5th January 2017Rio was our first true experience with a major Brazilian city and during our day, most of our activities were concentrated around familiarization with the city's layout.
We arrived at Premier Copacabana Hotel at about 9:30. After settling into our rooms for about 3 1/2 hours, we headed down to the Copacabana Beach and ate at several of the restaurants. Although this was an informal learning experience, it did nonetheless introduce us to Copacabana, which is one of Rio's upper-class districts. Over our time in Rio, we would begin to understand the disparage seen in the city, along with the hostility exhibited by police towards favela residents. After our time at the beach, we returned to the hotel for a quick respite before heading back out to ride the Rio Subway system. This gave us a taste of the congestion problems which have plagued the city for decades. After riding the subway, we split up into different groups for dinner. We rendezvoused at 21:00 to do presentations. First was me and my partner Alex Melchiore, discussing our topic of the changing biodiversity of the Amazon. The presentation is available under the "Presentation" tab. 6th January 2017 |
On our second day in Rio, we woke up early in the morning to visit the famous statue Christ the Redeemer, at the summit of Corcovado Mountain. Our tour van delivered us at the statue at 10:00. We spend approximately 1 hour at Cristo Redento, as it is called in Portuguese. After leaving Christo, we hopped back in the tour van to our next destination, the tram terminal which would take us to the summit of Sugarloaf Mountain. We arrived at the terminal at 11:00, taking the tram first to Morro da Urca, Sugarloaf's sister- mountain to the south. After spending about 15 minutes at Morro da Urca, we headed to Sugarloaf. We stayed at Sugarloaf's observatory for about an hour, after which we took the tram back to Rio and headed to our lunch destination, arriving at about 14:00 and finishing at 15:00. After that we took a tour of Rio in the tour van until 18:00, during which time we stopped at Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, and Carnival Street. With our tour of Rio concluded for that day, we headed back to Copacabana Premier Hotel. I, along with several of several of my classmates had dinner at the hotel restaurant. At 19:00, we rendezvoused in one of our hotel rooms to listen to Anne and Andy Tonnesens' presentation on Energy Issues in Brazil. From their presentation, I learned much about Brazil's energy infrastructure, which, while largest based on renewables, has developed a growing oil boom, particularly in the Rio area. Needless to say, this has generated controversy in recent years. Today we learned much regarding the geology, geography, and ecology of the Rio area and the culture of the city. The three mountains we visited today, Corcovado, Urco, and Sugarloaf, are all part of the Serra do Mar, a long mountain range along Brazil's Atlantic coast. The three peaks in question are all composed of exposed granite and quartz, and are typical of the Serra do Mar, which is known for its rugged terrain and juxtaposed mountains. This continuously changing terrain has contributed to the high diversity found in the Atlantic Rainforest. Today, we had a limited experience with the that rainforest, experiencing the rainforests on the summit of Corcovado and troops of Wied's marmoset (which are not native to the rainforests surrounding Rio). However, January 7th would fully expose us to Rio's famous urban forest: Tijuca. Apart from geology, we learned extensively about the culture of Rio the role that religion (specifically Christianity) plays in the lives of Brazilians. Both Cristo and the Rio Cathedral are grand icons of the presence of Christianity in the city. Catholicism is the predominant sect of Christianity in Brazil, and Rio is no exception. Additionally, when Cristo was constructed in part to serve as a monument to the influence of Catholicism in the Brazilian Royal Family (Brazil was at that time an Empire). 7th January 2017On our third day in Rio, we woke up early to go hiking in Rio's famous urban forest: Tijuca National Park. After having breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we headed out to Tijuca Forest, at around 8:00.
We started our hike through Tijuca at 9:30. Along the way, I learned a lot about the ecology of the area, which is part of the severely degraded Atlantic Forest, a subtropical rainforest formerly widespread across southeastern Brazil, but is now only found in isolated pockets. The original forests of Tijuca were felled during the 19th century to make way for sugar plantations, which were short-lived. After these plantations were abandoned, the trees grew back at a very quick rate. This would make Tijuca's forests a second-growth forest. I also learned extensively about the impact of the presence of the forests on Rio's air and water quality. We finished our hike at around 1:30, after which we headed back to the hotel. Apart from Rio's local ecology, I also learned extensively about the mingling of human behavior and its impacts on the surrounding ecology. In the areas surrounding Tijuca are several favelas. Over the years, much debate has arisen over the impact of these favelas on the ecology of the area. |
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