We got our first one! yeah!

Our friends Vicente and Maru took us up on our word and sent their daughter to visit us. Larissa will be here with us until the last week in October, so we're trying to get the most out of her visit to Rio. In a way she's our (and your) guinea pig, because she's trying out the guest room and our self-made tours around the city we haven't yet explored ourselves... so far so good. (I'll send her email so she can give you the REAL insider version, ha ha!).
We've been happy to have her around, it feels good to talk to someone in your language and to be able to "show off" my Portuguese- ha! she won't notice when evryone else doesn't understand me... or will she???

Anyway, we have used her as an excuse to be the real touristy type!(as if it were hard for us, yeah, right!). She joined our Saturday morning Portuguese class with Elida- she didn't have a choice since the kitchen table was the only one we had at the time- outdoor furniture was not an option with the pouring rain. Larissa wanted to get breakfast and she got Portuguese verbs and phrases instead! Elida decided to have our next lesson out in the real world and we went to a neighborhood called Santa Teresa.
We met at "Cinelandia" in Downtown Rio. We walked past the National Library, the Congress House, the National Theater, the Mahatma Gandhi Plaza, and walked to the "bonde" [pronounced bon-gee], a $0.30 trolley that took us all the way up the hill to Santa Teresa.
Everything was quite an experience! From getting there and finding the (excellent) parking lot, to eating lunch at the "loncharia" and the flea market!
We rode the bonde with the people literally hanging from it, saw how the driver and some passengers actually carried a car that was parked on the tracks (you can see the whole thing on the pictures, just click on the title).We walked the cobblestone streets and visited the colorful stores in this quaint part of town, the views were breathtaking!
Santa Teresa is known for its artsy flair and samba presentations.We tried visiting a museum but being with my two (tired & hungry) boys, and Elida's 4 year-old daughter, we decided to try that later on.
We walked to a nearby street where a flea market sets once per month. What a crowd! It reminded me of a famous old flea market in Mexico City where my grandpa would take me : la Lagunilla. In fact, they are basically the same thing!
We found a restaurant and had something to eat there while admiring all the things going on outside. We were curious about a street vendor and his corn, so we went to him and bought what he had. they turned out to be just like tamales, very good indeed, so we bought one more to share. He was proud to tell me he made 100 that day, and loved having his picture taken!
It was a marvelous day, the weather was perfect!

Larissa is enjoying her stay, so now we're officially ready for you guys to come!