During this week I spent most of the time working on the white paper for my project. On Saturday Prf. Estaban invited us to the international Animation Festival, which is hosted in Rio once a year. We saw short animations from a variety of countries, such as France, Brazil, and the United States. The festival featured a variety of interesting and up-and-coming directors, writers, editors, and animators and their latest work. We then, went to the Navy Museum in Downtown Rio, which was pretty close to the Festival. Once we were there, we were able to go into a submarine that was used by the Brazilian Navy up to a couple of years ago.

Here are some pictures of the Navy Museum:

On Sunday, we were invited by Prof. Esteban Clua, his wife and two of his students to hike one of the highest mountains in Rio de Janeiro, Pico da Tijuca. From the top of this mountain one can see all of Rio; it has 1,060 meters of height, which is remarkable when taking into consideration the fact that Rio is on sea level.  It was a long, difficult, and almost painful hike, but fun indeed. Later that day we got to go to the world reknown Maracana Stadium, one of the biggest stadiums in the world and where Pele scored his one thousand goal more than a decade ago. We stayed for the game between two local teams and it was one of the most vibrant places i have ever been. The energy from the fans was contagious and now I understand why Brazilians love soccer so much; it is in their blood, it is part of their culture, and their families, they live soccer, they feel it in every sense of the word, and they invite others to enjoy it as well. This has to be one of the best experiences I have ever lived.

Here are some pictures of the hiking at the Pico da Tijuca and the Maracana Stadium: