Rio de Janeiro

Tuesday 1/31

Tuesday morning we arrived to Manaus, Brazil. I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Program) with Dare Clubb, an American playwrite who has been traveling the world for 3 years getting inspiration and knowledge for his work. The FDP was from 10-12 on ship and so I was not able to go into town in Manaus since we had to meet at 12:30 for my trip leaving for Rio. We had a straight flight to Rio (4 hours) and by the time we got our carry on bags that had to be put under the plane, we didn't get to the hotel until 11:30pm (Rio was ahead two hours from Manaus).  By the time we ate dinner it was 2:30am and we went back to the hotel. My roommate for the Rio trip was really nice, her name is Alex and is from Canada.

Wednesday 2/1

Wednesday morning, we had a complimentary hotel breakfast. After, we started our tour to the Christ the Redeemer statue. This was so AMAZING. I loved it. We took open top jeeps to see the redeemer statue. This was pretty amazing, although I got a little nauseous going up the hills turning every other 10 seconds. The views were amazing to look out and see all of Rio. Everyone was laying on the ground to get good pictures. After the statue, we took a short ride to a water fall in the rainforest, and then headed back to our hotel. Everyone wanted to get the traditional Brazilian steak meal, so we went to a Steakhouse buffet. We had samba dancing lessons this night. The first hour was boring because they were teaching so slow, but the second hour was really fun with the partner dancing session. I got to dance with one of the ladies teaching the dances. She was awesome and taught me a few different moves that everyone else wasn't doing. After, I went to dinner with Daphne and Colleen since their trip was also at the samba lessons. We had not gotten to hang out in Rio much because we were in different hotels and on different trips with no way of getting in touch since we don't have cell phones. 

Interesting fact: All people in Brazil HAVE to vote. If they don't vote and need to get say a passport, new drivers license, etc., they will not be able to. I am not sure exactly how it works but that is the information our guide gave us. 

Alex, my roommate for Rio, is the blond sitting across from me on the left.

Daphne and I.

People laying down to take a full picture.

Some of our group at the waterfall in the rainforest.