Day 29: Rio de Janeiro

After a very difficult goodbye to the Görtz family, our journey continued on Thursday. We traveled overnight by bus from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. Arriving in Rio at 8am, we took an Uber taxi to our hostel and spent a few hours, more or less sleeping, in the lobby until we could check in. Apart from a short walk to Botafogo Beach, the neighborhood where we currently live, we stayed at the hostel for the rest of the day. We were told that there are currently heavy protests in Rio and the police are on strike today, so it seemed best for us to just stay at the hostel. Today, we felt like the ocean, sun, and beach, so after breakfast we went to Copacabana and spent the day walking from one beach to another, going in the water here and there, or lying in the sun. In the afternoon, we walked along the promenade of Ipanema Beach sipping on a coconut and watched the carnival festivities before returning to the hostel.