Brazil!

Brazil!

Hi Everyone. Sorry it has taken me so long to update about Brazil, but I ran out of internet minutes and there was also so much to write – I had trouble finding the time!
So all of you know – I am having a much better time now than I was before. (not that I was having a bad time before…) but I have made some good friends in the past week and also do not feel as seasick anymore. Here is my update so far…

BRAZIL DAY 1:

We docked in Brazil and got off a few hours late because of health inspections etc. Leslie, Casey, and I went to the marketplace nearby to shop. We spent a good few hours there, and I bought a skirt for way too much money. The market reminded me of markets in Mexico. Two levels and tons of people harassing you. I love Leslie and Casey though. We actually had a sleep over the night before we arrived in Brazil.
After the market we went up the famous Liceada Elevator. It’s this huge, white elevator that you pay 5 cents to go up. At the top we bumped into the boys (Ryan, Adam, Tim) and got ice cream. I asked this tour guide about a candomble ceremony (this alternative religion they have in Brazil) – because I really wanted to go to one. He of course would not leave me alone after that. I’ve realized that in these places I cannot even express slight interest in anything or I will be hounded.
I had mentioned to Casey and Leslie earlier that it would be fun to hop on a bus and just see where it takes us. When we saw the boys they had the same idea. So we got on this public bus – had no idea where it was headed – for about 45 minutes. The bus was going along the coast, and I kept seeing these little huts, so I suggested we get off and go to one of them. We got off and it was wonderful! We went to the nearest little hut and got beer after beer. Right on the sand on the beach. The beer here is called Skol. I didn’t like it as much as the Venezuelan, Polar. We sat, talked, and relaxed on the beach. These kids came by at one point and gave us a show. They were really cute. Oh yeah, and the only bathroom at the beach was in the back of the little hut. It was a blank wooden room, with no toilets. You just pee on the wall. I wonder why they even made a little room!
On the bus ride back, one of the girls (no names here) started complaining that she had to pee. Soon she had to go so bad that she was willing to pay someone to get off at the next stop with her and take a taxi back. I offered her my empty water bottle as a joke to pee in. She took it from me and I jokingly moved seats as to not be next to her if she peed. I really did not think she was going to do it – but she did. She pulled up her loose, Capri pants and stuck the bottle – up there. We could not believe it. She started laughing and we quickly realized that she was missing the bottle half of the time and peeing on the floor of the bus. The pee was running down the isle and we were all hysterically laughing. For a minute I felt like the rebellious teen that I never was, ruining this poor bus in Brazil. The man sitting in front of my friend quickly got up and off the bus – first stopping to tell the bus driver something about us. It was so funny, and we were being SO rude, but yet it was so innocent because it was my sweet friend who just had to pee really bad.

OK DUE TO LACK OF TIME I HAVE STOPPED WRITING ABOUT BRAZIL IN DEPTH.

Some other exciting things I did in Brazil…. Bahia By Night – a really cool show with Brazilian music and dance. I also did a “service project” where we visited these kids in an elementary school in a poor area. I became close to one of the kids (well, as close as one can get without speaking the language) and I was really sad when we left. I tried hard not to let him see that I had started crying when I got back on the bus. I will never forget his smiling face for the rest of my life.

Now for the second half of my Brazil Trip:
After Bahia by Night, we got our group together to go to Lencois. Lencois is this cute little town six hours away (by bus). We got to the bus station and it turns out that we were too late, and the bus tickets were already sold out. So we debated for an hour about whether we should take a taxi to Lencois, or wait for the morning bus. After much frustration, four of us decided to take a taxi and the other two were going to take the bus the next morning. So Dana, Erica, Rob, and I took this guy up on his taxi offer. Now, up until this point, the one night in Venezuela was the sketchiest thing I’ve done so far (I never wrote about this incident because I thought it might scare people, you can ask me about it, or I might write about it later). No. Never take taxis in foreign countries!!!!!!!! Hahah. This was possibly the scariest night of my life. We pretty much broke every rule of Semester at Sea.
We get into this taxi. First of all, most of the doors are broken, and the seatbelts barely work. It is pouring, and I mean pouring, rain outside. Of course the windshield wipers don’t work either. Dana had to keep sticking her arm out the window to push them down! Keep in mind it is midnight when we started this journey (which ended up taking seven and a half hours). We don’t know how tired our taxi driver is, so we have to stay awake to make sure he does not fall asleep. The road to Lencois is in the middle of nowhere. There were potholes every three feet. Big potholes. Potholes like we’d slam so hard I thought the car would fall apart every other second.
I don’t know what was up with our driver (we don’t speak Portuguese!) For the first half of the ride he would stop every five minutes to a gas station. We’d all have to get out of the car (don’t know why) and he would pop the hood to check something. The first gas station was really scary because these weird lookin’ people were just sitting around. The driver asked us to pay him then, so we thought he might just leave us in the middle of nowhere! But thankfully he didn’t. He was an excellent driver. Well, not in terms of driving skills, but in terms of patience.
So, to pass the time on the scary, scary road, we played Truth or Truth. For those of you who are familiar with the game, it is a take-off of Truth or Dare, but without the dare. Hehe. That kept us busy for about three hours. And I got lots of juicy information about my taxi-mates. I really hope the driver didn’t understand English. We bonded pretty quickly, especially because we were all holding hands so tight I think we lost circulation. Oh yeah, and the time that the driver flew off the side of the road into the bushes to avoid another big pothole………
Or how about the time when he was going 100 miles per hour? Oh wait, that was the entire ride. Or maybe the time when the big truck almost hit us head on?
We also played “What was your biggest ‘oh shit’ moment?” when the ride was over. Good times! Let’s just say, I’m really happy to be alive right now!


Ok, so Lencois. I’m kinda glad we decided to take the death ride in the middle of the night because the next day was fantastic! When we got out of the taxi the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. A man named Joe (for short) greeted us. He did not speak a word of English, but with my broken Spanish I figured out he wanted to be our tour guide. We were stoked. Joe took us to find a nice Posada (their hostels). This place was soooo cute (I’ll post pictures). We had the entire place to ourselves for 12 dollars a night, including breakfast. Afterwards, Joe took us to breakfast, again fantastic and CHEAP! Then we went off for a day of hiking. It’s hard for me to describe the hikes, so I’ll put pictures up. But in short, there were a lot of waterfalls, and natural pools. One rock formation was a slide and we had lots of fun in the natural “water park.” Joe ends up being the coolest guy ever. I became really close with him, because I was the only one who could sort of communicate with him. I tried to teach him English and he taught me a lot of Portuguese. My new favorite expression is “BON!” which means “good” or “muy-ta-bon” which means “great”. (I think, haha). We had so much fun together.
That night we walked around this town, which I’m telling you, is THE cutest town I’ve ever seen in my life. I must go live there at some point! A bunch of other semester at sea kids were there, so we partied with them at night, and met some of the locals. There was one place that had 47 different alcohol shots. It was just a shot bar, if that’s what you call it. We tried some different ones – man they were strong! We also tried the national drink – Caparinha. WHOAH. That’s all I’m gonna say.
I ended up sleeping over in my friend’s room instead of our posada (I had rat poop on my bed!) I woke up sick the next morning though….Oh yeah, funny story. When we were at the natural water slide, I bumped into some Israeli girls. I asked this one girl where she was from and she said Timrat. I asked her if she knew my Israeli friend from a while back…she said, “Yeah, he was my boyfriend!” I said, “He was MY boyfriend!” HAHAHA. Let me tell you how strange it is to be standing in the middle of nowhere in Brazil talking to a girl who went out with the same guy as you in Israel. WEIRD. Anyways. So yeah, I woke up sick the next morning. At first I thought it was from alcohol (although I didn’t drink TOO much), but then I realized that it must have been the food, because I had things coming out the other end also. We fondly refer to this here as Traveler’s D. If you get my drift.
Because I was sick, my friends left me in the bed while they went on a horse ride with Joe. Later Joe came to visit me and we talked for a while on the hammock outside. He said that he was really sad we were leaving and that he felt so close to us. I was really sad also, because I had such a great time with him. The rest of the day we all just hung out and walked around. At night there was another capoeira show. I can’t get over how much capoeira plays a part in Brazilian life.
After the show we got on the bus back home. Right before we left though, Joe met us to say goodbye. He asked me to send him a friendship bracelet (he saw the one I was wearing), so I’ll have to make one for him soon. The bus ride home was long, but I slept.
The next day I woke up at eleven and found this girl Amber, and the two of us went walking around Salvador. It was her birthday, so we ate at a nice restaurant and shopped. I had a good time with her. Salvador is really pretty, but I did not bring my camera with, so hopefully I can get pictures from her.
Anyways, that is all the important stuff about Brazil, so I’m ending here!