Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (December, 2015)

We redeemed 5,000 Avianca Lifemiles per person plus $9.66 in taxes (30,000 Avianca Lifemiles plus $57.96 total) to fly from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro and we booked the Sheraton Grand Rio Hotel and Resort in Rio de Janeiro right on the beach for 5 nights over Christmas using 12,000 Starwood SPG points per night (if you book for 4 nights, you get the 5th night free...48,000 SPG points for 5 nights). It was a good location for us, very close to Ipanema Beach, but removed enough that we essentially had our own private beach right outside the hotel without all of the crowds from Copacabana and Ipanema. The hotel had some huge pools and a newly renovated kids club that the kids enjoyed and was nestled between the black cliffs and the beach. You had to take a taxi to get anywhere, but Uber was very cheap and it was easy to get around.

The hotel was in full Christmas mode with a giant gingerbread house in the lobby.

A view from the lounge at the top of the hotel.

Hotel pool.

Beach right outside the hotel.

We decided to do a couple more escape rooms (family favorite activity) in Sao Paulo and we found Escape 60.  We did 2 separate themed rooms: "Death Row," where we were unfairly imprisoned for a murder we did not commit and have been sentenced to death and must break out before we get the electric chair; and "Save our Souls," where we had been invited to a dinner by a former classmate to celebrate our 10 year reunion, but we find out he had died a year ago and we find ourselves locked in the house and have to break out.  We did pretty well on getting out of both of them with only minor clues.

We also visited Copacabana Beach for a bit.  

Family picture at Copacabana beach.

Copacabana beach is huge and the weather was so hot during the day that we thought it would be miserable to be there. There were tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people on the beach, each one with their umbrella. The weather was hot and humid with the sun beating down. There are no places to find shade on the beach. We drove and walked past a few times, but could only bring ourselves to visit in the late afternoon when it started to cool off.

Ryder and Sawyer at Copacabana.

Copacabana boardwalk.

Smashing the lounge each morning to get our drinks.

The kids built a sandman on the beach instead of a snowman.

We visited a beautiful park and botanical gardens on our last day in Rio de Janeiro.

Kids at the park.

Great views of Christ the Redeemer.

Yummy sorbet for the kids...

Acai smoothies...my new favorite.

We redeemed 10,000 British Airways Avios miles plus $36.23 in taxes each (60,000 Avios plus $220.38 total) to get home from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil back to Santiago, Chile flying on LATAM in economy class.

Sao Paulo, Brazil (December, 2015)

Cody's company decided to close the offices between Christmas and New Years Day, so we decided we'd head to Brazil for a week.  We found some cheap one-way flights from Santiago, Chile to Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sky Airways for $49/person + tax...pretty hard to beat that! We used a free one-night certificate from IHG that we got from having the Chase IHG credit card and redeemed it for one night at the Intercontinental Sao Paulo.  We redeemed 25,000 IHG points for a second night in the same hotel.

In Sao Paulo, we decided we'd go to an escape room and found Escape Now. We ended up doing 2 separate rooms (Hannibal themed and Epidemic themed). The kids were a bit freaked out by the Hannibal themed room with all of the fake blood and rubber body parts around the room, but we had a great time with this.

Kids at Escape Now.

Hannibal and Epidemic themed rooms.

When in Brazil, you have to drink Guarana like the rest of the people, and we found some zero calorie alternatives, so we could pretty much drink it non-stop...delicious!

Nash's hair was getting long and for some reason he kept begging us to put it in a pony tail, so we obliged.

We went out exploring close to our hotel and found this city park that had some beautiful walking paths and trees.

Kids are always content to play on the playground.

We also went to Ibirapuera Park, the largest park in Sao Paulo (the Central Park of Sao Paulo) and had a picnic.  We watched the skaters for a while and did some exploring.

Black Swans...reminds us of Perth.

In Sao Paulo, you can't miss the graffiti...it is all over the place.  We found a place called Beco de Batman (Batman Alley)...allegedly named after some cool Batman street art that used to be there in the 1980s. There is sort of a graffiti artist code...don't draw over anyone's art unless you are sure that yours is going to be better. There was some pretty amazing graffiti at Batman Alley.

Playa Renaca, Vina del Mar, Chile (December, 2015)

With grandma Toni and grandpa Scott in town, we decided to head out to the coast to check things out since we had never been. The drive was easy, under 2 hours from our house in Santiago. We redeemed 38,000 Club Carlson points for one night in the Radisson Aqua Hotel and Spa in Concon, Chile. The hotel was right on the beach, overlooking some pretty rock and cliffs.

Our trip took a bad turn just after dinner when our youngest child, Zander was leaning on the edge of the table for dinner and his weight pulled the table down to the floor. Unfortunately, Zander's hand made it to the floor just ahead of the edge of the heavy slate tabletop and the tip of his thumb was smashed. We called the hospital which sent an ambulance and about 6 hours later Zander was all stitched up, but he couldn't get in the water for 6 weeks. Zander pretty much screamed himself to exhaustion and finally fell asleep just before he went in to get all of his checks. We are not sure if it was due to the pain that he was experiencing or the fear he had that he was going to lose his finger. We kept hiding it from him, but he always found a way to look at it, which brought on more screaming.

Luckily we had grandma Toni and grandpa Scott with us and they were able to stay with the kids in the hotel while we were with Zander at the hospital. We arrived very late back to the hotel, and, since Zander was feeling up to it the next day, we headed out to Playa Renaca (Renaca Beach). We played some Spikeball and enjoyed the sun well into the afternoon before heading back to Santiago when it began to get dark.

View from the hotel balcony at the Radisson in Concon, Chile.

The shoreline at the Radisson in Concon, Chile.

Grandpa Scott with Sawyer looking at the shoreline in Concon, Chile.

The kids at Playa Renaca.

Eliza at Playa Renaca.

Grandpa Scott, bodysurfing with Ryder at Playa Renaca.

Grandma Toni with Nash at Playa Renaca.

Cajon del Maipo, Chile (December, 2015)

While grandma Toni and grandpa Scott were visiting Chile, we decided to take a day trip out to the Maipo Canyon (Cajon del Maipo), which is about an hour outside of Santiago, Chile. We booked an all day guided tour packed with a number of things to do, and we made a full day out of it. We were driven up the canyon to a mountain lake and given kayaks to paddle around. We went for a short walk around the lake while the guides cooked us a traditional Chilean BBQ over the fire and had a great meal for lunch. Then, we headed further up the canyon to some natural hot springs. We saw some condors flying almost at eye level on the way back down the canyon...beautiful animals. At the bottom of the canyon, we went horseback riding to the top of a nearby hill and back down. Each one of the kids (except Zander) was able to have their own horse. It was a beautiful day and it was fun to be able to spend it with grandma and grandpa.

 Walking around in Maipo Canyon.

 Views driving up Maipo Canyon.

 Grandma Toni and Grandpa Scott kayaking with Ryder.

 Eliza and Cody, kayaking with Zander.

 The kids on a giant rock in Maipo Canyon.

 Natural hot springs.

 Nash, soaking in the hot water.

 Sawyer, with grandma in the hot springs.

 Cool looking cliffs up the Maipo Canyon.

 Grandma Toni and Nash, on horseback, getting ready to ride.

 Eliza, with Sawyer, riding horses up the mountain.

 Sawyer, loving the horseback riding.

 Our group, going up the mountain.

Sawyer, with her horse.