Just the thought of an amusement park with a coffee theme was intriguing to me. Parque del Café, part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, is located in a beautiful green valley in the heart of Coffee Country near the town of Montenegro in the department of Quindío.
While in Natal, I was very sick and couldn’t do much. On a day I was feeling better, Mike and I decided to do a day trip to the beach towns of Punaú and Maracajaú.
All of the tour companies in Paraty will offer jeep trips to waterfalls located in Serra da Bocaina National Park (Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina), a UNESCO World Heritage site. I highly recommend it.
One of the best things you can do in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Paraty is take a party boat tour of Paraty Bay. You’ll have the chance to go swimming in the warm waters of the Atlantic while sipping caipirinhas, enjoying the sun, and meeting friendly people.
I took a three hour cruise from Búzios that stopped at a few spots for swimming and went near Ilha Feia, a deserted island. It should cost about R$90 (as of June 2024) and there are a few companies offering the tour.
One of my favorite sites in all of Rio de Janeiro is the Escadaria Selarón. This stairway from Lapa to Santa Teresa has all its 250 steps covered in tiles from all over the world. Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón worked on them from 1990 until he committed suicide on the steps on January 10, 2013.
Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar), is part of Rio de Janeiro’s UNESCO World Heritage listing and provides my favorite viewpoint of the city.
From Old Montréal (Vieux-Montréal), I hopped on the nearest metro line and made my way to Olympic Park (Parc Olympique). This is where the 1976 Summer Olympics took place. There are several events year-round held at the park and stadium.
The night before my Chernobyl tour from Kyiv, I decided to take advantage of the sunlight with a relaxing one-hour Dnieper River cruise with Riverest.