The Choco-Museo

What to do with a 7 year old in Lima?
Visit ruins? Wander around a museum looking at ancient artifacts? Nope!
I found the Choco-museo ... where you could take a workshop and learn the history of Chocolate in South America! Score!!

After a quick trip to Pizza Hut for lunch (peruvian street fare is not very safe, and not exceptionally appealing to my less-than-adventurous eating companion) ... we walked to the Museo.

We got to roast cocoa beans in a clay pot, then separate the beans from the husks:

Pound them into paste with a mortar & pestle :

Make both Mexican (no milk, but with hot pepper powder) & Spanish hot chocolate (yes milk with cinnamon & cloves) :

 And then proceeded on to the fun and mess:

And finito!

so true : 

Hopefully, we will be able to keep from eating all the chocolate, Jed asked to try some ... !

Peru...

Next stop ... Peru!

We left the hotel at the ungodly hour of 3:30am after staying up late to watch the USA tie POR ... 4 hours of sleep for Nic & I...

Not that you can read it, but the clock reads 4:11am ... ugh!

We had already gotten the luggage "wrapped", to help keep unwanted fingers out :

And after a five and a half hour flight, made it to Lima, Peru. We checked into the lovely Belmond Miraflores Park hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean: 

Our room is HUGE (thank you Elizabeth Kratzig & the Continental Travel Group : mailto://ek@continentaltravelgroup.com), and aside from the San Diego-like June Gloom ... it is a beautiful place. 

A very residential neighborhood ... but we found one very cool thing to do : visit the Chocolate Museum. I'll upload that next... !

Nic's World Cup Sticker Collection

I don't know how it happened, but just by luck, we have gotten connected with one of those random things that tie you in to the local community; it has opened doors and created conversations we never would have had without it...

It is our World Cup Sticker Book by Panini. As it turns out, Panini cards are collected and traded all over the world, and we are just ignorant. We happened to find our book at the Toy Chest in West Hartford, CT when we were there picking up our Brazilian visas at the consulate: 

We bought the book and 5 packs of stickers on a whim, and started working on it during the 1st USA match against Ghana, while we were still in JTN (Note: Landon Donovan made the book, but not the team;)  

Since then, I am sure we have spent nearly US$50 buying packs of stickers... it took a couple of days in Rio to find where to buy them (the news stands), but once we did, we were off again in force.

Problem is, as you go on, you collect more and more duplicates, and get fewer and fewer ones you need. Luckily, at one news stand, a nice lady asked in Portuguese/sign language if we had any to trade (cambio) ... we rushed to the hotel and brought back our duplicate stack... and pronto!... we were part of a club ... an obsessive club, where some people keep hand-written lists of the cards they still need, and others use the on-line app to keep track of their collection.

We then started making friends wherever we brought out "the book" ... all the staff in our hotel have exhausted trading their collections amongst themselves, so they were happy to look at what we had to offer ... 

It's incredible! And I can't imagine a better way to engage the real people in Rio ... as compared to all those World-Cup crazed tourists who sit in cafes and watch the games and drink beer all day. 

to be continued... 

Horseback riding in Brazil

Nicole has been asking me for riding lessons all winter, and seeing as I haven't followed through, I was feeling a bit guilty. 

So when our driver, Flavio (grand master black belt, carrying)  mentioned she could go riding here in Brazil, Nicole was all for it. 

Flavio & Nicole outside our hotel : 

I was a bit unsure ... the thought of Nic on a horse riding up mountain trails when she has not really mastered riding was a bit too much to swallow. But I was game to go check it out. 

When we arrived at one of the most lovely, manicured stables and riding fields in a valley south of Rio, I was much relieved ... 

Nic got a miniature pony named Bombom (bunny tail in Portuguese) ...

Flavio had smoke (yes, the horse sank a bit when Flavio got on ;) : 

and I had Tarzan : 

We rode around the compound for an hour, with Nicole being led by a nice guy, whose name I could not pronounce. 

I'm sure we never exceeded the speed limit : 

On the way home, Falvio drove us past the future Olympic venue, and the Olympic village ... all of which are way behind construction schedule.   This will not be the home of the sailing venue ... that's up north in the bay. 

Summer (Winter) Sailstice

Yesterday, as most of our friends were celebrating the longest day of the year by getting out sailing ... We were experiencing the SHORTEST day of the year - sunset by 5pm !

But we still managed to get out on the water :

Never mind the garbage and questionable brown foam we had to avoid ... (We went home directly to disinfect with hot showers)

It wouldn't have happened if Julie didn't get us out there (thanks Jules!!) 

Nic kept jumping between boards - clearly not worried about tipping us into the nasty water below : 

A lovely sunset and walk home on the Copacabana as the rest of the world watched GER tie GHA 

Friday - June 20 (aka Jed's BD)

Got Jed out of work ... At least for a few minutes

At the rescue station ... Quick photo op

Back to work - a better view of the outside of the studio

Then to the hotel to decorate our room :)

And make cards / wrap presents with homemade wrapping paper ...

Happy Birthday Daddio!!!

Club Dos Marimbas

Mural being painted along the wall outside the studio / club dos marimbas

ESPN's studio is attached to the outside of the Club, and supported by this rock-concert-like structure ...

They were required to leave an opening tho, so the club members could still get their boats out and also see out when eating dinner :)

View looking out from club (at dinner last night)

Boat storage under the Club