Another pin in the world map!

We added another country visited today when we went to visit the world's largest dam between Brazil and Paraguay. We rode for several miles in Paraguay which was neat! Then it was back into Brazil and on to the airport for our flight to Rio. We flew on GOL airlines which has a weight limit of 11 pounds for your carryon. The Program directors worked the system well though and dropped us all off at a big tourist shop near the airport. Then they went with all the luggage and weighed it as a group and got it to "pass". He had us put our rolling carryons in that group to be weighed. I actually had mine under the 11 lb but I have to carry the computer in my backpack and he said they would count that for this flight. So anyway, they checked it and didn't weigh any of us and we all passed! So whew! That is the last of the flights we have to worry about tight weigh ins. From here, we fly home on Delta and we can check 2 each and they can each weigh a lot! We did get American Airlines points for all our LAN flight though so that is nice. We have taken 9 flights so far and a lot of the suitcases are showing signs of wear. All in all, it has done well. We ate lunch in the small airport in Iguassu and had plenty of times to wait for our flight. Once we got our bags to the bus in Rio, they took us through the city center and pointed out things on the way to our hotel. The hotel is right on the beach so is really pretty and nice and we have balconies that overlook the beach. Our guide said the forecast calls for rain tomorrow which would make the city tour pretty miserable. We'd really like to see Christ the Redeemer up close and Sugarloaf mountain as well. We saw them on the way into town. Impressive! Last night after I wrote, we went to a dinner show with folk dancing and music from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The food was some of the best we have had and the program was wonderful. It was great fun and we enjoyed it. Now back to today-our seats on the plane were the VERY back row with 3 across-you know the ones-the ones that won't recline. And of course, we got the 3 ladies in front of us who reclined ALL the way back in theirs. It is very claustrophobic! The flight had one stop in the capital city of Parana province. Luckily, those 3 ladies got off and the next ones on were a little more considerate. So we have taken our turn with the bad seats. All in all, we have done really well on the whole trip and I think Max is a tremendous program director as we have had great rooms and plane seats when it is at all possible. Hope he can continue when getting us the seats at home! Several of us are flying together on that Rio -Atlanta Delta flight. There was really nothing to take photos of today except the dam and I have not downloaded them yet, so will wait til tomorrow to add those and hopefully more. Miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon!