Visiting Don Bosco schools in Rio

Hugs with the sweetest kids on earth :-)

Group pic with the whole class

Rio is not only Corcovado, Pao de Azucar and Copacabana. Rio is also „famous“ for his many favelas, where hundreds of thousands of people live. During on the my last day in Rio, I had the opportunity to visit two Don Bosco Centers and have a closer look at one of the biggest favelas, the Jacarezinho. I spent the morning in the Youth Center of Riachuelo. I met manye children and youngsters there, playing football, table tannis, capoeira, etc. They all live in the favela, which I visited in the afternoon. Walking there with a Salesian priest (it is too dangerous to go there alone, he said), we reached the other Don Bosco center, a school right in the middle of Favela. There I spent 2 hours visiting all the classes and I was welcomed by the children like a rock-star: everybody hugged me, wanted to make pictures with me, asked me many questions and even autographs. And manye said with my new haircut I look like Neymar, a famous brazilian young football player, star of the moment.
What a fun and at the same time touching experience! I promised them to visit them again and I want to keep my promise in June 2012, when I plan to be back in Rio for at least one month.

More pics of my visit

Hiking to the Corcovado

Christ the Redeemer...and me :-)

On Friday 4th November I had one of the most spectacular days of my whole life!
What did I do? I hiked on the top of Corcovado, until the statue of the Christ the Redemeer.

Not alone, but with five other people: my dear friends Mathieu and Anne-Therese from France and three argentinian couchsurfers I have met in Rio: Laura, Meli and Emanuel.



To go up, it was a 3-hour hike in a street first, in a narrow path in the forest then, and along the train track in the end. With around 30 degrees temperature not the easiest walk, but definitely a beautiful one. Turning the corner you never know what to expect, it could be another part of the forest or a breath-taking view of the coast!

Once reached the top, we spent around 2 hours at the base of the Christ statue. The landscape is so incredible that I could not stop looking at the most incredible combination of nature and human buildings I have ever seen!

We walked back using another path which brought us to the park Loge, near the Lagoa, where we also met a few monkeys.

Overall, a glorious day and some more unforgettable memories to add to my unforgettable trip!

 More pics from the hike to Corcovado

the wonderful six :-)

An amazing view from the top

My first week in Rio

Rio is a big city, no doubt about it. More than 8 millions people, so basically all of Austria in one city!

I arrived last Tuesday and after 1 week here I have the impression I only saw a small part of the city. At the same time, I already feel completely at home.
I was hosted for 6 days by Mathieu and Anne-Therese, old friends from the Vienna time and it was wonderful to spend time. We saw each other for the last time in February in Vienna with the idea of meeting somewhere in South America and I am really happy we realised our wish :-)

The weather was sunny at the beginning and rainy in the last days, so until now no classical tourist places visited like the Christ and the Pao de Acucar, but we I went to Copacabana, Ipanema, Forte do Leme (with wonderful views!), I had a crazy party night in Lapa and I was at theater in the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil on Sunday night. Moreover, I read two books, spent a lot of time with old and new friends, had great food.

Life is so great here that I decided to stop for a longer period, until 20th November. Last night I moved to another part of the city and I was welcomed by my new cs host, Thalia. She is a wonderful person, complete trust at first sight and immediately went along very well. This morning when I woke up after a confortable sleep on a real bed, she left me a note with perfect description of basically any information I might need about the city and...a lot of delicious fruit in the fridge (ananas, mango, kivi, papaya) which she extra bought for me knowing I am vegetarian. As if this was not enough, I could use her washing machine to wash all my dirty stinky clothes ;-) I guess they were really happy to be washed well after the last 3 hand-wash I made in the last weeks!

I feel so thankful for all the wonderful experiences and people I am meeting on my trip, they are giving me a lot of energy and trust in a better world!

Well, I think I have writenn enough for now. it is raining outside  so I will go to visit some museums today. I am looking forward to another day in Rio!

Here are some pics from my first week in Rio

Por-de-sol in Copacabana

Mathieu, me and Anne-Therese in Forte do Leme

Amazing view of Rio!