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:
  

July 11: Sugar Loaf Mountain

Today was quite a breathtaking day. We didn't even eat breakfast at the hotel, we went straight to Sugar Loaf Mountain located at the mouth of Guanabara Bay. The ride to the top in the cable cars was amazing and Ryan even tried to play 007 from the movie MoonRaker but of course was nothing like him. When we were at the top we had a bite to eat and took lots of pictures. The mountain has a lot of interesting facts about it like how the "Sugarloaf" part came because of the sugar cane trade in Brazil. The mountain is also available for rock climbing but we had no experience whatsoever in the sport so we decided to pass. The original cable cars for the mountain were created in 1912 and lifted people for about 60 years. Sugarloaf mountain is 394 meters high. The name comes from the mountain’s resemblance to a concentrated sugarloaf, so familiar in the city during its sugar cane hey-day. 

July 10: Museum of Life (Rio)

Wow, today was such an interesting day! After eating breakfast we went to the Museum of Life in Rio! We heard tons of great reviews about it and it seems to be a lot like the Museum of Life here in North Carolina. They utilizes space, science, and society into the museum to make it an interesting place. They also try to teach technology, science, and health in a fun way for all people, young and old. The Museum of Life also has a Education Center. They are responsible for pedagogical orientation of the museums different visiting areas. They evaluate the education activities developed by the Museum. The Museum is also very kid friendly and has many programs for them like a park. We of course took full advantage of these things even though were all 21. After eating lunch there we stayed until closing time at 4 pm and returned to the hotel. As we were talking we remembered that there was a Rio movie and we really wanted to watch it again. For dinner we ordered room service and watched the movie Rio which brought back many memories and we even saw the Sugar Loaf Mountain in the beginning were we are going tomorrow!

July 9: The Slums

What We Did

Today we went to the slums. The slum we visited was called Rocinha. It was a very interesting experience. We walked in and the atmosphere changed. We shopped at the street vendors for a couple hours. They sell everything! Ryan bought a machete to use in case we ran into any gangsters or drunks. We stopped and ate lunch. Then we kept shopping. Shop til you drop. We all got some really cool things. We took a bus to the hotel and collapsed.
History and Culture
The slums are very interesting. They are a collection of houses that were built by the lower class citizens. Housing in the city cost too much so they built their own houses (illegally) and it turned into elaborate neighborhoods. There are a lot of slums around the big cities but one of the biggest ones is Rocinha. It has about 250,000 people in it and it is full to the brim. The slums are a huge part of the Brazilian culture because many people live in them so lots of people know what its like.

In the slums, the holidays are super amazing. Carnival is one example. Feel free to watch a short video of Carnival.

Carnival is similar to the Mardi Gras celebration in the US. It is believed to be the one day of the year that God turns his back and allows you to do bad things. There are amazing festivals and parades every year. It is too bad that we can't be here for it.

July 8: National Library of Brazil (Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil)

A Place of Knowledge:

After going to the beach we decided to go to the National Library of Brazil, it was a little afternoon when we got there and went right after. Library's can generally be boring places but it was really fun exploring all of the things inside the library. There was this one section called Teresa Cristina Maria photograph collection, that has 21,742 pictures aging back to the nineteenth century, THE NINETEENTH CENTURY! That was in the 1800's! It was also a very fancy place, there was nothing that looked odd and everything looked like it belonged there from the beginning. Who knew a library could be so interesting? Brazil has really blown all of us away and changed our minds on alot of things. As you can see from the pictures there are floors and floors of books. I wish we had cool old library's like this in Apex. After we visited the library we when out to dinner, it wasn't any where fancy. We're back at the hotel tomorrow and we'll be going to the slums which will be pretty interesting, but also pretty scary. Hopefully we'll be alive tomorrow to blog about it.

July 8: Copacabana beach & National Library

To the Beach!
Our hotel is the greatest! We live so close to the Copacabana beach that we decided to go there for the day, and were not disappointed!

As you can see the beach is quite amazing to look at, but even better to play in!

When we woke up we of course ate our free meal and then returned to our rooms to get ready for our trip to the beach. It was a very short distance so we decided to walk there. It was jam packed! Most likely because of the World cup going on, in which I was extremely exited to go to. We stayed at the beach for hour and then took a break to eat lunch at a small vendor that was walking by with his little cart. After that we stayed some more until about 3 o'clock.


Copacabana beach
Copacabana beach is such a wonder place that that has so many cool things about it. First of all is the New Years Eve part on of course, New Years Eve! It a really fun time where people stay up all night a socialize on the street listen to other perform. There is usually a huge concert with a well know band that plays, attracting a couple million people! Another cool thing about this beach is that it was originally called Sacopenapã which means "the way of the socós (a kind of bird)". There are also two historic forts build on both end of it, Fort Copacabana and Fort Duque de Caxias.

After the beach we dried ourselves and then wandered the streets, looking for souvenir shops to buy souvenirs. After we bought our little trinkets we headed to a fancy restaurant to eat and returned to the hotel to relax until we went to sleep.

July 7: Jardim Botanico Gardens

The Gardens

We then traveled to Jardim Botanico which is a beautiful garden in Rio. It has ​​137 hectares and over 6,500 species (Some Endangered). It is sometimes called "Suvaco do Cristo" which translates to "Armpit of the Christ". The park lies at the foot of the Corcovado Mountain far below the right arm of the statue of Christ the Redeemer. The park is protected by the Patrimônio Históricoe Artístico Nacional and was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1992. There is more than 6,000 different species tropical plants and trees and subtropical plants and trees, including 900 varieties of palm trees. Wow! One of the tour guides told us that the 750 Meter line of 134 palms forms the avenue of Royal palms leading from the entrance into the gardens. Also the tour guide said, "these palms all descended from a single tree, the Palma mater, long since destroyed by lighting." The story was very interesting! After just walking around the amazing city and hanging out we hit the hay and enjoyed a nice long sleep.

July 7: The Christ Redeemer

History and Culture
The City of Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful and rich city of culture and history. It was built in 1565 by Portuguese explorers and in the 1800s it started to grow very rapidly and began to look like it does today. It used to be South America's most visited city but it hit a peak in the late 1900s and began to decline. A really popular place to visit there is the Copacabana beach. Every year it is just full to bursting on New Year's Eve.We might visit it later. It's just a couple blocks down from our hotel. The most exciting thing about Rio right now is the FIFA World Cup. The streets are packed and the hotels are all full. But more of that later.

What we did

We woke up and ate the complementary breakfast at our wonderful hotel. Then we all got in a taxi to make our way to the first stop of the day, The Christ Redeemer! Its a huge statue in Rio that was first suggested in the mid-1850s. It was finally finished in 1931 for a total cost of $3,300,000 (in today's money). It is 30 meters tall and 28 meters wide. It gets 2,000,000 people who come and climb to the top each year, there are 220 steps to get to the top. The Christ Redeemer is a great historical site and shows how religion is important in Brazil because all of the money used to build it was donated from the private sector. When we were done look around at the Christ Redeemer, we went to a nice restaurant called Mr. Lams's to eat lunch.

July 5-6: On the Plane

We got to the airport at 3:00 am on July 5th, 2014. It took FOREVER to get through security, but we finally made it to our flight with just minutes to spare. It took an hour to get to Charlotte and then we had another hour of waiting. Flying is stressful! From Charlotte it took another two hours to get to Miami where we had another layover. We finally got on our flight to Rio de Janeiro at 10:00 pm. We all fell asleep because it was so late. We woke up at 6:00 am so that we could get a good look at the city before we landed. Rio is a beautiful city. One of the coolest things was the statue of Jesus Christ. We landed at the airport at 7:30 am and exchanged all of our money at the customs place. A US dollar is worth about 2 reais so it isn't too hard to figure out. After arriving at the city we traveled to our hotel the Manga  Hostel which has had amazing reviews. We plan to stay in Brazil for 10 days in this hotel so we organized all our item. We will be leaving on July 16, 2014 with the same flights. I checked the weather forecast before we left and found out that Rio almost always hot and rainy, I guess its because were in the tropics. Then we rested for the remainder of the day after the long plane ride.

Christ the Redeemer statue as seen from our plane.