Hello Rio De Janeiro!

Luna Valderrama

We started our morning very early with an early check-out of 7:00am! We were really sad to say goodbye to Sao Paulo. So many of us, including myself, really fell in love with Sao Paulo. Regardless, we were so excited to see what Rio was like. We left the hotel for our flight to Rio, we were all exhausted and some of us were out late the night before too! At the airport, we received our tickets and had the ultimate moment of fear, which was weighing the bags. I can’t speak for my classmates, but my bag was A-OK.

Zoe and Zoya enjoyed their iPad time before boarding the plane. It was a nice and easy flight, but being in the airport always feels incredibly draining. We arrived on a gloomy day, but the Rio feel was still very strong. Just like in Sao Paulo, we left our things at the hotel and scurried off to our first stop. We arrived to Sugarloaf Mountain, which was definitely one of the most special parts of the trip. I normally don’t prefer to do the very touristy things, but the view was unbeatable. From the top of the mountain you could see almost the entire city, the ocean, and even Christ the Redeemer. There was a lot happening up there. There were gift shops, restaurants, and even a DJ! A few of us took a seat and enjoyed a quick acai before heading back down to leave.

We eventually made it back to our hotel rooms. Our hotel room was a treat for two reasons. The first one being that the hotel gave us an extra bed, which was a huge King sized bed. The second awesome part of our hotel room is that we had neighbors! Harumi and Syeda were right next to us.

For lunch/dinner we decided to head over to a local restaurant about 5 minutes away from the hotel. We were preparing to attend the Flamengo game at the Maracanã stadium. I didn’t know this at the time, but this stadium is actually Brazil’s largest stadium, and for a long time, it was the largest in the world. It was a huge hassle trying to buy the tickets, but we got them. We wanted to come looking like true Brazilians, so a lot of us bought the teams’ jersey before-hand.

We closed off the night at the Copacabana Night Market. It was so nice! There were a lot of pretty souvenirs and cute bathing suits to buy. It was nice to walk, but we decided to head back on the beach. It was cold and dark, but it was very peaceful. This was Zoya’s first time seeing the ocean! Congrats, Zoya! We headed back and got ready for bed so that we could see Christ the Redeemer and the Flamengo game the next day. Great first day in Rio! Tchau!

Here is a picture of Jen and Arthi with Jen 1 and Arthi 2.