I am travelling with 15 other HBS friends and it was a fun group of people to travel. However, I definitely prefer travelling with smaller groups as it can be quite slow and difficult to organise. Started with 4 days in Rio, which was beautiful (see the picture). I think it even beats Cape Town and Sydney as the world's most beautiful city, which great beaches and mountain views.
Actually Brazil reminded me of South Africa a lot - with 2 different worlds living in 1 country. At most times it is hard to believe that you are in the developing world, with the glitzy malls and restaurants. Both countries have some of the highest income inequality ratios in the world. Sao Paulo reminded me a lot of Joburg, with it's skycrapers and business focus and Rio looked a bit like Cape Town. Then we flew up the coast to Salvador for a few days, which is a nice colonial town with nice beaches too.
Finally we spent a couple of days checking out Sao Paulo, which has the highest number of skyscrapers in the world apparently... I think Brazil is very distinct from the rest of south america and actually much richer and developed than i has anticipated (and compared to the rest of the continent). So now it's back to cold boston for my last few weeks of school...
