Feliz ano novo!

So I've returned to Rio de Janeiro to celebrate New Years Eve. My initial plan was to hopefully meet some of the other CIDA interns in Rio for NYE, but things don't always go as planned. I ended up going with my new friends Andrela from Colombia and Christopher from Chile who had been studying in Fortaleza for the past 5 months. I happened to have met them at a BBQ a few weeks earlier and we quickly realized that we would all be travelling to Rio the same day, but just different times. What luck right? It was their first time in Rio so we revisited some of the same locations I had already been to back in September with Amber.

We went to the Cathedral and paid a visit to my favorite stairs in the world, the Escadaria Selaron, and I managed to get a picture with Jorge Selaron. I went back to the world famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema and relaxed with some Cariocas.

This is probably a good time to mention why I have pictures of a doll. One of the women from Mulheres Mil gave it to me as a Christmas gift and since she is a red-head like my coworker, I've named her Amber. Amber is travelling with me in spirit and like her namesake, my doll has been very supportive. Everytime I look a her, she tells me how special I am :). Thanks Amber.

The main NYE event takes place at Copacobana with over 2 million people wearing white and celebrating at the beach, making it the biggest NYE celebration in the world. The main act of the night was David Guetta, a French DJ and producer who has worked with many singers, such as Akon, Kelly Rowland, LMFAO, the Black Eyed Peas and Rihanna...just to name a few. This was probably one of my most memorable NYE celebrations to date. However, it did rain for most of the night...heavily. Since there we're soo many people, trying to get home was an issue since most of the taxis we're full. We stayed out all night but we eventually caught a bus to our hotel. We got back to our hotel around 7am, right on time to have our free breakfast and sleep all day. NYE in Rio was certainly an experience and I'm glad to have that checked off of my bucketlist of life.

I won't lie the rain in Rio put a damper on our plans. During my time in Fortaleza, I had gotten used to having hot sunny days everyday. The rain was a very depressing sight to see. Eventually the weather did turn around and we headed to see Pao de Acucar, a sight I missed out on last time because of cloudy weather.

Rio this second time around was very different from the first time with Amber. I'm extremely happy to have met Chris and Andrela. My time with them made my trip even more sweet. Thank you guys, I'll never forget you both. Until we meet again, beijos.

Next stop...Salvador, Bahia.