31 March - 2 April: Rio de Janeiro

This past weekend, the Council took us for a trip to Rio. We met at Barra Funda (metrô) at 6AM and arrived in Rio around lunch time. It's about a 6 hour bus ride, but there was an accident on the way, so we arrived there a little before 3PM. Our Hotel, the Ipanema Inn, is located between Ipanema and Copacabana...right on the beach :o). the only problem with the weekend was that the sun refused to shine!! But that's okay...Rio is a beautiful city, even in the clouds. I still hope to get the chance to go back before returning to the states (on a weekend when there's sun!)



Upon arriving, we went straight to lunch and thereafter visited Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf). It's a famous tourist location surrounded by tropical vegitation (and monkeys!).

"According to the historian, Vieira Fazenda, the name Pão de Açúcar or Sogarloaf in English, was appointed to the mountain by the Portuguese during the extraction of brazilian sugar canes in century XVI and XVII. After the sugar canes were boiled and refined, the sugar blocks were placed in mud containers of a conical form called sugarloaves for transport to Europe. The shape of the containers bore a strong resemblance with today’s Sugarloaf..."

Mind you, we all woke up around 5AM (some people just didnt sleep) to be able to get to the metro on time and got little sleep on the bus, so that explains any ruggedness in appearance, hehe.

Day 2 we got up early for our tour of the historic center of the city with a Prof. José from USP (he has acompanied the CIEE Rio trip for the past 5 years). He was amazing...whenever he talked about an important site or building or aspect of the city, it was never too complicated to go over our head and never too watered down. I came away learning so much. We visited about 5 different Churches, a Casa de Chá (tea house), and took drove by favelas, middle class, and rich areas of Rio.

This trip has only confirmed the fact that Brazil is a country of contrasts. The biggest favela in Rio (Favela da Roçinha) is side by side one of the chiquiest malls in the city.

Here's a picture of Copacabana Palace - where all the famous rich people stay in Rio, and right outside a demonstration of MST (Movimento dos Sem Terra), one of the most famous (and controversial) organizations that fights for land reform...another example of the contrast.

Ipanema & Copacabana

Before dinner, some of us went to the beach with our bikinis, wrap-arounds, and of course, HOMEWORK. It wasn't sunny, but the ocean, the waves, the Pão de Açúcar, the favela rising up the base of the mountain, and the city buildings in the background...make for a breath-taking view.

That night we went to a musical titled "Marilia Pêra Canta Carmen Miranda" at the Teatro João Caetano. The piece featured Marilia Pêra, a famous actress (that appeared in Central Station...she's the friend of the lady that sells the boy) who impersonated Carmem Miranda, and Carlinhos de Jesus, a famous dancer (who did the choreography for Mangueira, one of the Samba schools, in this years desfilo). It was basically a musical medly of various songs by Carmem Miranda. Fun costumes, funny scenes, great dancing, AMAZING show. I loved it.

Day 3 we got up early to visit Corcovado, the well-known mountain that has the statue of Christ on it (Cristo Redentor). Corcovado, literally means hunchback, and the statue of Christ the Redeemer was built in honor of Princess Isabel. They built a railroad up the mountain so the workers could get to the top to build the statue, and now the same line runs as a tourist train (It's about a 20 minute train ride up through all the forestry). The view from the mountain is amazing, but nothing really came out in my pictures because it was very cloudy.

That afternoon, we did check-out at the hotel, had lunch at the amazing churrascaria place we'd eaten for lunch and dinner the day before, and then started our journey back to São Paulo.

till next time...