Hello! I am back today with another awesome blog post about our first week here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so I hope you enjoy it! So at the start of our Brazil Trip, my family and I woke up early in the morning and drove to the airport. We got on the plane to fly to Rio and all was well, but something so scary occurred on the flight I thought I was going to die. You see, we somehow flew into a lightning storm while flying and I saw a bolt come at least 4 inches from hitting an engine! It was scary because I thought it would hit and we would all die, but thankfully we made it just fine and then we landed in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Later on, we met our driver named Reinaldo who drove us to the apartment as people were getting ready for the carnival. Apparently, Carnival is going to start shortly after we leave so it’s very exciting to see the streets becoming festive for that occasion. Basically, people wear colorful and shiny outfits and then they create gigantic floats that move down the streets. It is a very fun occasion that really brings people of all social classes together. The next day, Reinaldo drove us to see the extremely famous Christ the Redeemer statue that towered above Rio! It was massive and since it was sunny, looking up at it from up close hurt a lot. It is roughly 125 feet tall and since it was struck by lightning two times in the same spot, there were metal rods poking out of it to absorb the lightning! The thing about the statue is that no matter where you are, it stares at you and towers above everything else, which is the point but also kind of creepy.
We drove to a favela after that, where the working class of Rio live, and met another guide there named Marco who showed us around. We saw many people, despite the poor conditions, sanitation, and housing they were given enjoying themselves just because they were happy. We also learned that Michael Jackson performed at the same favela we were at and there is a statue of him there to honor him(Link to Michael Jackson’s performance in the favela below). Did you know that there are roughly 1,000 of these, small and dirty favelas in just Rio alone? People with guns(we saw someone with a machine gun there!) and drug dealers live in these places. The poorest people live at the top of the favela because they don’t have enough money to sit at the bottom of the high and hot favela. The people at the bottom are typically wealthier and it saves them the super long walk down the favela by sitting at the bottom. There was even a built-in railway that took people all the way to the top because it was such a high and rugged favela. Yet, the people there seem very happy and have accepted their life, contrary to most people in America who aren’t content with their current and luxurious lifestyles. All the people we see in the world seem content with what they have and that could be a valuable lesson to us all. Just as we were about to leave though, Marco and his band members played their song for the upcoming Carnival and it was so cool. They used different instruments that all played a different part in order to create a nice symphony, which is sort of like a metaphor for the different social classes in the world. It was a very great experience there and it taught me a lot about the world and its people. We also saw a museum that was shaped like a UFO and although it looked promising, it was very boring. There was a bunch of hammocks and that was it, so not the best thing we’ve seen here. After the favela, we went to a mountain called Sugarloaf which offered a fantastic view of everything.
We saw all the mountains along with extra buildings, boats, and favelas. We got up there by an iconic cable car that showed us a view of the whole city and made the long ride up there worth it. After that day though, nothing really interesting happened much. Although, the beaches in Rio are absolutely beautiful! The beaches have white sand and the water is very clear, unlike Bali. The waves were grand and the atmosphere was very nice, which made me want to swim in the water. We went to a cathedral that was shaped like a giant triangle and inside there were all kinds of cool and ancient things. It is the headquarters for the religious people and was a nice place to visit. Later we met a friend of Aba’s friend, Danny, and his name was Jaque. We had a nice dinner with him at a Mediterranean restaurant, which was very fun, and he also has his wife in the hospital, which is very sad. Also, Troy’s anniversary meeting us arrived and Ella made a very cool collection of tarot cards for him. They were so cool and they have inspired me to go above and beyond with my creativity. Merrill also left us to go back to New York, which was very sad because she was a great companion and we will probably only see her again after the trip has ended.
The next day after Merril left, my family and I went to a very cool museum called The Future Museum. The museum is designed to look very futuristic so it can stand out amongst the old and poorly-maintained houses surrounding it. This is a very cool design concept because the way it is built inspires people around it to build marvelous buildings like it. Inside the museum, there is a giant globe with different global statistics on it which was very cool because it told us information about the world that I didn’t know before and the globe itself looked very cool. After that we entered a unique room which was like a planetarium, but smaller. It worked the same way as well because there were stunning 360-degree visuals that showed the cosmos and explained the formation of our universe. After that, we explored some of the galleries the museum had and we saw a really cool gallery where two pieces of cloth were floating in the air! Although it was because of controlled wind, it was really cool to see the two pieces of cloth floating all around the place. We saw a gallery about our ecosystem and about our different kinds of people, but we also a very depressing presentation about how we are changing the world. People are starting to want and need more necessities such as houses or other materials that are destroying the environment. The whole world is getting destroyed and people are only wanting more things, which is sadly true. After that, we left the museum and drove to the aquarium, which was an ok place but not the best thing I’ve ever seen. There were different kinds of sea life in the tanks and we also saw really big sharks, manatees, and even a humpback whale skeleton! It was a fine place, but ultimately our trip to Brazil has been awesome so far. You should know, however, that while we were enjoying ourselves Aba was trying to get us visas to go to Bolivia so we can hike there. After many hours and trips to the embassy, he finally got us a 10-year visa to go to Bolivia!!! Now, we can hike there until we’re 23! This trip has been very fun so far and I love Brazil.
I hope you didn’t forget to say “Thank you Jesus”. 😉