Inaugurated as early as in October 1931, it has been watching over Rio for over 82 years now. What not many might not know is that the monument partly was built by the old Swedish company Skånska Cement and the concrete in the foundation comes from the Limhamn in the town Malmö in the south of Sweden.

We were reminded about it now because yesterday evening we did meet Jane at the Stockholm Arlanda airport, coming home after being in Rio de Janeiro for around 6 months now, in good company with her lovely girlfriend Jennifer who is living there. I guess we will hear a lot of Rio from now on!

The Cristo Redentor has been pictured not only in peoples private photo albums, but also in many other media, newspapers, TV programs, movies. It’s one of the most visited tourist attractions in Rio without doubt. You simply can’t go to Rio without have been there, if not for the statue, so for the mosts gorgeous view.

I almost got the urge to go seeing Cristo Redentor once more (we were there in 2005), greated by the same big hug of his arms back then – the true symbol of faith and hapiness for the people. I guess it will be the closest we will get to heaven – except when being in each others arms…

©Lifecruiser Love Rio de Janeiro
 

Other posts by Lifecruiser where Brazil is mentioned:

Rio de Janeiro twice as fun
The Perfect birthday gift: a new suitcase for a trip
World Heritage: Iguazu Falls, South America
5 Tip Top Beaches of Lifecruiser
Stockholm Body Painting Contest 2008
PhotoHunt Flexible
Photohunt Practical Tactical
Photo Scavenger Hunt: Wild
Cut Memories
Photo Scavenger Hunt: Looking Up
A Wet Kiss Memory
 

Now our family has been there twice and I’m sure she had twice as fun as we had (after all she is YOUNG… lol) and she want to go there a second time.

She were mostly at the Ipanema beach during the day and partying in the night. I’ve got the permission to show you 15 of her photos in this slideshow above – I excluded all party photos… hum…hum…

We will see if she will take off there soon again.

©Lifecruiser Love Travel Photos

Other posts by Lifecruiser where Brazil is mentioned:

5 Tip Top Beaches of Lifecruiser
Stockholm Body Painting Contest 2008
PhotoHunt Flexible
Photohunt Practical Tactical
Photo Scavenger Hunt: Wild
Cut Memories
Photo Scavenger Hunt: Looking Up
A Wet Kiss Memory
 

Here are some places you might want to consider to sample some of the best wines in the world.

Image courtesy of Vina Caliterra

Italy

As every wine fan knows, some of the finest wines known to man are products of the beautiful Italian countryside. The sangiovese is perhaps the most famous grape in Italian wine production, with red wines such as the Chianti Classico and Montefalco Rosso delighting wine fans around the world. The vineyard at Villa Vignamaggio in Tuscany is one of notable quality and is well worth a visit.

France

France is another great wine-making region in Europe. The French take great pride, as with most things they do, in their wine production and have produced and, of course, are still producing wines to rival all others. Wines from the Bordeaux and Burgundy regions are perhaps the most famous and most loved French wines across the world. For some of the tastiest white wines you will ever set on your tongue, pay a visit to Sancerre or, for that matter, any of the vineyards in the Loire Valley region.

Spain

A pattern is emerging here. Yes, another European winemaking giant is Spain. It would be sacrilegious to leave Spain off this list, especially considering that it is currently the third biggest wine exporter in the world. Rioja, which is located in the north of the country, is a popular Spanish winemaking region across the globe. If you get a chance to visit Spain, make sure you sample some of the wines from the La Rioja Alta vineyard.

Australia

The Hunter Valley region in Australia is famous the world over for the quality of its wines and, precisely because of this quality, it is one of the largest exporters of wine in the world. New South Wales is home to some fantastic vineyards; Tyrell’s, in particular, is one of the most famous ones in the region. This vineyard has been family owned for almost a century and a half and still offers tours and opportunities to have picnics in the vines.

Chile

South America in itself is generally excellent for wine production, but Chile certainly stands out from the crowd. There are virtuoso winemakers to be found the entire length of the country, the majority of which are well and truly part of the international exportation business these days. Concha y Toro is perhaps the most famous wine to come out of Chile – the vineyard is located in the Maipo region of the country, which is probably one of the country’s most established regions for winemaking.

Lifecruiser Love Vineyard Travel
 

Cataratas del Iguazu in Iguazu National Park, from the Brazil side, South America. Photo taken in the middle of November 2005.

It is really difficult to describe that overwhelming feeling when you watch all that water falling! So enormously powerful and so beautiful that there is absolutely no word for it!

What a sound! Everywhere is the powerful sound of the pounding water cascades! Incredible! No wonder that the most powerful fall is called Gargata del Diablo – The Devil’s Throat.

The waterfalls are situated on the border of Brazil and Argentina and has 275 waterfalls (!) in an 3 km long half moon. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls! All the waterfalls are in Argentine territory and reach an average height of 40 and 80 meters.

Iguazu falls were discovered by the Spaniards in 1541. I wish I had been with them, what a discovery – it must be the worlds most beautiful waterfalls and certainly beats the Niagara falls thousands times!!!

We were so impressed of the arrangements around the falls, very well done. Everywhere there were bridges and walking paths so that we could come extremely close to the falls.

At some places we were standing on the very edge of the fall looking down, almost with a bit of vertigo from the stunning heights. Even though we both are afraid of heights, we found this very exciting and totally forgot about our fear.

Our blogger friend Tor did enjoy Iguazu falls just as much as we did, but I tell you: no one can help falling in love with Iguazu falls!

Oh, and do NOT miss the fabulous opportunity to get showered by the three musketeers (falls name) by going there with the speedboats with 2×100 horse power engines!

We did and I remember my clothes getting soaking wet – and transparent! Ooops… We also have a wet kiss memory from one of the vantage points!

Besides the falls there are also a lot of animals to discover around the area. The most colorful might be the free Toucan birds around the falls. There are also a special bird park, Parque des Aves, to visit if wanting to learn about the different species.

Plus there is a special dance show in the evening, so do stay in the area for several days and see the falls from both the Brazil and the Argentina side!

Make sure though that you get the right stamps in your passport when going over the borders – we did not and got a very suspicious penalty later on in Paraguay, but that is another story…

Here you can watch Lifecruiser Flickr photo slidehow of Iguazu Falls, since they are best seen in bigger format!

Lifecruiser ♥ Iguazu Falls

Have you been on one? We have only been once and that was because we were far out on the countryside at a ranch in Paraguay. Besides that there was no reason to leave the ranch when we were experiencing so much fun there…

All inclusive could be a way to secure that the cost of the vacation not escalates to a level above what you have decided from the beginning, no surprises, but then you must make sure that you really get a great deal.

As with every other trips, it is always necessary to do a lot of research and comparisons, before that you really do not have the facts to judge if it is a good price or not. Things changes fast, facts you did catch a while ago, may not be valid any more.

There are also a huge difference between different all inclusive packages, what they include in the deal. Make sure to check out what they mean with all inclusive and what you want it to be.

The more the better one could think, but is it really? All inclusive could mean that the local business do not get a good deal – or even anything – out of it. You could give a death-kiss to the locals, if unlucky.

Make sure that your trip benefit the locals in some way, try to go out at least one time at a local restaurant to eat dinner or to buy something in the local shops, anything. (We did buy 3 sombreros in the local shop below).

I wish that the resorts would buy all their food locally, hire only local staff and would include local entertainment in the all inclusive deals to make it more valid as sustainable tourism. Not only rip off the locals, but give back to them in different ways.

Even if there are ready made packages to buy, you could also consider to make one for yourself and your family if you have some energy and time to spend planning your own deal. It is all about making up a budget with a realistic mind.

There are always ways to check up in advance – either Google around, send emails or make phone calls to find out what things cost at your chosen destination and calculate what your spending would be in total and per day.

The thing is though: do you really want to know what the cost would be? Sometimes it is best to not know in beforehand…

I think I would be more willing to buy an all inclusive package for a cruise, an unsafe destination or at destinations where I had decided to not go anywhere else, just stay there to relax.

Though I wonder if we ever will be able to do only that – we are too curious of the surroundings and can not resist exploring!

Lifecruiser ♥ Holidays

The festival were called Inti Raymi – The sun festival: “Everybody joined under the same sun”. This was the first time for this festival and such a multicultural performance which we never have seen before in Stockholm!

There were songs and dancing from all over South America including a very special cultural integration performance with the inka and dancing to the sun gods honor – among many other scenes.

Sitting there in this very Swedish park seeing this cultural event so far from our country did feel a bit unreal, but also very, very interesting!

It also gave me visions of South America and especially the Andes mountains. Suddenly this park scene felt not beautiful enough for these scenes.

It’s great that this cultural exchange between our countries has started and we all want to see this festival become an annual event.

Lifecruiser ♥ South America
 

Elafonisi, Crete, Greece

(Click to enlarge at Flickr)
The most crystal clear water we’ve ever seen and shallow water. The water had glittering stripes in it too and at some spots the sand was colored from corals, which also has given it the name “the pink beach”. (This photo really don’t do it justice!)

Sudersand, Fårö island, Sweden

(Click to enlarge at Flickr)
The most excellent fine sand quality, some really nice sand dunes, about 2 km long, shallow water. Even favorite for windsurfers and kitesurfers. You can hire pedal boats and water scooters too.

Monte Gordo, Algarve, Portugal

(Click to enlarge at Flickr)
The most excellent fine sand quality, extremely long beach with many beach bars and restaurants for this hungry monster stomach

Ponta Negra, Brazil

(Click to enlarge at Flickr)
The warm climate is a big bonus together with the winds so you don’t have to sweat too much, pretty nice sand quality, a very long beach, enough shallow, waves to play with, salesmen with Caipirinha’s (cheers!) and other yummy stuff.

Sylt, Germany

(Click to enlarge at Flickr)
Many beaches at the shoreline of this island with some beach strolls and bars above the beach. Be aware though that it’s total freedom there, no one lifts an eyebrow if you’re naked on the beach.

Interesting enough is that in a Swedish newspaper earlier, the readers got to suggest the top 3 beaches in the world and two of my own choices were among those top 3.

That was Sudersand and Elafonisi, but Sudersand as number 2 and Elafonisi as number 3, which I don’t agree with. Even though I love Sudersand since it’s on our beloved Fårö, I must honestly tell you that Elafonisi’s gorgeous crystal clear water beats Sudersand’s.

Sudersand and Monte Gordo though share that excellent fine sand quality, with some really nice sand dunes and has more possibilities to buy something to eat while there at the beach.

So what was #1 beach they voted, that isn’t on my list?

That was Tulum, Mexico. South of the most popular tourist places Cancun and Playa del Carmen. It’s faces towards the Caribbean Sea, so how can the other ones compete against that?

I’m sure though that there is many other beaches that is equally wonderful and I really hope that we’re going to be able to experience some of them ourselves!

Nice picture of me and Mr Lifecruiser huh? Guess who is who! *giggles*

We took this picture of these rare lizards in the Parque das Aves we did visit on our South America trip in 2005 – on our way to the worlds most beautiful waterfalls: Iguazu Waterfalls.

Actually, the expression Horror lizard is used in Sweden to describe a really horrifying ugly woman…. *giggles*

Captain Lizard Lifecruiser