First Couple of Days in Rio

So Monday morning was really lazy. Some people went to get a volleyball, a bunch went down to the beach again, and I let my sunburn cool off. It was also really warm and sunny, which is a nice change from Seattle! We left for IMPA around 2, got on taxis to get over there, and eventually made it. The taxi drivers are apparently pretty vicious. We took 5 cabs, 3 got charged around 15, one around 20, and one 25. So they try to rip you off.

IMPA was throughly amazing. The area around it was very pretty, and they even had some monkeys. There are apparently large ones and small ones, and we just saw the small ones. Nathan gave us a walking tour, and then we had about an hour and a half of lecture. We talked about how to model the temperature of the earth, taking into account energy balance(ie, input from the sun, reflected light as a function of ice, ice as a function of temperature, etc). The Botanical Gardens(Jardim Botanico) were also quite impressive. We walked all the way from IMPA back to the hostel, around Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, which was pretty interesting.

Tuesday(Aug 19), I went down to the ATM, stopped for some Acai Berry drink around the corner which was very delicious. Fruits here are a whole different world. The pineapples are so sweet and not sour at all, the bananas are much sweeter, everything is delicious. Some of the food here is really cheap. There’s a store with R$ 1 hamburgers that kinda reminds me of McDonalds. Also very prevalent down here are Caipirinhas, which usually sell for R$3. They’re made with cachaça, lime, sugar, and ice. Anyways, we left around 10 for Sugarloaf mountain and rode the tram up to the top. I got a ton of pictures that I’ll have to upload when I get a faster internet connection and time to pare down the pictures to the best few. We also hung out at the hostel most of the afternoon and made it to the beach just about at 4, which it turns out is about exactly when the tide is coming in(ie, the bad time to show up at the beach).

I’m going to try to make it to the beach tomorrow morning, so perhaps I’ll get some pictures of that up!