Budget & Itinerary

Here's Our Complete Budget and Itinerary:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnBlkBYBk7DTdG1XRExaTWhZU2VEYXZybmsyUEk1X3c&usp=sharing

Category	Amount per Person Spent	Money Left per Person
Initial Amount	$0.00	$4,000.00
Flight there	$886.00	$3,114.00
Taxi	$300.00	$2,814.00
Hotel	$886.00	$1,928.00
Food	$200.00	$1,728.00
Bus	$50.00	$1,678.00
Souvenirs	$200.00	$1,478.00
World Cup	$63.00	$1,415.00
Attractions	$100.00	$1,315.00
Flight back	$886.00	$429.00
TOTAL	$3,571.00	$429.00
CURRENCY	Dollar (USD)	Real (BRL)
One Dollar	$1.00	$2.33
Money we have	$4,000.00	$9,320.00
Amount per Person	$3,571.00	$8,320.43
Money left per Person	$429.00	$999.57

DATE	WHERE WE’RE GOING
July 5-6	Flight to Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport
July 7	Christ the Redeemer Statue Jardim Botanico
July 8	Copacabana beach National Library (Biblioteca Nacional)
July 9	Rocinha slums
July 10	Museum of life (Rio)
July 11	Sugar Loaf Mountain Sao Bento Monastery
July 12	Eat lunch at super traditional place Rodrigo de Freitas Lake
July 13	World Cup
July 14	Museum of Modern Art Teatro Municipal
July 15	Fly back to Raleigh/ Durham National Airport

July 15: Goodbye Brazil

The End :(

We were all reluctant to get up this morning. We are leaving for the States. Nobody wants to go back. After checking out of the hotel, we took a bus to the airport and got on the plane. It was basically just like the first flight to Brazil. Pretty routine. Joe got stopped at customs for trying to bring some fruit back in his suitcase. It was really funny. We got back into the US and we all said bye and drove home.

It's so sad that we have to leave Brazil. Looking back at it now, it was definitely the best experiences that any of us had ever had in our lives. That's saying quite a bit since we have gone to some exotic and exclusive places before. Every one of us cannot possibly think of as a better place to travel. There were some insane views, especially the ones at the Christ the Redeemer statue and the garden. Before, whenever our friends asked us for suggestions about where they should travel next, we would have to give it a good, long thought. That will no longer be the case as all of us will say Rio without a second thought. The bright cheeriness of the city and the cool sands of the beaches are second to none when it comes to relaxation. We highly recomend that you make you next vacation in Brazil! With 5.4 billion visitors each year you know its a great place to be. It's a shame that we only got to stay for ten days. But hey, at least we got to go to the best place on the entire earth!

July 14: Museum of Modern Art

We all woke up late because we were recovering from the World Cup. It was SO amazing. There are a lot of drunk people wandering the streets after they have finished partying hard. We partied pretty hard last night too. We went around and looked in the shops for world cup apparel. We ate lunch at McDonald's (just to have a taste of home) then we went to the Museum of Modern Art. It is really cool. In the 1950s it was built on a plot of land given to an architect to build a new museum. It is mostly made out of concrete. It also has a lot of external pillars. Not only are these structural, they are also very cool to look at. It also frees the actual viewing room of obstructions. The museum also has some really cool exhibits. Here are some pictures of the museum:

After visiting the museum we headed over to a place to eat lunch and then went to the Teatro Municipal.

July 14: Teatro Municipal

After the Museum of art we went to The Teatro Municipal. It was so amazing! It is considered one of the 7 wonders of Rio de Janeiro it is so amazing. The Theater is an opera house that is so big. It looks kind of like the DPAC except it is about 3 times as large. There is a basement, ground level, 1st balcony, 2nd balcony, and annex. The middle three levels are mainly for the stage and the basement is for art galleries and storage. The annex is for watching and for storage and galleries. The stage area is really cool. It is really big and has a lot of seats. 

The basement is full of really cool mosaics.

Mosaic of Babylonian king.

The whole place is really cool. Ryan says that he can't get over how big it was. If you want to know more about the Teatro Municipal or see it yourself you can check out the virtual tour here: http://www.theatromunicipal.rj.gov.br/tmrj_en/visita_virtual_en.html

After we finished the tour at the Teatro Municipal we headed back to the hotel to rest our legs and eat.

July 13: Fifa World Cup

We were all super excited this morning. Today was the day of the finals for the World Cup. We went to stadium first thing in the morning. The line took us 2 hours to get through. People had been camping there for days. When we finally got in we found our seats and waited for the game to start.

The game was AMAZING. Both teams played really well. We even got some vuvuzelas. They are really loud and really annoying. It is a wonder that players can think straight. the noise is like a constant swarm of bees just hovering over the stadium non-stop.

We went out and partied really late into the night after. It was a blast!

July 12: Feijoada and Guarana & Rodrigo de Freitas Lake

What we did
We woke up at like 10:00 today because we were tired from our hike yesterday. We had a quick breakfast and went out into the streets. It was ridiculous. There are so many people on the street getting ready for the world cup finals tomorrow. We decide to go shopping for jerseys so that we can buy the one that we think will win. We were really lucky to get tickets to the finals. They have a very elaborate system of selling the tickets. I don't really understand it but it seems to work. We joined in some crazy parties but we didn't get drunk. No one wants to have a hangover on the day of the world cup. For lunch we went to ordered feijoada and guarana. Feijoada is a traditional brazilian dish that is made up of different meats and lots of black beans. It is fried and then served. Feijoada is really good. Guarana is a soda that is made from the guarana berry. It tastes sort of like bubble gum soda with a hint of apple. After lunch we went to a bar and watched the tv. They were showing re-runs of the semifinals. Angad thought it would be a good idea to catch up on what was happening in the world cup.

Rodrigo de Freitas Lake
We also went to the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake. It was really amazing. Apparently they are hosting some events for the 2016 Olympic games there. We walked around the lake for a while. There were a whole lot of other people there and a lot of them were cycling. It is a really beautiful place but the lake suffers from pollution. Ever since the 1930s when people used it as a landfill, it has been recovering. There is only one colony of fish who live in the whole lake. It is really sad. The rest of the lake suffers from eutrophication. Eutrophication is where an excess of nutrients cause algal blooms which kill all the other life. There is a private company that was hired to fix the pollution and they recently reintroduced some native plants into the lake. Hopefully they will be able to make the lake better.
Every year at Christmas the lake has a really cool float. A big lit up christmas tree floats across the water for everyone to see. It's too bad we won't be here to see it :(

Then we headed back to the hotel and went to bed early so that we could be up and ready for the world cup.

Guarana Soda

Rodrigo de Freitas Lake

Feijoada

July 11: Sao Bento Monastery

After Sugar Loaf Mountain we went to Sao Bento Monastery. Monasteries in general are really cool but this one was amazing. It didn't make you think of stone walls and old guys dressed up in sackcloth robes. It was so bright and colorful. Jack said it made him feel, "like becoming a monk, but I would be one of those ninja monks." There are some really amazing works of art and sculptures. Some of them might be solid gold. They sure look like it! The Monastery was built in 1950 because the local townspeople wanted to have a monastery. There are all sorts of benefits to having a monastery like better educations, medical help, and general service to the community. Here are some pictures of the Sao Bento Monastery: