Itinerary and Budget:

Itinerary:

• 2/12/12-2/13/12
• From RDU to MIA (Miami) to Sao Paulo
• 2/13/12
• Museu de Futboll
• 2/14/12
• Museu de Arte
• 2/15/12
• Metropolitan Cathedral
• 2/16/12
• Trying new foods
• 2/17/12
• Flight to Rio de Janerio and Beach
• 2/18/12
• Carnival
• 2/19/12
• Fiocruz
• 2/20/12
• The Botanical Gardens
• 2/21/12
• Scuba Diving
• 2/22/12
• Santa Maria Art
• 2/23/12
• Sugar Loaf Mountain, Christ the Redeemer, and Souvenir Shopping
• 2/24/12
• Flight from Rio de Janerio to LIM airport in Peru, to Miami, then to Raleigh, North Carolina

Budget: $12,500- $17,500

Travel and Tourism Budget
Item	Cost
Plane Tickets	8,829.00	56%
Hotel Cost	3,008.00	19%
Meals	1,600.00	10%
Entertainment Expenses	2,040.00	13%
Souvenirs	234.00	1%
Total:	15,711.00
Budget	$17,500.00
Amount Left	$1,789.00

 

 

Day #13: Leaving from Rio to RDU Airport

2/24/12

We checked out of our hotel just in time to catch our 6:50 a.m. flight. Then we took a cab to Rio de Janerio-Galeao International Airport, which is the largest airport site in Brazil. We quickly ran to Terminal 1, in which our flight, Flight 143, was located. We boarded the airplane and took off at seven. The plane ride was more than five hours long, but we soon landed in Lima Jorge Chavez Airport in Peru at around 9: 45 a.m. Ryan fell asleep in the airport departure lounge while the rest of us decided to walk around to see the shops in the airport. Then at 10:15 a.m. we boarded the plane again only to arrive in Miami at about 4:30 p.m. We waited about four hours to board the plane and return home at around 10:25 p.m.

Day #12: Sugar Loaf Mountain

Waking up at 6:30 a.m., Samii went to go force Ryan out of his bed.  After a drowsily breakfast, we headed off to Sugar Loaf Mountain to climb.  Meredith wasn’t so keen on climbing, as she didn’t want to hurt her feet, but Anna convinced her to.  At 7:30 a.m., we met our tour guide, Alonzo, who told us about the mountain.  Apparently, the mountain is known as Pao de Acucar, or Sugar Loaf, and was named due to the resemblance to the traditional shape of concentrated refined loaf sugar.  With 8 o’clock looming ahead of us, we started our climb up the mountain.  Well, not really climb.  Taking the cable car up the mountain, we got to see all of Rio before our eyes.  On the other side of the city was the statue of Christ the Redeemer, keeping his arms open and it almost seemed like the statue stared at us. The statue stood on top of the Corcovado Mountain and soars thirty-eight meters high above the city. In Portuguese it is known as Christo Redentor and is a famous symbol for Brazil. Alonzo told us more facts about Sugar Loaf Mountain, including that it is 1,299 feet high!  When we reached the summit, Wini and Meredith both freaked out, Anna took deep breaths, and Ryan and Samii just stared in amazement at the sight.  We continued to stare around the city and learned more about the mountain until the tour ended at 12.  Since the tour ended, we all decided to go shopping and take home some souvenirs from our trip. We took a short cab ride to the Barrashopping mall located near Parque Marapendi beach. The mall had five hundred and seventy-seven stores and is 120,000 meters in size. Samii went to a store called Ferni, where she bought a shiny, magenta purse. Meredith and Anna went into a Brazilian store, in which they bought them a shirt that had the Brazilian colors on it. Then we all went to the food court and ate the familiar Burger King for lunch.

Day #11: Santa Marta Art (Haas & Hahn)

2/22/12

We decided to take a trip off the beaten path today and visit a small community called Santa Marta.  Santa Marta is a big hill favela, or shantytown, that has taken on a challenge to turn the place into one of the greatest community driven artworks of our time. That challenge is called O Morro, meaning “The Hill”, created by an artistic duo of Haas & Hahn.

Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn are the two Dutch designers who started O Morro because of their love for the community and art.  Their idea in O Morro was to use a flexible concept of colorful rays, which can easily be expanded, on the houses around the square and local samba school.  The coolest part is that the inhabitants help out by receiving instruction on how to paint the buildings, then actually painting their little block, and lastly getting a paycheck after all their hard work.  So far, only a small portion of the community has been painted, but Haas & Hahn plan to take the project all over the hill and eventually end up with about 7000 square meters of hillside slum turned into a new monument for the community.  This is the beginning of Jeroen and Dre’s journey to bring outrageous works of art to unexpected places, such as the painting of enormous murals in the slums of Brazil with local youth.  I think it’s a very inspirational project and if more like it were started around the world, a few more missing paychecks could be earned by those in need.  Plus, the world could use a little more color. Jeroen and Dre have proven to be artistic heroes by not only making Rio a more unique place, but also by using art to help those in the community.  Anna wanted a design like this painted on her bedroom walls at home.These few bright buildings reminded Wini of the sunrise and took the slum out of this neighborhood.

Day #10- Scuba Diving



2/21/12



We were looking through the brochures in our hotel for an exciting activity because we left today unplanned. Samii decided that we all should go scuba diving in the Arraial do Cabo Marine which had clear water with hills and a fishing village behind it. We got into a cab that took 2 hours from our hotel to get there. So many tourists lined the shore and we even talked to some Americans who were enjoying their trip. We were warned though from the other tourists that the water was cold even though it was summer. At first Wini was unsure when she first got her gear on, but once a local gave us lessons she eased up. Samii squealed as she first flipped into the crystal clear water from the boat. You could see everything so clearly it was if there wasn’t any water at all. We saw schools of brightly fish with stripes and dots swimming in different ways. There were also huge sea turtles and Anna got really close to one. Meredith swam over to it and ‘named’ it Crush like the turtle in Finding Nemo. We learned that streams from Antarctica bring cold water with lots of nutrients making life abundant. Once we all finished our scuba diving, we went to dinner close by. After an early dinner we came back to the marine to watch the gorgeous sunset. We reminisced about the animals we saw and we unanimously decided this was the best part of our trip.

Day #9: The Botanical Gardens

2/20/12

While venturing on the Corcovado Mountain, we explored the Botanical Gardens, founded by Emperor Dom Joao VI in 1808 and are known as Jardim Botanico in Portuguese.  Well, we might as well have been in Hollywood because we walked down the Avenue of Palms upon arrival.  I’m sure those pictures might confuse some of you at home.  Then our tour guide, Adam, introduced us to the most beautiful fountain which we all insisted on throwing a coin into.  After our tourist moment, we got to the main attraction: the greenhouses.  That was the largest variety of plants I have ever seen at one time.  I saw small plants, large plants, pink plants, and even carnivorous plants! It was so crazy I thought that we had jumped into a Dr. Seuss book.  One plant that caught my attention was called the Sarraceniaceae.  It is a carnivorous plant that attracts bugs by sweet nectar located in the bottom of its pitcher-shaped petals.  I thought it looked like a rose at first, but what a surprise.  Also, as we traveled in between greenhouses, Adam pointed out the many birds and howler monkeys.  Meredith said that a cute little howler monkey would be the perfect souvenir, and while the rest of us agreed, Adam hurried us along to the next house.  We had a great time playing touch the prickly plant and now we have a new friend to add on Facebook.  Oh, and now I know what furry little friend I’ll be asking to get on Christmas.

Day #8: Fiocruz

2/19/12

Even though Carnival was the bomb-dot-com, this Brazil adventure was certainly not going to stop there. Moving away from all the parties and pretty colors, we went on learned a little about Brazil’s new technologies and achievements through the company, Fiocruz. The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, otherwise known as Fiocruz, is a company dedicated to health science and technology and has been since 1908. Over 100 years ago! Since we couldn’t just meet this company on the street and shake its hand, we ended up visiting the Museum of Life which was quite entertaining. Most of the exhibits were about discoveries and topics that Fiocruz has researched. For example, we watched one video about how Fiocruz scientists developed the vaccine for blackleg, a disease that wiped out the country’s cattle. I only remember that because of the cow pen that you receive after leaving the station. When you click it moos like a real cow! Anyways, the exhibits were very memorable. The tour guide explained that Fiocruz is always informing the public of health science related issues/information and that’s why it’s so important. The last exhibit before the gift shop told us that Fiocruz is in the process of setting of a scientific computing center that will enable it to use high-performance computer algorithms for processing images, studying the makeup of molecules, manipulating huge databases, and studying the population dynamics of infectious diseases. This computing center will dramatically improve the efficiency and accuracy of the scientists. I guess we’ll just have to come back in a few years when it’s all finished.

Day #7: Carnival!

2/18/12

Carnival is the four days every Brazilian waits all day for, today being the first. Carnival is a huge four day celebration that sums up the Brazilian culture around the same time every year. The highlight of today was undoubtedly the Rio Carnival Parade called the Samba Parade or Samba Schools Parade, a totally unique event in the world. The costumes were truly original. They are designed and made from scratch each year and adorned with feathers, mirrors, silk, metallic cloth, and gems. The biggest and most magnificent costumes are located on the main floats, known as destaques. When we arrived at the Samba Parade of Carnival, Samba music was blasting from the parade floats and from the numerous bands marching down the street. We watched a flow of massive, colorful floats that made their way down the street, and dancers dressed in their bright costumes swaying to Samba music. Then the traditional band, Cordão do Bola Preta came parading downtown, which is a Brazilian orchestra that is mostly brass instruments. Each year, every Samba school chooses a new theme for the Samba Parade, the theme could either feature a celebration of a particular period, or, of famous figures of Brazilian history. Wow, today was lots of fun!

Day #6: Sao Paulo to Rio

2/17/12

We were all waking up early in the morning to catch our 6:52 flight. Before we went to the airport, all made sure we ate breakfast, so we wouldn't be able to eat the airport food. When the plane finally landed in Rio de Janeiro, got into a cab to get the Everest Rio Hotel on the shore of Ipanema. Since the hotel was on the beach in Rio, some of us decided to get a soccer and volleyball and hit to the beach and have some fun! Meredith wanted to just lay down and tan, and  Samii was playing soccer with random guys and some guy was teaching Anna to surf. Since the day was ending we all headed up into the rooms and order some room service. Than finally went to bed so we could get up early and ready for the Carnival!

Day #5: Trying New Foods

2/16/12

Today was like Thanksgiving all over again.  Our little group went to the Mercado Municipal in Sao Paulo.  It’s like a huge marketplace or flea-market that has food stalls from all over.  Everything about this place was huge.  First, we all tried a huge grape looking fruit called jabuticaba.  It tasted sweet just like a grape but it was super-sized (a picture is on the right).  Samii shoved the who thing in her mouth at once and exclaimed,”blerrr lerrr ohhhh!” I think she was trying to say that it was too large to chew or something.  Either way we got some strange looks and swiftly moved on to the next stall.  It was a crowded, loud, and Anna was forced to slow down her rapid power walking so we wouldn’t lose her in the crowd.  One thing that really caught my eye was the beautiful stain glass windows that pictured agricultural scenes, indicating that it’s a marketplace. I also couldn’t take my eyes off of the mortadella sandwich that Ryan ordered.  It was like twice the size of my head! Stacked high with bologna and provolone cheese, this sandwich is famous for its size.  We visited so many stalls and tried so many new and exotic foods, a peanut butter and green bean sandwich is looking pretty normal right now.  So, that was my favorite part of the day, but we also toured around a little and looked into some Sao Paulo history.  Now it’s time to go to bed and digest everything that I’ve learned and ate so far.

Day #4 Sao Paulo Cathedral

2/15/12

All of us woke up around seven, in order to get to mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral, and went down to get some breakfast from the hotel. Then, we took a cab ride to the huge church that is a major landmark in Brazil. When we arrived, we were stunned when we saw the huge stained glass windows tucked between the shiny marble walls. As we wandered through the enormous hallway, we learned that the stained glass windows were created in Italy, France, and Brazil. We decided not to take the tour because it was too expensive, and we our trying to conserve our money. Walking to our pews, we noticed the huge organ which was built in 1954 by the Italian firm Balbiani & Rossi, one of the largest businesses in Latin America. Also, we learned that the Sao Paulo Cathedral has a compacity of eight-thousand people. Underneath the main alter, we walked into the Crypt which holds the tombs of all the bishops and archbishops of Sao Paulo. The crypt has black and white tiled floors, where marbles sculptures by Francisco Leopoldo stand. It was a cool experience for all of us.