elevator. Really cool

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The beautiful entrance to the 8th largest library in the world.

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The ceiling…

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Our future historians

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What a sight of knowledge through books.

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We made new friends… they are from Israel, so now Israel is definitely on our travel list

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Learning all we can about the history behind the country Brazil

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I love the stair case…my red carpet moment

Brazil Exploration Continues….

Christo Redentor Journey

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Super fun when we arrived at cocovardo to catch the train to go up to the top and see the beautiful Christo Redentor.

My kids and I where one of the first passengers up to the top and the train ride makes it super fun.

But once we got up there it was super foggy and we could not see the statue..
It was so cold and it started raining….. but that’s what the amazon areas are all about heavy rains and super hot days.

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That’s how foggy it was…

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Me and my little man

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On our train ride to the top

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The two men who made it all happen for us to see this magnificence

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My cuties

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Our train

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Hi there…

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A beautiful site to see while in rio and you read about the history of it online and take tour by yourself. It’s much easier and very smooth.

A great history class for my kids

Rainy and cold but it was all worth it.

Brazil Exploration Continues

Photography tour in rio

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Today the kids and I joined a group that was for people who just love to appreciated the beauty around us through the lens.

Yeap a photography tour to saint Theresa

Beautiful view of the city

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The beautiful cultural center

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Beautiful miming performance at the cultural center

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That’s the beautiful view of sugar loaf

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Some art works at the cultural center

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Beautiful pictures of the city Rio De Janeiro

Brazil Exploration Continues

Snowboarding tour for Marcus

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Here are few awesome pictures of Marcus on his snowboarding tour with his guys…

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Super cold I guess

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Tour from Austin all the way to Paris….

Paris Exploration Continues  for the Manns

3 hour walking tour in Rio

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Wow…my feet is killing me…with 3 hours of walking tour and 98 degrees fahrenheits…that is how our day went today when we visited some amazing sites in Rio de Janeiro today. Thanks to the freewalker tour rio for this great adventures.

Here are some photos of our journey

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The location our tour started the Carioca square the big clock…

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Our visit to one of Rios old temple and it was an  interesting building from the outside

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The sweets place..

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Confeteria Colombo famous for hosting the queen of England…such a beautiful place to have a cap of tea and some sweets

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Beautiful city of rio…

Walking tour was really fun…a little cold wind would have made it perfect

Brazil Exploration Continues. ..

A visit to the future

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Yes that’s right…there is a mesuem in rio called Museu do Amanhã. Meaning tomorrow’s mesuem.

Now when we arrived there, I thought hey its sunday and we are in Rio so people must be at the beach….well not that case today as the line to get in was super long and took us about 1 hour 30min before we could go into the future…I guess it’s not too long of a wait to see the future…lol!!!

Here are a few pictures to show our day

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And that is the entrance to mesuem….

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Our family standing right in front of the future mesuem

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We took the girls new life long friend Lara

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A little fun before venturing into the future

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Bestis

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Acting silly…mesuem Buiding in the background

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Saw this cruise ship dock right there….people from all around the globe at one location

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The future in his hands

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They are our future leaders

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Freedom to create

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A beautiful view while inside the mesuem

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Cruise ship leaving…

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A day at the beach to bring it all together

Brazil Exploration Continues