Day 4 in Brazil - Back to Rio

The last morning in Petropolis and with our host families started with bright sunshine. After saying goodbye to everyone, the buses left at shortly after 8:00 am, driving the 65 kilometers back to Rio de Janeiro. The city is the second-largest in all of Brazil, with around 12 million people living there. This time, we were lucky with the traffic and also enjoyed a breathtaking view of the landscape before Rio from the bus. Upon arriving in the city, we made a short detour to a cathedral where we took advantage of the acoustics and performed a piece from our repertoire. Afterwards, we headed to the cogwheel train that took us to the top of Corcovado, where the 38-meter-high Christ statue is located. Once we reached the top, many, many photos were taken, and some of us also enjoyed a Caipirinha. After we all had our fill of the view, we went back down and directly to the buses, which took us to the famous Ipanema Beach, where we could enjoy the last rays of sun. Unfortunately, the sun set much too quickly, so we soon found ourselves back in the buses heading towards the hotel. After about two hours of driving, we arrived tired but happy and were greeted with a very delicious buffet. Now, the rest of the evening will mostly be spent in our rooms, and we will go to sleep soon since tomorrow we continue towards São Paulo very early in the morning.