science, etc in São Paulo: rio de janeiro, take one

apologies for not posting anything lately. i'm behind my deadlines for writing my prospectus, i've been sick for over a week now, and have to make a poster of my research for a required conference this weekend at a university 2 hours away. a nanomaterials conference. that is not related to my research or anything i've ever done, ever. and i have to attend every single workshop, seminar, and presentation... while my real research here at USP languishes!

enough melodrama! here's part one of my series on rio de janeiro. this particular entry is all about events that took place over the weekend of july 10, for the holiday. enjoy!

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we left at about 1 am from the bus station in SP to go to rio. a one-way ticket is about $50USD, for a 6 hour trip. they gave us nice blankets and pillows, and a little snack box and a soda. the overnight trip was nice because we were able to sleep the whole time and arrive early in the morning. we took a bus from the main bus terminal to the metro, which in hindsight was a bad idea. the metro in rio is INSANE! i've never seen such crowded trains in my life (but i've never been to tokyo). we had to split up to get on, and even then i'm pretty sure my feet weren't touching the ground, i was just suspended in a crowd of people. eventually we made it to the building where our temporary apartment was, and it was all worth it when we looked out the window.

just after arriving at our flat, view of copacabana and pão de açucar

the first day we bummed around on the beach in copacabana, which was excellent. the sun was out and the water was refreshing- though the waves and riptide were quite strong, and i got a nice mouthful of water a few times.

we left the windows open in the apartment, so in the morning we woke up to the sound of the ocean and a nice sunrise.

copacabana sunrise

i got a phone call from a friend (m.) who is studying at UNICAMP, as he and a friend (j.) had just arrived and were checking in at the same building. we met up with them, and with a friend of gustavo's who is staying in rio for a little while. we walked down the beach in copacabana, where we bumped into another group of american students on vacation for the weekend! after parting ways with them, we continued to botafogo (en route to sugarloaf).

to get to this different part of town, you have to pass through a tunnel (can you see where this is going?) which is not very long, but, well, it's a tunnel. it's dark. and you can only move in 2 directions. the walkway was narrow, so we were walking in pairs. i was next to m., and v. and j. were behind us. at one point v. began walking quite quickly, passing us, and we turned around to see what was going on- i thought someone was trying to pass on a bicycle or with a stroller or something. instead i see a man with a 9" butcher knife held up to j., who is looking terrified. i grabbed m. and walked quickly out of the tunnel where the others were waiting, and j. came out right behind us, alone. he was obviously upset and told us that the guy had taken all of his money (not surprisingly).

there's a nice shopping mall right at the exit of the tunnel, so we went inside to regroup and get j. something to drink to calm his nerves. really we all needed something to drink, as everyone was shaken up by what happened. i went with m. and we found a place in the food court that sells fountain drinks in 'american sizes' so we got j. the largest coca cola to be found in all of brazil, which cheered him up a little. he was upset for obvious reasons, but even the brazilians agreed that it's much better that he had the money to give the guy... if there hadn't been cash in his wallet, the probability of violence would be dramatically increased. eventually we all felt well enough to go on, and walked to pão de açúcar quietly, and with everyone's head on a swivel (truly the best defense is being aware).

after waiting in line for about 30 minutes, we got on the cable car that takes you to the first mountain, before pão de açúcar.