South America Trip, Brazil

I first visited Rio De Janeiro, in Brazil. This statue, Christ El Redentador, (Christ the Redeemer) is probably the most recognizable landmark in the country. Many South American's are Catholic and most are very religious.	This is the currency of Brazil. It is called the Real, but pronounce "he-al" because r is pronounced h in Portuguese. J is NOT pronounced "h" as in spanish, so I spent a great deal of effort un-learning the spanish fact the J is pronounced as an H. Seven days later, of course, I needed to re-learn what I had unlearned, because I moved to spanish speaking countries.	This is the view of the city of Rio, looking toward the "Sugarloaf Mountain" (center), where my hostel was located. "Sugar Loaf" got its name because it looks like the sweet loaves of bread served here.	This was my hostel in Rio. It was built right next to the "Sugar Loaf" Rock. Most of Rio is very unsafe, except for this neighborhood, because a military school is located nearby, and armed soldiers march around regularily.
The colours of the buildings were beautiful and matched eatch other so well. I'm sure the owners took a good look down the street before deciding on the perfect color to paint their buildings. picture source: hassetr76 webshots.com	Spanish tile on a staircase in the LAPA district. pictue source: hassetr76 webshots.com	This is the view of Cocacabana and Impanema Beach. The Jazz song "Girl from Impanema" was inspired here.	At the beach, I didn't encounter any topless bathers. However skimpy suits were the norm whether you had a good body or not.
At little stands all along the beach, you could buy coconut water -fresh from the coconut. When you were done, you would return your empty coconut to the stand and they would cut open the rest of the coconut for you, so you could eat the meat inside with a piece of the shell itself as a scraper spoon.	Brazil still has some of its jungle wild life visible	People in Brazil love their dogs.	people in Brazil really love their dogs.