Sunset on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii. May 30, 2010. ©ThreeCircles.net. Full image here.

Rio de Janeiro viewed from Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf Mountain). May 7, 2010. ©ThreeCircles.net. Full image here.

Although not a great day for photos from the top of Pão de Açúcar the views of Rio, the surrounding coast, and the outer islands were spectacular. We spent several hours at the top of Sugar Loaf from about mid-afternoon on and had the chance to see clouds roll in and the lights of the city below blink on following dusk.

Near the center of the picture, the long curved beach extending into the distance is the famous Copacabana Beach. The small beach located closer to the bottom of the picture is Vermelha Beach.

Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 8, 2010 ©ThreeCircles.net Full image here.

Rocinha is the largest "favela" in Rio de Janeiro with an estimated population of 250,000 people. Photo taken just inside the community and during Marcelo Armstrong's Favela Tour.

*The term "favela" (pronounced) is quite derogatory to the individuals of these communities. Our tour guide indicated that the use of the word "community" was much more favored and more accurately captured these areas of Brazil.

Last weekend we found some decent fares to San Fransisco for a quick weekend trip and opted to book them before they went away. Since public transportation options from SFO into the city seem to be a bit lacking I decided I'd look into a car rental.

Price comparisons at all of the big rental companies returned rates in the range of $54 to $70 for a single day. Rarely do we rent cars but those price quotes just didn't seem reasonable. Enter Priceline.

I've toyed with the online booking service before, mainly while looking for hotels and such, though never used it fearing I'd end up at a hotel of deplorable location or condition. Priceline'ing a car rental would seem to entail less risk and so I figured I'd give it a try.

I placed an offer of $16.00 (before all taxes, fees, etc.) and it was accepted. The grand total, all in, coming out to $34. Not bad, I say.

We ended up saving a bit of coin in waiting to book our domestic flights for the upcoming Brazil trip. The TAM flights both to and from Foz do Iguaçu ended up going down in price and were pretty inexpensive and, in the arena of even more good news, the flights are direct and are scheduled at excellent times.

Now just to flesh out the itinerary...