Skip to main content

From Beaches to Mountains.. Favorite Places



         Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, a picture I took from my trip in 2016)  

I traveled to Rio in the summer of 2016. It was my first time to fly outside of the country, I love learning about different cultures and places, so you can say I was super excited! Ipanema Beach was less than a 10-minute walk from the hostel I was staying in. I always have lived in landlocked states so this was the first time I got to see the ocean and it was AMAZING! As I sat listening to the waves I could also see children playing in the water, families having picnics, ongoing volleyball games, couples on dates, people doing yoga and capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art) classes, people running, jogging and surfing, stands selling coconut water (Delicious), other drinks and types of foods, it was like getting a small glimpse of Rio's citizens' daily lives. One of my favorite parts was looking at the sunrises and sunsets. Ipanema Beach was my favorite place from my whole trip. Every morning I would go for a jog, see the colorful sunrise and of course end my jog with fresh coconut water. I honestly could sit there and look and listen to the calming waves and activities going on around me for hours. 


     Photo of a local mountain in Mexico taken by me on December 2018 

One of my favorite things to do is hiking probably because of my love of nature and being outdoors. I was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and grew up in the countryside. I lived there for the first 5 years of my life. The mountain from the picture is literally a few steps away from my house. I keep saying mountain but it's not a super tall mountain its more on the shorter side, it takes about 25 or so minutes to get to the top. Every time I climb it, it brings me memories from my childhood. When I was little I thought climbing all the way to the top would get me closer to touch the clouds😅 Looking at the scenery and the sky while the fresh wind blows in my face always seems to make my body relax and just forget everything and live in that moment. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Laura GibbsJanuary 17, 2020 at 2:05 PM

    Oh wow, what a gorgeous picture of Ipanema Beach, Monica! I know that song (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_from_Ipanema
    ), but I did not even know where Ipanema is, much less how gorgeous the beach is... now I know! And you are lucky to have that beautiful mountain connection; when I was little we lived for a while in Tucson which had beautiful mountains, and of all the places we lived when I was little, that was the place I felt most connected to as a place, as the ground beneath my feet. Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures here!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura GibbsJanuary 17, 2020 at 2:06 PM

    Whoops: I messed up that link somehow... trying again :-)
    The Girl from Ipanema

    ReplyDelete
  3. CrystalJanuary 24, 2020 at 7:27 PM

    Wow, Rio looks so beautiful! I think the OU in Rio de Janeiro program always looked really interesting, so I was sad when they had to close the study center there because of budget cuts. :( Hopefully someday that program will get funded once again and there's more students that can get to experience it. I also hope that you get to travel and hike lots more and get to see new places. :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to a Science,Travel and Hiking enthusiast!

City view of Guanajuato, Mexico Taken by me  Hello everyone!! My name is Monica Avila, I was born in Guanajuato, Mexico and moved to the U.S. when I was five, I can speak Spanish, English and a little bit of Portuguese (currently learning). I am a senior here at OU (Wow can't believe I'm saying senior time flies by so fast). I am a Health and Exercise Science major. I'll be graduating this spring, my plans so far are to take a year off and work and travel a little maybe go for masters in health promotion but I'm still not sure yet. In the future, I hope to go to grad school for physical therapy and work with either the elderly or children. I love science and learning about the human body. The way the human body works and manages to keep us alive is so amazing, learning all the mechanics of it is one of my favorite parts of my major. Therefore, some of my favorite classes have been Human Anatomy and Exercise Physiology. Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, B
28 comments
Read more

Comment Wall

Image: Sunset and Mountains  Welcome! Please leave all your comments here😄💜 Story Book: https://sites.google.com/view/monicasstorybook/home
15 comments
Read more

Week 9 Story: Gandalia and Dhrit

   When Princess Gandalia was only five months old she suffered from a terrible fever. The king and queen feared for the death of their only daughter. The fever was very strong and would not go away, after two weeks the doctors were finally able to stop it however because of the length of time her body was exposed to high temperatures it caused her to go blind.     Gandalia never let her loss of sight affect her life. When she was young she played like all other children and quickly adapted living without the ability to see. If you did not know her personally you would never know she was blind. Gandalia was homeschooled as her parents feared for her safety so she never had many outside friends except for her family and the palace workers. Her favorite hobby was to read romance novels, she would often daydream about one day finding her soulmate, falling in love and living happily ever after like all the characters in her novels. She would often pester her cousins to tell her stories a
5 comments
Read more