Day 9
This welcomed us. Look closely and find "Highest: 38 degrees Celsius"; wasn't prepared for this
Headed to the beach with a bunch of paranoid girls screaming and getting worried at everything; made us all pretty nervous towards the end as the threat got higher along with the attention they attracted. And then it's back to site visits!
Got to GOMA, a super hipster working space and was briefed by founder of Emzingo on the future of social entrepreneurship and the social business mapping canvas (which also exposed me to the conventional business mapping canvas)
And then participated in a mini case challenge amongst ourselves helping a new social entreprise, Tem Açucar, find avenues for revenue generation. Very interesting and even more interesting ideas were generated, triggering a tinge of enthusiasm to get into the social entrepreneurship in the future. But I know the risk averse me isn't that cut out for it lol. We'll see! But at least I'm sure I wanna participate in more social entrepreneurship case competition after this
And just to show some hipster-ness in the office space, it looks more like an archi studio to me. And different segments of the space with different layout and design is occupied by different groups of start ups with potential to synergize. "Sharing economy" in the physical form.
Late in returning back to hotel so dinner was a VERY big portion. Haha I'm kidding, this is a plater for 3 by the beach. Not too shabby
And then this. Apparently we were at "Porto 3" then the next is "Porto 4" and this is at "Porto 5" (makes sense). But she didn't mention anything about the distance. So we walked for about half an hour rushing for the free flow beer that ends at 12. Pub's name wasn't even at the door so it was pretty lucky we found it. Got 4 beers in quick succession
Some Latino/Portuguese music and some attempts to samba dance later, 45 minutes of non-stop EDM got us all wet (literally, with sweat). And that about spent all the energy this old man in me has. And some abrupt decisions later, 4 of us got on a cab and got back to the hotel in less than Rs10 (S$4) while the rest walked the 30 minute route.
Day 10
Next day started with a road trip again
And check out the matching Brazilian colours standing together, with ever photo-ready cool kid Yixiu in the background
Orangelife advertisement: says something about speed being the most important thingy or something like that lol
Lunch was at this super cheap outskirt of town, costing just Rs26 for what would usually be around Rs40 without the rich selection
Then SangueBom by the same founder, apparently an aspiring plastic surgeon (looks the part at least) who got rejected when he came over to Brazil from Italy due to unforeseen circumstances, and his private yacht dream turned into favela adventures that made him realize the social importance of healthcare services, thus setting up these two social enterprises producing means of rapid diagnosis currently lacking in Brazil. He also manage to smoothly boast about his LV belt mid-speech. Also, liked how he pulled of the (ugly) NUS tie with swag. Wasn't stalkerish enough to snap a photo of him though.
Went back to hotel and after a mad frenzy of 5-minute changing parade (cos the bus couldn't wait at the lobby for long):
The amazing sunset view from the Sugar Loaf Mountain. Well worth the rush and the wait...
Dinner then night market and a short drinking session that ended in a shophouse (what?!) ended the day.
Day 11
Then the second highlight of the trip: Christ the Redeemer!
View was also not too bad
And even got to hi5 him! I mean, so many are trying (see Beatrice and Sherann trying on the right) but I guess only the chosen one got it. Or at least from my perspective that's the case. Lol
LiNUS also had a great time! HAHAHA
Then PUC-Rio for tour, lunch, and some lecture on Brazil's economy and social entrepreneurship scene; the aircon that spoiled made the whole experience pretty unbearable. And the Econs lecturer wasn't very knowledgeable bout the Brazilian economy haha
And finally the last site for our study visits: another incubator with many cool start-ups dealing mainly with the favela (such as Faveliving which brings tourist into the favela - safer ones - to stay) but also some to conserve the environment (which is rare consider the "main" natural attraction in Brazil is Amazon in the north, haven't heard of much talk about the environment the whole time we were in Regió Sudeste)
That wasn't the final stop though, this is. Some carnivore like meat buffet restaurants that we ate our worth at. Good thing we had the local regular sitting beside us, giving us winks, nudges, and head shakes to differentiate the good stuff from the less-worth when the waiters bring it in. Haven't been to Singapore's Carnivore but I would think this is probably one of the best any of the people present that day ever had (except steak wasn't as good as the Kobe one, I insist, haha)
Headed back to hotel, packed, and took a nap before the sleepless night begins. Went to the beach for a simple pre drinking then headed down to Lapa. And damn we've been in the wrong place all along!! This is indeed where Rio never sleeps. And though we didn't find a club that's good enough to get us high like a kite, the atmosphere in the streets in this area was really pretty intense and exciting. I'm really glad we made this trip; eye-opening!
And then it ended with this: one of the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen. Well worth the staying up mates, well worth.
Also met this bunch of dubious people who were pretty eccentric (with non-conventional sexual orientation/identification) but they turned out to be warning us against going to the left side of the beach cos there're pickpockets there! Such kind people and random acts made the sunrise even warmer.
A quick nap later, it's goodbye. First to Rio, then met Lucio and left him for good this time round after we reach the international airport in São Paulo, in which we spent 7 hours hobo-ing.
14 hours later landed in Dubai, bathed, nua-ed and then another 7 hours back to Singapore and responsibilities. 2 weeks felt kinda short and I'm already missing everyone as I type this. It's nice because the time was so well spent, and the fun was so intense these happy moments just seem go fly by; and it wasn't as if life was being wasted since we visited so many educational sites, be it a company, an university, or some on-site excursions. It's really been 2 weeks well spent. And most importantly (and hopefully), using this 2-week to exchange for some lifelong friendships - definitely worth it. Sibo~
