Esteban, our Professor here at UFF wanted to take us hiking to Tujica Forest. I was kinda hesitant at first, you see, you don't know Esteban like I do, the man can walk for hours/days/weeks. So I decided to give it a shot, so in preparation, I started working out the week before, because I knew it was going to be brutal.

So on Sunday, we went on our hike excursion, the day was some what cloudy but no signs of rain. We took two cars, Zaidi and I went with Paulo and his wife Michelle, Paulo is a PhD student and Michelle is working on her Masters, both are computer science majors. The ride was rather long, Esteban said it will take only 15 minutes, it actually took 45 minutes. When we got there it started raining, a sign for things to come?

During our hike, we reached a cross point, either we take the most dangerous path or the long path. Esteban really wanted to take the most dangerous path, but because it was raining, it could've turned disasterous. So we took the long way.

About 40 minutes into the hike, a lot of people were struggling and we still had about another 40 minutes left to go. We had no choice, we all had to keep on going, but along the way we took a lot of group pictures, it was a trick really, it was a way to get Esteban to stop so we can catch our breath.

We were almost there, but before we can reach the top, we had to go up a flight of very small and wet stairs

FINALLY!!! We reached the summit, and everyone was exhausted, instead of Esteban of course, the man does this for a living a I tell you.

What goes up, must come down. We knew our hike wasn't over, we still had to come back down but it was much easier going down the mountain. It actually took us aroung 30-45 minutes to come down. Once we finally reached the bottom we all went to a restaurant near Tijuca.

But our day was far from over.....