Rio de Janeiro

My time in Brazil will be very different than my time will be in other places due to the fact that I was in a University lead program.

Who: 

9 Students and Adriana Hofer, a Doctorate Logistics professor at the University of Arkansas Walton College of Business:

Four active undergraduates

Two graduate students

Three recent graduates

Why:

To participate in two 3-hour courses focusing on International logistics and economics. Course structure included visits to companies such as Embraer, Petrobras, Wal-Mart Brazil Northeast, the port of Telcon Suape, and Hermes distribution warehouse. We heard great speakers that lectured on economic policy, Brazilian logistics and supply chain, infrastructure, retail market development, and channel management, to name a few.

Our group was incredibly engaged in the lectures, I believe our average meeting was around 3.5 hours; we took mean advantage of the Q&A section.

When: 

May 21- June 9, 2012

Where:

Rio de Janeiro (2 weeks)  - Ibmec School of Business

Recife (1 week)

Part one:
Rio de Janeiro in the day time

Hotel Aparatt Ipanema/Copacabana

Our hotel in Rio is worth mentioning/describing. The semi-apartment set up provided a small kitchen, a “laundry room” of sorts containing a sink and drying rack to hand wash our clothing, and an entry way with a couch-bed and breakfast table, where our café, fresh squeezed OJ, and fruit was delivered every morning. The bedroom was nice with a television and two twin beds with a few inches in between! My roommate Carolina and I faced the main road and left our windows open most of the time because although it IS winter, it IS beautiful! 

The hotel is situated on the intersection of Rio’s two biggest and most famous beaches, Ipanema and Copacabana. The majority of our group preferred Ipanema > Copacabana during the day, but Copacabana was slightly closer to the hotel. Both beaches had good waves for surf, but none of us ever rented a board to test the tides. I mainly lounged or walked in the sand, had a beer or some coco water and shopped at the nearby market.

Rio

The city it’s self is pretty nice! …Ok, maybe the streets could use a power washing but the trash is picked up everyday and there isn’t much excessive littering. The sidewalks are all patterned with black and white stone but the streets are volatile. Cross the road at your own risk!

16 million people live in Rio- it goes on for for.ev.er. In spite of this, I was very surprised at how safe I felt walking around. We stayed in our group mostly but even on the rare occasion I was alone, I never felt threatened. The most dangerous aspects of Rio to me were:

1) The traffic [totally insane]

2) Coconuts falling from the trees [true story, almost knocked me out!]

The city has been undergoing a safety-renovation over the past five years. I was told that taking pictures around town with my iPhone wouldn’t have been plausible in ’07 if I wanted to keep my phone. Even some of the favelas* have been pacified and drug trafficking has dissipated.

Cariocas (Rio Locals)

People in Rio are tourist-friendly and happy to have us here! People smile as we pass by and don’t harass us without reason. Anyone that spoke English would love to practice with us and were always friendly. Personally I never met a rude Brazilian – unless they were rude in Portuguese and I didn't understand what they were saying.

I’d guess that:

 -90% understood Spanish and I could communicate a basic need.  

 -70% of people I met spoke Spanish in addition to Portuguese

 -20% of people spoke English – either because they are business professionals, or are in the right generation to have access to English speaking instruction. 

Men in Rio look good ;) that’s all I’m going to say about that. Most women wore thong or closetothong bikinis on the beach no matter age or physical fitness. Lots of women also wore vibrantly colored spandex leggings with leg-warmers scrunched down, and tennis shoes, like it's 1985. But mainly it was a flip-flop, "no shoes, no shirt, no problem" culture.

The people in general were very active! All hours of the day people would be walking, running, long boarding, rollerblading, bike riding, surfing, you name it. There were simple exercise structures on the boardwalks for public use and resistance-free equipment in city parks. Physical activity is a great part of the culture entwined in everyday life.

Why yes, I do think the US could learn something from this, thank you for asking ;)

Beaches

Both of the beaches we visited were very well lit at night and had a heavy police presence making them safe to stroll on at 2, 3, 4am without being threatened. During the day, vendors parade the boardwalks selling anything from maps and jewelry to seafood and soccer balls. I bought a tapestry that I just sent home to my roommates in a classmates’ luggage, along with some other nick-nack gifts for the fam. 

Miss yall J

Part 2: Rio from Sunset to Sunrise 

I didn’t go to Rio to rage, but I’m not going to lie like it didn’t happen once or twice ;)

The first night we tried to go out we walked for half an hour around Copacabana and couldn’t find a bar. [Seriously.] Ended up having a beer on the beach –some of the small beach vendors have an employee stay all night just in case people like us show up.

The second night, we went out with some Americans we met from the north (Penn State/U of Illinois/Harvard/Wisconsin) to a bar about 10 blocks from our hotel for Latin night that served free beer until midnight. True story.

When you enter the bar there is an entry way and a girl that asks for your name to write on a piece of paper. 

[Seem insignificant? Well it is not!]

This is your tab, basically. You hold it on you instead of keeping it behind the bar. Loosing this paper (at some places it’s a plastic card w/ a number) will cost you hundreds of dollars.

…Guess who lost hers? :/ Rookie mistake. 

I swear, no one tells me anything.

A champ of a man in our group stayed all night with me at the bar until closing at 4:30am so I wouldn’t have to blow all my Reals on an exit fee. 

It was traumatic, but ended up okay and we got to see our first of many sunrises on Copacabana!

Let this be a lesson to all reading this and planning on going to the World Cup or Olympics:

HOLD ON TO ANY PIECE OF PAPER ANYONE IN BRAZIL GIVES YOU LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

This goes for restaurants too! Many places will be set up like a buffet and charge your tab/card by the kilo of food you put on your plate – if you misplace your card they will charge you whatever they want to.

These tricky Brazilians…

P.S. People love making out in public in Rio. 

Every corner of everyplace: PDA all day. 

You get used to it. I’m sure the locals don’t even notice it.

The bar Adriana took us to in Lapa had 4 floors and eccentric decorations, a live Samba band, large dance floor, and a separate area set up as a club.  I wish I knew the names of some of the songs we listened to a lot but they're in Portuguese... If anyone reading this remembers, let me know!

I left Brazil on Sunday and said goodbye to the remaining four members of our group and caught a flight to Lima followed by a flight to Cusco to meet my cousin Charishma. 

__________________________________________________________________________

Blogging is more difficult than I had anticipated. Its time consuming and uploading pictures takes 100 times longer with shaky restaurant wifi than it does at home. Plus wifi usually only comes around for 20-30 minutes at a time. Not enough time for a full blog post. 

For more frequent and current updates, follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. 

Thanks for reading! 

Will post quickly about Recife then Cusco (Machu Picchu) next!