The hotel was most kind to offer us a welcome drink. The Brazilian national drink is a Caipirinha which is a rum based concoction :). I had mine with a group of our travelers on the roof top bar. Now, I heard that for some folks it was just fruit juice, but somehow mine had a LOT of rum .... This is what it looked like and these are the folks who hung out on the roof. Also, here is a view of the beach from our hotel. 
After that we had our first official meeting with the Austral folks - Federico and Licia. They gave us an introduction to Rio de Janeiro and told us all the dos and don'ts of the city. They also gave us a nice sense of what we will be doing this week. It was really nice for all the current students, alumni and faculty/staff to get to know each other. I'm sure we'll be fast friends by the end of the week. 
Many of our travelers want to blog so hopefully you'll see their posts soon. Tonight we will be off to dinner at a traditional Brazilian steakhouse.
Sounds like the trip is going well. Good food, good friends, good speakers, and of course good caipirinha. What a combination :)
ReplyDeleteChuck