Rio De Janeiro

This past week I was given the opportunity to go and visit the beautiful city of Rio De Janeiro, and it really is worth a trip there.

To start our trip off with we took a bus from Araraquara that left at 21.30 at night and arrived the next morning into Rio at 8.30. Once we got all of our stuff we went to our hostel, unfortunately we could not check in yet so we dropped our stuff off and went and walked around the barrio that we were staying in, which is Botafogo. We visited the Praia Botafogo, which has a nice view of Pão de Açúcar, as well as Praia Shopping, which has a overview of the bay. After which we went to Casa do Rui Barbosa, unfortunately since it was a holiday in Rio, so the museum was closed but we did walk through the garden. Once we did check in we went and caught a metro and headed to Copacabana. After spending some time at the beach we decided to head back to Botafogo, where we passed the rest of the night.

View of Pão de Açúcar from Botafogo

Casa do Rui Barbosa

Copacabana

The next morning we woke up bright and early to head to Cristo Redentor. We decided to take the tremzinho, which takes you from the bottom of the mountain up through Corcovado park and arrive at the base of Cristo. Once at the base we walked up the stairs and arrived to one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It was quite breathe taking, especially the overview of the entire city. After taking our pictures we take the trem back down and headed to Jardim Botanico. It was created Dam João during the imperial period of Brasil. It was such a beautiful place, and actually quite a huge place! After walking for a few hours through the beautiful varied parks we decided it was time to head to the hostel. We spent the evening in Botafogo just walking around and hung out at the praia in Botafogo.

Cristo Redentor

Trem do Corcovado

Jardim Botanico

On Wednesday was probably one of our favorite days. We woke up and went to Pão de Açúcar, which can only be reached by a bondinho (cable car) and it shows the overview of the city. We took our first cable car to Morro da Urca, which is the first hill. Then we took the second bondinho, which got us to the higher of the two hills, also known as Pão de Açúcar. The view there was absolutely breathe taking.  Also up there is a trail that we took which took us around the hill, it was incredible to see all different sides of the city as well as the bay. Once we had finished taking pictures and were ready to head down we descended on the bondinhos and went back to Botafogo. Since some of the group was really tired, me and another friend decided that we were going to go to Ipanema. So we hoped on a bus and headed to the beach. It was definitely worth the trip, and we both enjoyed it actually more then Copacabana. We walked on the sidewalk that stretches the whole length of the beach, and then we found a perfect spot to enjoy the beach. Once it started to get late we decided to head back and we met back up with our group and went to the beach in Botafogo for the evening.

View from Morro da Urca

Onto the Cable Car to Pão de Açúcar

Infront of the Bondinho to Pão de Açúcar

Praia Ipanema

  On our last full day in Rio we ended up taking an adventure. We decided to go to the Centro of the city. So we hopped on a metro and after asking several people finally figured out which stop we should get off. Then we walked to the Saara, which is basically a street in the city that is a lot of shops with knock off goods for very cheap prices. It was a very fun experience. Once done there we walked onto the main street and passed a Cathedral in the center, that actually never belonged to the city of Rio de Janeiro (though I kind of do not remember the whole story behind it). Once we passed there we went into the Banco do Brasil where they had a museum of money and also the history of the bank. After we went to a famous street called Ouvidor, which is a street full of different restaurants. After my group figured out where they were going to eat and they had finished we headed off on our next adventure. We went to the Confeitaria Colombo, which is an old cafe shop in centro. Then we walked to Lapa, which is a barrio right next to Centro. There we saw the Arcos da Lapa and the Escardaria Selaron, also known as the colored stairs. Then we went back to Ipanema, where we went to watch the sunset. It was as quite a beautiful sunset, its no wonder people from all the world go there to watch the sunset. Once it started to get dark we went back to Botafogo and spent our last night in the area. On our last day we just stayed in the area for lack of time before our bus left.

Saara in Centro 

Ceiling in Banco do Brasil

Museum of Money

Café Colombo

Arcos da Lapa

Escadaria Selaron

Sunset in Ipanema

Our trip to Rio was definitely an incredible one, and I can not wait until I am given a chance to go and visit the city again!

Until Next Time

5 Meses no Brasil

Wow it is hard to believe that I have already been here in Brasil for 5 months! In honor of being my 5 months here is an update of what I have been up to since I arrived in Matão, São Paulo.

For my first weekend here it was learning about the city, and meeting all of my friend's friends. On the Saturday we went into the centro and went and taught some English at an school my friend teaches at. For the evening we went to a restaurant with some of her friends and just hung out with them for the evening. On Sunday we decided to go and visit a city nearby, São Carlos, where we met with a friend of hers to spend the evening visiting the city. It was a very laid back trip, we just went and played soccer for sometime and went to centro to see the christmas decorations. The next day we went and got some Açaí and relaxing. On Wednesday we ended up going to the gym, we originally went to try out a class called She'ba, but since we arrived so early we also went to a pump class. On Thursday we went to Quintaneja, which is Sertaneja on Thursdays. Friday we went to a birthday party that was at a chacra, which is where they normally have a pool and churrascara. Saturday I was able to go a play soccer again as well as go to a Catholic mass. Sunday, since my friend went to take her vestibular, I went with my friends sister to met up with some friends of theirs for the evening.

On the following Monday we spent time at my friend's grandparents as well as her aunts. Friday I met one of my friend's best friend and we did a sleepover at her house, me, her friend, her sister, and another friend of theirs. Saturday we went to Araraquara, which is another city nearby. There we just did some Christmas shopping as well as went and got some chinese food. That Sunday we went to a class reunion, basically, for my friend and her classmates.

The following week was Christmas week. For Brasilian tradition it is normal to have a family dinner on the Eve and spend Christmas just relaxing. Which of course is what we did, we had a massive dinner at the house and at Midnight we opened up our Christmas gifts and wished everyone a merry Christmas. For Christmas day we went to another chacra and spend the day relaxing, swimming, and eating. On Friday we went again to Quintaneja. Saturday we went and made Brigadeiro. Sunday we went again to Araraquara, this time to go see a Beatles tribune, then went and traveled around the city some.

To get to NYE. We went to my friend's godmother's house to bring in the New Year. It was quite a nice time, we just hung around and enjoyed each others company. After we brought the new year in we decided to take a swim. The following day we spent at her house and swam and relaxed for the day.

For the upcoming weeks not much is planned, though we are looking at going to Rio de Janeiro.

Until Next Time