I’m in the Rio airport now as Sean and I are heading home to
Ilhéus. The last ten days have
been fantastic though also a bit tiring as we have tried to pack in as many
sights and activities as we possibly could. The linguistics conference was great and it was cool to have
the opportunity to listen to some very well-known applied linguists speak about
their research. Sean enjoyed his
language classes and has said more than once how glad he was that he had studied
Portuguese before he came here because it has made a huge difference.
I can see why everyone loves to visit Rio because it has a
little bit of everything for everybody: beautiful beaches, a lot of history and
museums, a national park of some of the oldest rainforest in Brazil, great
views of the city from famous monuments like the Christ and Sugarloaf,
incredible nightlife with unrivaled music and dancing, adventure sports and
great shopping. Throw in summertime
weather all year round and the cheerful attitude of the local Carioca people
and Rio is a destination that I wouldn’t hesitate to visit again.
In the afternoons, after the conference/class, Sean and
visited Copacabana and Ipanema Beach, went to a soccer game at the Maracanã
stadium (Flamengo x Santos), checked out the Botanical Gardens, climbed the
famous tiled stairs, explored the historical Santa Teresa neighborhood, took
the train up to the Christ monument and rode the cable car to the top of
Sugarloaf Mountain. We made sure
to go out a few times in the evening to the neighborhood of Lapa, which is
famous for samba and live music.
We also made sure to try the empadas
and feijoada, which Rio is so famous
for, and also enjoyed more than a few caipirinhas
while we were here as well.
Some of my favorite details about the city include the
particular Carioca accent, an interesting and very popular sport called futevolei (played with a volleyball net
on the beach in which players can use every part of their body except their
hands), the street food and impromptu samba circles on the street in Lapa, and
the friendly hostel cat called “Moon.”
Sean’s impression of Brazil so far? “It reminds me of China in some ways except it’s more of a party; it’s not very organized and there's definitely some problems but the people are really nice.” There you have it, folks.
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