Dia 24/Day 24 - Rio de Janeiro

January 28, 2018

By Friederike Decker and Breeanna Runyan

Hoje foi com certeza um dos melhores dias da toda viagem! Começando com a praia famosa da Copacabana, onde tudo mundo tinha a oportunidade de tirar fotos a vontade (quinhentos e quinhentos de fotos...) e de aproveitar as ondas que bateram com muita força, até o Cristo Redentor, quem é por muitas pessoas o destaque da viagem. O céu estava nublado? Estava. Mas mesmo assim, intercambista tira fotos em todo lugar. Então tiramos mais. Depois do jantar (rodízio de pizza, massa e crepe) a gente foi para uma feirinha onde comprávamos os últimos souvenirs de Rio de Janeiro. E o que temos a dizer para a Cidade Maravilhosa? Rio, te amo!

Today for sure was a marvelous day. We woke up and ate our “homemade breakfast” with the food we bought from the supermarket. After breakfast we walked a couple blocks down to the most famous beach in Rio...Copacabana!! Today was a perfect day for the beach. It was very cloudy, but it never rained. It was especially nice for the people who have bad sunburns from previous sunny days on the beach. The waves at Copacabana are the strongest out of all the beaches in Rio, and us exchange students sure took our chance to get dragged across the sea floor. There were life guards to make sure nobody swam too far out in the water, and our group had a rule of only going into water that went up to our waists. Some articles of bathing suits were almost lost in the sea, but everyone stayed safe and had fun.

After the beach, we went to lunch, which was included for the first time in a while. We ate a hearty meal, and then we were off to the Christ Redeemer! The weather was also perfect for this attraction today, not so hot and sunny it was unbearable, and not to cloudy that we couldn’t see the top of the Christ. To get up the mountain, we took a little red train. We were able to see the city of Rio while ascending, but the view was much better at the top. After the train, we had to walk a short way up the stairs. When our group saw the statue, we screamed and said “Look...it’s Jesus!” All of us were able to get amazing pictures with the statue and of course our flags. We did one group photo, and after we were free to look around and take more photos. It’s very cool being in a popular touristic area. Many of us met people from all over the world and held conversations, which is always awesome.
After we left the Christ Redeemer, we went to a pizzaria for dinner, which was also included. We went to the fair on Copacabana beach after dinner. We bought souvenirs and gifts for our real and host family’s. There, with luck I suppose, we met up with the exchange students touring Brasil with another travel company. Many of us Terra Brasil students met many friends, from our countries or even from our same schools and Rotary Districts. It was very cool to see the exchange students meet their friends and talk. Almost everyone bought something from the fair, and some have said that they’ve spent too much money on souvenirs, but then again they say “Well, we are only in Brasil once”.
When we got back to the hotel, we had our nightly meeting, and talked about what we will be doing tomorrow and the next days. It seems so hard to believe that we will be done with the Northeast 2 trip in just 2 days. I have a feeling many tears will be shed when the last day comes. But for now, we will enjoy the time we have together.