Rivera

Nat Rivera
English 10
Mrs. Johnson
28 January, 2025

A Trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

On a trip to Rio de Janeiro, travelers should expect a lot of flying. The
best international flight to depart from America would be United Airlines. The
departure from Omaha, Nebraska, begins at 3:09 pm on March 29th, then stops at 5:46
for a 2-hour layover in Houston, Texas. Arrival in Rio de Janeiro should be
expected at 8:15 am, on March 30th. The entire flight takes approximately 15 hours
and 6 minutes to complete, costing roughly $1,059 USD. People of Brazil use
Brazilian Reals as their currency, and $1 USD = 6.07 BRL. While the official
language of Brazil is Portuguese, a lot of Brazilians also speak Spanish and some
English. The 216.4 million population of Rio de Janeiro is governed by the
democratic Brazilian government, led by the President. Now, when looking for the
perfect hotel to stay in Rio, what better place to stay than the Copacabana Palace?
$676.64 USD is all it costs to spend six nights at the Copacabana, with free Wi-Fi
and breakfast. After enjoying breakfast at the hotel, visitors can enjoy authentic
Brazilian dishes at Restaurante Príncipe de Mônaco. There, people can enjoy things
such as Camarão A Milanesa com arroz de Brócolis, which is fried Milanese shrimp
with broccoli rice. For dinner, the restaurant also serves Caranguejo ao toc toc,
which translates to “Crab knock knock” as it is a whole steamed crab. Another local
favorite is Omlete de Camãro com Arros de Batata Frita. This dish is essentially a
shrimp omlete with rice and Brazilian-style fries. Travelers can also order Filé de
Liguando ao Molho de Camarão, a Sole fillet shrimp sauce. Each of these dishes cost
only 60 Reals, or $9.79 USD. Desserts and drinks like passion fruit mocktails and
egg tarts such as Pastel de Natas are priced at just 30 Reals, which amounts to
$4.09 USD.A whole day of food in Rio de Janeiro would cost about $43.25 USD. Brazil
is a beautiful country with many things to see. Attractions such as Christ the
Redeemer, Copacabana Beach, and riding a tram around the Santa Teresa tram line are
just some of Rio de Janeiro’s magical attractions.
To start, travelers looking to make memorable adventures in Rio should
consider visiting the well-known statue of Christ the Redeemer, a statue of Jesus
Christ. This wonder of the world is so amazing, that former Brazilians in Melaka,
Malaysia have tried to bring the statue to their residence; despite the city’s
complaints. “A replica of Rio de Janeiro’s built in the city’s Portuguese
settlement…which caused controversy (Kay Hin Tan).” The large Muslim population of
Melaka later stopped their protests over the christian statue, when it was found
that the statue of Jesus brought in more tourism. And tourism brings more money.
“As the largest statue in tourist-dependent Melaka, its public acceptance is an
important issue (Kay Hin Tan).” The actual Christ the Redeemer can be found at a
very popular tourist attraction in Rio. “It {Christ the Redeemer} stands on the top
of Corcovado, a large, very visited mountain in Rio (Holston 6).” Although it looks
small on TV, tourists viewing the statue firsthand will find that that is not the
case. “The statue of Jesus is 98ft tall and has arms stretched at a wingspan of 92
ft (Holston 1).” Seeing as people in other countries want their own Christ the
Redeemer, this clearly shows that visiting the original is well worth the visit.
Moving on, the main attraction that travelers should look forward to is the
Copacabana Beach. It is conveniently located right next to their hotel of choice,
the Copacabana Palace. While one is not supposed to fall in love (according to the
very catchy Barry Manilow song), visitors will for sure fall in love with the
Copacabana Beach scenery and history. Believe it or not, the beautiful beach of
Copacabana used to be just a fishing place that nobody cared about until the 19th
century. “Drawn to its untouched beauty and remoteness, local and foreign travelers
began flocking the area in the late 1800’s (Sivak).” Now, Copacabana is one of the
most popular vacation destinations. “Copacabana Beach is still known today as one
of Brazil’s top vacation spots… It holds the world record for largest free concert
attendance that attracted over 4.2 million (Sivak).” Speaking of concerts,
Copacabana Beach is also known for having many celebrities around. “If you can
manage to secure a ticket for the glamorous parties, such as Baile de Copa, don’t
be surprised that you will be rubbing elbows with celebrities and the
wealthy(Booker).” Not only can travelers enjoy the sights of the beautiful beach,
but maybe even catch sight of some of the biggest celebrities.
Next, travelers will have to tour one of the oldest and most popular ways
of transportation in Rio de Janeiro, the Saint Teresa Tramline. “...the last true
tramway operation in South America… commenced operation in 1891 (Grynberg).” This
trolley-like bus (functioning by cables) goes around the Saint Teresa district.
This distric mainly consists of calm, middle-class neighborhoods, and is a very
popular tourist destination. “Routes pass mostly through bohemian, placid
neighborhoods (Deakin).” Although Rio is beautiful, visitors should be more aware
of their surroundings when traveling to this district. Robberies are very common in
Rio de Janeiro, even with Santa Teresa being one of the safer places. But other
than that, people can just sit down and enjoy the ride. The Saint Teresa Tramline
can even take travelers to Christ the Redeemer.
To conclude, Rio de Janeiro is the place to be for vacationers looking for
an adventure. Tourists can enjoy fine dining and cheap yet luxurious travel on
their journey to Rio. Upon their arrival, they can expect jaw-dropping attractions
such as Christ the Redeemer, Copacabana Beach, and the Saint Teresa Tramline. While
people often overlook a lot of South America in favor of other vacation
destinations, Rio de Janeiro will not disappoint.
 Works Cited
Grynberg, Maristela. “The Sahara Tram: The Soul of Santa Teresa under Attack –
RioOnWatch”.
Rioonwatch.org, August 2016. rioonwatch.org/?p=31881. January 2025.

Kay Hin Tan, Keith. “A new statue to proclaim an old culture: reactions to and
intentions of the
statue of ‘Christ the redeemer’, Melaka”. Taylor & Francis Online, September 2019.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14766825.2020.1718159?needAccess=true
January 2025.

Booker. “What is Carnival without the dazzling balls?”. Rio Carnival.org, 2020.
https://www.riocarnaval.org/rio-carnival/what-is January 2025.

Holston, Mark. “Statue of Christ the Redeemer”. explore.proquest.com, May/June

2008.
https://explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/235273651?
searchid=1737043309&accountid=5014 January 2025.

Sivak, Alexandria. “How a Sliver of Sand Became Copacabana Beach”. getty.edu, April
2022.
https://www.getty.edu/news/how-a-sliver-of-sand-became-copacabana-
beach/
January 2025.

Deakin, Tim. “Rio de Janeiro Santa Teresa Tram”. nycsubway.org, 2012.

https://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Rio_de_Janeiro_Santa_Teresa_Tram
January 2025.