Due to the hectic nature of the past couple of weeks, I haven't given any updates on the cultural and weekend activities. Now that I am sitting on a plane for a long ride back home, I can give a summary of what I've been doing outside the lab for the past few days. 

First, since I never put any pictures of Piratininga

Beach, here is one that gives a pretty good idea of the things going on there:

people jumping into the ocean

view of the beach

A couple of weekends ago, I went back to the city of Rio, where I visited the \emph{Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas}. This is a huge lake that spans a few klometers. There is a great view here of the ever-present Christ statue and Sugar Loaf. Around the lake, there are several places to eat, a yacht club, a jockey club, and several other things.

Picture of the lake

I also went to Sao Francisco beach. I had been here, but never really walked around through there during the day. By the time I got there, it had gotten cloudy, so it was pretty empty. There were just a few people out at the beach and in the restaurants on the side of the beach and across the street.

Last weekend, I went to Urca. I went there through Botafogo, where I discovered there is an IBM building.

IBM Building at Botafogo

The first thing I did at Urca was hike through the Pista Coutinho. The hiking trail itself is not too challenging, and allows you to explore part of the sugar loaf. For true sports-people, the sugar loaf can actually be climbed. 

the Pao de Azucar (sugar loaf). This is the other famous tourist attraction at Rio. It provides a very nice view of the city. There was  a good view from Corcovado (where the Christ statue is), but from here, some different angles can be seen. I don't know if I just hadn't observed enough last time, or maybe because I came when the sun was setting, but I got more appreciation for the design of the city. The way that it developed is quite impressive. 

Its really cool to be at the same level as the clouds.

Here you can see all the small mountains scattered about the city.

The next day, Esteban set up an adventure to climb the Bico de Papagaio. This was a more challenging hike with a great reward when you get to the top. There is an excellent view of Rio from the top. 

 

View from Bico de Papagaio 

My experience at Brazil was an excellent one. Several problems had to be overcome, even while I was still back in Miami trying to get my visa. Since that point in time, Esteban, Gabriel, and I were working together to solve problems. This gave us a helpful head start in working together to solve problems, many more of which were faced while working on the project itself. Working together through the GCB project helped as well. Considering all the challenges that had to be faced, I think we accomplished quite a lot. I'm sure we will keep this collaboration strong, continuing to contribute to conferences as we have already done in the past. I'm grateful to have been able to do all this in a marvelous place in the world, with great people.