Day 1 (1/5/17) The group spent the night on the flight to Sao Paolo then to Rio De Janeiro. The bus ride from the airport to the hotel took an hour. Since we were extremely tired from flying the group took time to nap. The group split up and went to the beach. A few of us went with Professor Tait Chirenje to lunch then to see Copacabana Beach. Around 3:30pm we went to experience the subway where I had an accident with my ankle on the subway. Our stop at the subway was to Uruguaiana to the market and the Rio de Janeiro Cathedral which we thought was an armory before we went inside. After walking around and going back on the subway we made it back to our hotel. The second Presentations were done by Alex and Andy on the Amazon's Biodiversity. Day 2 (1/6/17) The bus came and took us to Tijuca National Park to see Christ the Redeemer. We spent about 40 minutes at Cristo until we got on the bus to go to Sugar Loaf Mountain. We took a cable car ride to the mountain. We ate a buffet lunch near Copacabana beach which had an abundance of fruits, fish, and beef. We took a city bus tour to the Estádio do Maracanã where the whole group bought jerseys (fake). After the stadium we went to where Brazil hosts Carnaval. Luckily, there was a few tourists dressed up in Carnaval costumes and let us take pictures with them. After Carnaval we went to Lapa and Professor Tait Chirenje bought us coconut water fresh out of the coconut. Lapa is located in the center of Rio de Janeiro and is a lively cultural lifestyle. Today was the day we fought of about the Rio de Janeiro cathedral because we went inside. We had lunch at the Premier Copacabana hotel. Day 3 (1/7/16) We made our way to Tijuca National Park which is located in Rio and the Atlantic Forest. We hiked for about 3 hours. The Atlantic Forest still gets abundance of rainfall which can classify it as a rainforest. The Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot. To classify a forest as a rainforest it has to reach 77cm/year. The park used to grow sugar cane. The Atlantic Forest is home to around 20,000 species of plants. During the hike we got to see a lot of the species of plants and learned more at the Nature Center. After hiking we headed back to our hotel. Half of the group went to Ipanema and the other half went to Copacabana beach. What I learned that night was Brazilian raviolis are not the best choice. Heather learned the consequences of climbing on a rock in the ocean. The third presentations were about energy issues from Andy and Anne. |