Panama City

On our way home from Rio de Janeiro we stopped off in Panama City for a day. We had a tour from a taxi driver who took us around the city. We were told originally that it would cost $80 for the day at the kiosk in the airport, but when we went outside to get a taxi to take us around, the drivers out there wanted to charge us double. We did NOT want to pay $160 for a city tour, so we went back to the information kiosk and tried to find alternatives. The woman who was helping us fixed the situation after a heated discussion with the taxi manager... but we got our tour. :) The reason we wanted to do a tour is because we only had 12 hours and we wanted to see as much as possible without having to rent a car and getting lost. We drove around a lot and saw all the major sights in Panama City, including Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal!

What was truly amazing was how modern the city is. I had no idea. But not only was it modern, but filled with history and beautiful scenery. We toured the casco viejo (historic city) filled with Caribbean, Republican, Art Deco, French and Colonial architecture- as diverse as the population living there. It was really a great time. My first stop ever in central america. We really loved it!

Craving Winter

Being a San Diego native, I did not grow up seeing snow in an annual cycle of weather patterns. Truthfully, until I moved to Massachusetts for grad school, I had only seen snow twice in my entire life. But those years being stuck in a lab taught me so much more than how to be a scientist, I've also learned to appreciate all that winter has to offer. First, mother nature gets you ready for the cold and gives you the oh-so-glorious fall season. Brisk in the mornings and afternoons, fall lets you know that soon it will be REALLY cold. Enjoy your outdoor non-snow activities because they will be out the window as soon as the fluffy white stuff, blistering cold winds and ice galore comes-a-knockin'.

Winter allows you to slow down your pace too. Enjoy that book & don't feel guilty that you should be outside playing in the sunshine. Snowshoeing with your spouse and dog sure makes you appreciate the value of a bowl of soup. Suddenly, your urge to go out right now to the store or the mall or anywhere for that matter, is curbed. Thank you God! I love winter.

I love it despite the cost of heating even the smallest apartment. I love winter though I am scared to death of slipping on ice, or worse, my car slipping on ice! I love it for what summer is not... slow and relaxed.

Dear winter, where are you??

Wedding details

Ever since I started planning our wedding, I would search the web for color-palette ideas and always found these cool wedding detail boards that people would put together. Since then, I've wanted to put my own together, so here it is! A navy, yellow & aqua wedding detail board!! :) Everything pictured below are shots from my wedding!

Tijuca National Forest Jungle Jeep Tour

On our last day in Rio, we decided to do a Jeep Tour of Tijuca National Forest. We had been toying around with the idea of going to visit the forest and the botanical garden and on the last day, we got lucky with a sunny morning before afternoon rain came in and we went for it.


One of the things that we learned was that brazilians don't care much about time. Another family was supposed to join us on the same jeep. We waited over 30 minutes for them... they never came. Then, as we were about half way to the forest, the jeep driver got a call that they showed up at the meet-up spot and we had to go back to get them. FAIL!! Since they do an afternoon tour as well, it meant that we didn't have time to stop at the gorgeous un-touched beach that we should have stopped at. Oh well. Overall, it was great.

Tijuca National forest is the largest urban forest in the world. The first sight that you see is the Chinese Vista Outlook. Our guide told us that before this park was turned into a rainforest area, that this particular spot was where chinese immigrants to the area grew tea. And very close-by is the Mesa do Imperador where the Portuguese emperor would sit with his family to eat and had a view of most of the city back in the day. Our tour guide loved taking pictures for Dave and I. He actually insisted that we pretended to eat at the table...

Chinese Vista Outlook


View from the outloook


Eating at the Mesa do Imperador


The emperor's view from his dining area


Next sight is the Cascatinha waterfall. This is right next to an old farm area that was turned into a restaurant. We enjoyed a nice coconut popsicle and the lovely scenery including a map of the forest made of tiles and a cool fountain. Our tourguide insisted we could drink the water from the fountain (and he did) but we decided against it.

Cascatinha Waterfall


Banana flower at the waterfall


Dave pretending to drink from the fountain


Map of the forest



A nice spot to relax in


We then continued on through the forest and were surprised to find a small chapel in the middle of the forest. We later learned that though there are no houses being built any longer in the forest, there are some that remained untouched and thus there is a chapel. It's called Mayrink Chapel and was an interesting shade of pink. We couldn't go inside, but it was a lovely spot.


We ended up doing some traveling by foot through the forest. I had really hoped to spot a tucan or monkeys, but we weren't lucky that day. We did spot what we thought was a turkey up in the trees and some cool flowers.

Our views in the forest:





After the trek through the forest, we were headed out of the forest and weren't able to snap very good pictures in the moving jeep. Once outside of the forest we passed by one of the largest favela's in Rio (which we didn't photograph) and an amazing stretch of beach that seemed to be un-touched. Gorgeous!! We really did see some stunning views on this ride back to our hotel, but I guess that means you'll have to go visit if you want a look!

Here are some of the shots that we managed to snap on our ride back into the city, including one of the large favela which we snapped from a significant distance







I think that this was one of the best things that we did because it really gave us a great view of the city and a chance to enjoy so many of the natural beauties of Rio de Janiero

Sugarloaf Mountain & Helicopter Ride

On one of the mornings that was supposed to be a relatively clear day in Rio, we decided to make the trek to Sugarloaf Mountain. That was pretty interesting because you take these sky trams up to the top to see all the views. It sounds like it's a much more athletic trip than it actually is. We got there and wandered some of the "trails" along the top. We took in all the views from every point and enjoyed every minute. It was very relaxing.











Once at the top, when we were heading down, we were debating whether or not to take our chances to try to see the Christo again. (If you remember the first time, we were stuck in the clouds.) But then we saw a sign for the helicopter tours. Unfortunately the cheaper ride required 3 passengers. We waited around a bit to see if we could find a 3rd person to come with us, but we couldn't... so we decided to go for it anyways and went for the more expensive tour (which was longer as well) and only required 2 passengers. This cost about as much as a tandem skydive would cost back in the US, so we were ok with the price. We had lovely views of the Christo and the beaches below. Overall, totally worth it!