And now for Brazil.
My 5am alarm went off Monday morning, and I struggled out of bed to make our early morning flight. Observation: for some reason, for every flight passengers are loaded onto a bus and then transported maybe 300 feet over to the airplane from the gate, and from there they board. Same goes for landing- we land somewhere in the middle of the runway and a bus transports us back to the terminal…it was just a huge waste of time. There’s also no order or organization to how you board the plane, it’s more just a stampede of people, followed by 30 minutes of falling over chairs and scooting past each other to find your seat. This is when I realize how much I take US airport organization for granted. After a 25-minute flight (literally), we have a layover in Montevideo, Uruguay. We proceed to take a 2.5 hour flight to Sao Paolo, Brazil, followed by a shuttle ride to the omnibus station, followed by a 8 hour omnibus ride to Rio, followed by a stressful yet successful attempt at a Brazilian pay phone in order to contact the apartment renter, and finally a cab ride that got us home at around 12:30. And then I remembered I had woken up at 5am that morning, and how so, so far away that seemed.
After our long day of traveling, we were relieved to find that our apartment was very nice. Two floors, 4 queen size beds for our group of 8, a kitchen (though smaller than we would have liked), and a big terrace. The terrace was obviously the best part, with plenty of space and a pretty view of those big, green mountains of Brazil. We decided to save money by buying groceries and making dinner together at the apartment every night, which worked out very well with the table we had out on the terrace.
We were barely 2 blocks from Copacabana (yes, like the song) beach and only about a 15-minute walk from Ipanema beach, which was absolutely perfect. From Copacabana beach you could see Sugar Loaf Mountain, a very famous peak that is supposed to have a beautiful view of the entire city, especially at sunset. Unfortunately, I think that we were there at the end of their rainy season, so every day it became cloudy by the mid afternoon and we wouldn’t have been able to see the sunset if we had gone. But luckily we got some great weather each day we were there, and the mornings were the best. Ipanema had a huge surfing competition that week, so that was fun to watch. On the beach they had one of my favorite drinks called agua de coco, or coconut milk. There are stands all along the beach that have this, and it’s simply a coconut with a hole at the top and a drinking straw, and it’s delicious. The other favorite drink of the week was the traditional Brazilian caipirinha, made with essentially vodka, sugar, and lots of lime. To be honest, almost every day was spent on the beach doing the same thing: lying in the sun, swimming, watching the surfers, making friends on the beach, and sipping caipirinhas. So I really don’t have much to tell except that it was fantastic.
We had a friend studying abroad in Rio who had befriended some Brazilians, so a few nights out of the week we went out with them to a few local spots over the weekend. One of them was called Baixo Gávea, essentially a park where everybody was just socializing, with a traveling Tequila shot man who made a lot of business. There wasn’t much to it, but for that reason, it was great, just to be in a local place instead of a touristy club. Another night we went to Lapa, a neighborhood in Rio that’s known for its nightlife but also for its historical monuments. We obviously didn’t get to see much of those, but there was some interesting architecture, like the Arcos da Lapa, an old aqueduct. There was one long street that was basically the main drag, with tons of bars and clubs all in a row. There were lots of restaurants and also tons of colorful graffiti covering the walls of the buildings. The same can be found in Buenos Aires (they even give graffiti tours, which I hope to do before I leave), so it was interesting to look at the differences between the two. If anybody has seen the video for “Beautiful” by Snoop and Pharrell, you may remember that it was filmed in Brazil. You may also remember that they sit on a long flight of really colorful stairs. Well, those are in Lapa, and I got to see them. I am the coolest.
A very common fruit in Brazil is the acai berry. The only time I had heard about this was through all those acai berry diet infomercials in the States, but in Rio, they have restaurants dedicated to acai berry smoothies. On Sunday morning, we all went to get smoothies, and they were amazing. They were dark purple in color, and you could add other fruit to it to give it a different flavor. I chose mango, while others chose strawberry or left it plain. After smoothies, we made our way to the train station that would take us up to the Christ Redeemer statue. Forgetting that it was a Sunday, there were about a million people in line, and the wait was over 2 hours just to go up. Luckily there were also van companies that drove people up, so we hopped in one of those and made our way without waiting in line. The statue was incredible. Many people were there to pray, while others were there to take pictures. In order to get a full shot of the statue, it is very common to completely lie down on the ground to get the picture. Thus I found myself climbing over people and avoiding limbs in order to make my way around the lookout. The view was absolutely spectacular. From the statue you could see the entirety of Rio from all different sides. I would imagine it’s even more beautiful at nighttime with all the lights of the city. Sunday night we headed out to the bus station to make our way back to Sao Paolo for our early flight home the next morning.
I must have had a great time, because I got sick last week from lack of sleep. I spent the next several days relaxing (after my vacation?), however this past Saturday I had a great morning. I was able to visit a small school in the southern part of the city as a volunteer opportunity. With around 8 other volunteers, we helped the children there with their English homework and also with making crafts for their mothers, as Argentina’s Mother’s day was this past Sunday. The children ranged from about 6 to 12 years old, and they were not only extremely friendly and entertaining, but very bright as well. In Buenos Aires I have been living in a wealthy area of the city, thus none of us ever really ever see the poverty of the villas (poor areas), which is very abundant. It was nice to get a real, cultural and eye-opening experience. Later that afternoon, I met some friends at the Recoleta fair. I think I have mentioned it before, but it happens every Saturday and Sunday in a park with food vendors, music, and a market that tons of great things like jewelry, leather goods, clothes, shoes, art, statues, everything. We spent the afternoon lying on the grass in the sun, listening to live music, and, my favorite, people watching.
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