Day 12

Day 12. Nobody told me it was going to fly by this quickly. It has been an unforgettable trip to say the least. After our trip to the Buddhist temple it was time for our farewell dinner. All of the students, professors, Ihor, and of course the drivers took our final evening to have a great meal and share a few drinks. Looking back I learned so more than I could have hoped in such a short trip, and more importantly made some great friends in Pittsburgh and now, Brazil. The program was the perfect balance between work and play, and the only thing I would change is my return date.

Actually, that’s exactly what I did. We stayed up late to wish Elijah a final farewell to get to his 6 AM flight, and then for the remainder of the morning sent the group off in groups of three and four. My flight, however, was the following day. As a result, by 11 AM I was the only one without passport in hand. I had the chance to check into the very cool Bambu hostel for the evening and roam the shopping district of Foz do Iguacu for the day. In true tourist form, I returned to the States with a shot glass, sandals, and a Brazilian flag as tokens of my travels.

Some of you may well know how cool the people you meet in hostels are. In a tourism heavy city like Iguazu, the visitors come from far and wide. My room alone had Brazilians, Australians, Irish, and British natives. I relaxed for the evening and got an early start in transit to the airport.

At this point things got a bit more interesting. I knew I was looking at least a five hour layover for my flight back to the States, but when I had an opportunity to move up my flight two hours, it left me with a full seven hours in Rio. I had no game plan, but wanted to make the most of the time and quickly asked information how to go see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. I found a way to store my bag and hopped on a bus. Now the public transportation in Rio is great, but I wouldn’t call it direct by any means. I had my plans to take a three step journey to the statue in time to make it back to the airport. First by bus to the subway, then after the subway to either a train or shuttle (my Portuguese isn’t fantastic). After two hours in one direction without making it to the mystery 3^rd leg of the journey, I got cold feet. In retrospect I could have pushed it for another hour, but something about international travel told me I was going to need a lot of time at the airport. I had a chance to see a great deal of Rio, but my trip to the famous statue would have to wait until another time. 

Thanks for reading everyone. I’ll see you stateside.