Submitted by Sidney vanNeerden on the 2024 Winter PLSC program in Brazil …
The past few days have been packed with really cool excursions. The first one being Jardim Botanico. After having a watercolor class right outside of the garden we went to the Jardim Botanico to check it out. The first thought I had when we went to the garden was how in awe I was. When you go from seeing a certain type of flora and fauna every day at home to seeing one that is completely different, it’s almost magical. We saw so many Brazilian native plants, orchids, palms, water lilies, and cacti. We also saw so many marmoset monkeys all over the garden. Each pathway of the garden felt like discovering a whole new world. Before we left we stopped at the giftshop and then back to our hotel.
Two days later we got to hike sugarloaf mountain. Technically the mountain we hiked was called Morro da Urca, which is connected to sugarloaf by a cable car. It was mostly stairs that we climbed and once we got to the top we all used the bathroom and then headed towards the cable cars. There was an extremely long line at the cable cars so we waited and then finally got on. It was pretty scary, it reminded me of a ski lift but all glass around you. It was really slow and honestly confused me how a cable could hold that much weight. At the top you got a view of the entire cityscape of Rio, you could see Christ the Redeemer and Guanabara Bay. It was an absolutely stunning view. When we were done taking it all in, we went back on the cable car and got popsicles. It started to rain but we decided to hike down anyway. Although it was slippery, it was fun to see all the views from the trail again.
Our next big excursion was to see Christ the Redeemer. We woke up at 7:30 and got picked up on a bus. We took windy road after windy road until we finally got close to the top of mount corcovado. There was a big building which was the gift shop and where you buy the tickets. After getting the tickets we got onto another bus and that bus took us to the very top. Once we got there we had around 200 stairs to climb and then there in front of us was Christ the Redeemer. This being one of the modern wonders of the world, I didn’t know what to expect. It was extremely busy with a crowd so big and a platform so small that you could barely walk through. The 360 view that we had of Rio and the forests in the mountains was absolutely breathtaking. After seeing Christ the Redeemer so small all around Rio, It was cool to see up close. We only spent around 30 minutes there because of how crowded it was. When we got back down the line for the bus was 10 times the size when we got there. Which is probably why we went so early. Overall it was really cool to see and the view from the top was beautiful. These past few excursions have been ones I am never going to forget. (Submitted on January 29, 2024)