Day 6 - Smaller excursions

Monday, 05.03.2018 / Rio de Janeiro

Early this morning around 4:00 a.m., we woke up inevitably because a mosquito had made its way into the room. After too many bites and the most annoying night for me so far, I headed to the beach around 5:30 a.m. because I couldn't fall asleep anymore and preferred to enjoy the sunrise. At this time, there were only a few people with their dogs and a few surfers on the beach. With the beautiful view of the rising sun and the sound of the waves in the background, I quickly forgot about the many bites.

After breakfast, we were dropped off near the Botanical Garden together with Christian, from where we hiked for about 60 minutes to some hidden, small waterfalls. On the way, we spotted little Macaco Prego monkeys in the trees, which can also be found on the back of the 20 Reais note, the national currency of Brazil.

The waterfalls were small but nice. Above all, they were very refreshing cold after the hot and humid hike through the rainforest.

At the lunch table, there was a discussion about whether it was too dangerous for us to take the metro to Ipanema on our own. The host family had differing opinions, so we were given a very detailed description of the route. I was excited to take the metro (which, by the way, only has 4 lines) and was initially pleasantly surprised that there is one at all. The positive impression faded when we saw that there are separate "women's wagons" and later learned that they are urgently needed because otherwise there would be an increased incidence of sexual harassment.

Well, the part of Ipanema we saw was actually like any other shopping street: many shops, smells, and people mixed together.

~Viktor