Brazil

Ok…here’s the rest of Brazil…I am going to try and get all caught up here so…bear with all the reading:

Day Two in Lencois:
The group of 24 was split in two, so that things would go by faster and easier on each of the trips we were doing. My group was Dave, Bennett, Tiffany, Tina, Brenna, Team Bauer, Matt, Alex, Kim, Roberto, and Liz. Our agenda for the day: hike from the hotel to the Chapada Diamantia caves and go bungee jumping. WOOHOO! Ok. So I was stoked. The 6 AM wake up call wasn’t my favorite thing but hey…it was totally worth it. We were greeted in the lobby by a fantastic little breakfast which included the best mango I have ever put in my mouth, fresh made cakes, meat, breakfast potatoes etc. it was delicious. After breakfast we headed out on our trek…the rain clouds were looming and decided to open up on us from the get go. It started off as a sprinkle and then as the day went on, eventually ended up in an all out down pour. I loved it…walking through the vegetation of lencois in the pouring down rain…it doesn’t get much better. The hike took about an hour. We stopped along the way to check out this cute little water fall thing, and then proceeded on up to the cave. Before we got to the opening we checked out the awesome view ( I promise I will show you all pictures later), and headed down to the mouth. On the way, Tina took a bad fall and ended up bleeding everywhere. But she took it like a champ and continued on…I was proud. Now she has this ridiculously awesome scar. Anyway, we got to the opening of the cave and I got really excited…I don’t know if you know this but spelunking just happens to be one of my favorite past times…I am ONE HELL OF A SPELUNKER! Haha…so we had to go down into the cave and then waited for a bit for people to catch their breath and get flashlights if they wanted them (not for me…no way…I was going in Jack style). We hiked down into the earth for about an hour maybe…one part included dangerously scaling a cliff while hanging one by my fingernails…ok im lying. We did have to go down one by one at a certain area though…that was pretty risky…yah…it was steep. When we were done with the dangerous scaling of the walls, we took a break at the bottom and began to hear the sound of rushing water. Dan, our amazing tour guide got really exited and told us that we would be able to swim…whhaaaat?!? Swim? In a CAVE?? Sign me up baby! Deep deep down further into the cave we went until we came across the rushing water. It was awesome. We all stripped down to our bathing suits and hopped in. The water felt amazing, as we had been hiking for a very long time (ps Brazil is HOT). We goofed around for a bit, and then Daniel called us over to all sit in a circle. If you forgot from the last blog, he is the awesome hippy, we are one with the earth, guy. We all sat down and he had us scoot so that we were all touching and then he told us to all hold hands. He then told us that he was going to turn off the lights, and we should all sit and trying and think of something that we didn’t want anymore…something that we wanted the water to just wash away. He also told us to keep our eyes open…so they turned the lights off and its amazing how dark it is in caves….yah…no light. It was truly a moving experience…sitting there, eyes open in complete darkness, bonding with my peers and feeling like one with nature. Then Daniel told us that we were going to make the sound of the universe, to realize that we are all nature…we are one and the same. So we made the ommmmmm sound a few times…I was deeply touched by that moment. Then we had a splash war in the dark and that was fun. We swam around for a bit longer and then proceeded to get out clothes back on and climb on out of the cave. Now…climbing in this cave was no easy task. First of all….my tennis shoes were sopping due to the downpour and then the walking in the cave water. Second, rocks are loose and jagged…yah...i have many a cave battle wound…I would appreciate it if you would call me the cave warrior from now on. The end of the cave ended up being this gigantic opening, the top of which we were informed, we would be bungee jumping off of…excuse me? No bridge? Just the top of a cave/cliff? Sweet…I might die today. We sat down in the opening and had our lunches…my final lunch in my end as I was going to die. It was some chicken thing, but it was orange and had corn and raisins and such…I thought it was delicious…and it was my last meal ever so I had to savor it. After lunch we climbed up to the top of the cliff…quite a hard climb actually. Some people decided to go rapelling…I thought screw that. I have done that before and we are bungee jumping here people! So we went to the edge of the cliff and discovered that the bungee cord was actually held up by bolts put in the rocks…uhhhhh? Ok…so now this is called the cliff of impending doom. Our buddy Matt was up first because he was the biggest guy (Bennett…the 6’4 huge, amazingly attractive, german guy was peeing). Matt was adorable and scared. I was trying to be the positive counselor only I don’t know how I managed because I was pretty scared myself. The routine was, you jump, the guy rappels down to get you, then rappels you down to the ground and then runs back up the cliff of impending doom to get the next person ready. Matt jumped and his fall was totally silent…loved it. Then Bennett went…its funny. He was the biggest most masculine looking guy there (in terms of muscles) and he was TERRIFIED. He almost didn’t do it…disappointing. After they went, the guide turned around and said ok…who wants to go next? Ok so there goes the whole they pick for you thing…I immediately raised my hand. I was READY. Bring it on cliff of impending doom! I’ll take you! (this is what we call pumping ourselves up before death). So they started putting on all the harnesses and stuff…then team bauer came up. I was thankful for that…at least I got to say my last goodbye right? Haha ok I’m being ridiculous now…I wasn’t that scared…a little bit but not TOO bad. Anyway…they strapped me up and then it was time to slide down my butt to the edge of the cliff. Oh geez. I slid down and I had to stand on this little rock jutting out from the side of the cliff, and the bungee guy was holding me. No more time to think now kids. Arms out, get ready to swan dive. The guy let go of my harness, I got the 3-2-1 countdown (I actually almost jumped on 2…I WAS READY MAN!) and I dove…the thing about this doom cliff is that you cant really see the ground where you are going to be falling until you JUMP OFF OF IT. I jumped…saw how far I was actually going to be falling…and screamed like a 5 year old girl. Most of you who know me know, that I AM NOT A SCREAMER…apparently I am deep down. I fell, I snapped back up…I feel again…ahhhh! It was AMAZING! I loved it…so much. For anyone who hasn’t bungee jumped…you must. And I DIDN’T DIE! Yesssss. Swaying back and forth I felt like I was on top of the world…only upside down. The bungee guy rappelled down and got me upright then got be down to the ground. He told me it was a BEAUTIFUL jump over and over…yah that’s right. I am the bungee champ! I walked over to my friends at the bottom, still on a ridiculous high and I just laid down and pondered life for awhile. Then team bauer came hurling over the cliff…atta babe. We all sat and waited for everyone to go…unfortunately it began to pour again so 4 of the people didn’t get to go (they ended up going on the last day). We hung out under the overhang of the cliff, hoping the rain would stop but it didn’t. I decided to go rappelling…why not. It was better than sitting around so I went…I was soaked to the bone, but it was fun. Eventually we all figured the rain wasn’t going to stop so we started to head out. The walk back was fun. I had a nice conversation with Daniel about Brazil and his family and such. I seriously love that guy. We got back to the hotel and Daniel informed us that we were going to Palmieras, a small town about an hour away, for their carnival celebration. We were soaked, filthy and smelled like goats and we had an hour before dinner. Ready go. I hung my wet clothes out the window, took a quick shower and was ready in no time. We walked down to dinner along the side of this little creek and went to this place for a big slab of steak. Mmmmm. Team Bauer and I split an order, and so did Kim and Brenna, then we all kinda shared. It was very good. I tried the local drink…Capeiras (I totally just butchered that)…it was lime and sugar and alcohol….soooo strong! I think there were mint leaves in there too. It wasn’t my favorite, but what can you do. After dinner we all piled into vans and headed to Palmieras. Kikio attempted to teach me and Brenna portugese…yah I don’t remember any of it. Oops. Then I told him I was in love with his laugh. The end. We got to Palmieras and immediately heard music. We made our way over to the square and saw a huge stage with a chick and two very non-masculine guys dancing around in cut off jean shorts and we found beer and started dancing right away. PS I like Brazilian beer…and I don’t like beer. But everything I tried in Brazil was actually very tasty. We danced around for a bit and then the big bus with the band started to move, so we followed it to the next block and found another big ol’ stage. While we were following the bus, I got tapped on the shoulder and some random guy handed me a beer…thank you boobs. I took it and his friend tried to started dancing on me, but the guy was a little bit of a creeper so Kevin came and saved me and told the guy to dance with Monica…thanks team bauer…you rock. So there we were in the middle of this big square thing dancing the night away…it was awesome. Brenna and I took a break from dancing for a minute and we paused to talk and some random brazilian in an orange shirt grabbed me and shoved his tongue down my throat…WHOA! Uncalled for! It’s carnival…to be expected I guess, but WHOA! Yah I shoved him off in a heartbeat…anyway… we danced all night…it was fun…really fun actually. You all know how much I love me some dancing. As the night came to a close we gathered the group together and headed back into the vans (not before team bauer and kikio performed a lovely copiera reenactment) and passed out for the drive…we were exhausted.

Day Three Lencois:

After an extremely long night of partying at carnival, our 5 30 wake up call….what’s the word…SUCKED! We were sore from dancing and hiking, but our adventures were calling so we painfully and slowly dragged ourselves out of bed. Agenda for the day: hike 4.5 miles up a mountain to see one of the tallest waterfalls in the world, Smoke Falls. WOOHOO! No room for a hangover here kids…we’re goin’ on a hike! Breakfast was delicious again (3 cups of coffee and yummy mango later)…we headed to the vans to drive to the mountain. I had a good talk with Liz…that was fun. I like getting to know new people. Anyway…as we approached the mountain people kept saying things like “oh my gosh , we’re climbing THAT! Uggghhh” …so I refused to look out the window. I was stoked for the hike and didn’t want anything to get in the way of that…when I say mountain…I mean mountain here people. We signed our lives away to the park, lathered up on the sunscreen, and started up the mountain. The first hour was very strenuous…yes I was sweating, breathing hard and I definitely felt the burn. I rocked it out to the first checkpoint though, and got to wait for about 20 minutes for the rest of the group to catch up. From there, Kevin and I rocked it out Team Bauer style and kicked that mountains behind (only to be said like Bill Cosby in “Himself”)…we actually lost the group and got to sit and wait for everyone to catch up again. be in awe of our mountain climbing skills, because, basically…we are studs. (Yes I just said studs). I ate my lunch while we waited…banana, mozzarella, and raisins…it sounds gross but it might be my new favorite thing. I strongly recommend that you all try it. When everyone else caught up, we continued and had to wade thigh deep in this pool thing. IT ROCKED! I am a woman of the wilderness…then it started raining and we were soaked…again. The rest of the hike was pretty mild…we were walking through puddles and such…that was fun. It took about forever, but eventually Me, Dave, Kevin, Tina, Bennett, and Alex could hear the sound of the rushing water. We still couldn’t see the actual falls, but we had to cross through the river using a rope as leverage. We posed for a nice photo op, and then continued on up to top. The funny thing is, when we got to the top, we still couldn’t see the waterfall. All I could see were people crowded around the cliff edge…hmmm ok. So we get up there and (enter random side story here: The first night we were in lencois we decided to go check out the town. There was a culture fair going on and that was cool but I wasn’t in the mood to buy things so me, brenna, and team bauer wondered around and found a place for a cold beer where we could sit outside. So we sat down and were obsessing over this huge frog that was hopping around, when one of the locals came over and joined us. His name was Valdimar. Well…it turns out that Valdimar fell in love with me and wanted me to meet up with him so he could teach me the Lambada…I totally would have done it, but we were at Carnival so…oh well. Anyway…He was head over heels and then we had to go…sad day for Valdimar)…ok…back to waterfall: We got to the top and there was Valdimar…what the heck?!? Random! We were like an hour outside of Lencois and up a mountain…anyway…it was a cool small world experience, so we chatted for a bit, but then I wanted to see the waterfall. Apparently, the only way to do that was to belly crawl to the edge of the cliff, and stick your head over. Cliff of impending doom number two. I crawled out and stuck my head over (some random brazilian was holding my feet….right…that’s gonna help if I go hurling over the edge of the tallest waterfall in the world). I lean over and I was looking down on the waterfall…it was beautiful. I have awesome pictures for you all. I was officially on top of the tallest waterfall in the world. YES! It was so worth the 4.5 mile hike up the mountain. After we were all done drooling over the waterfall (and the 40 year old guy in nothing but a speedo) we started to head down due to impending rain. On the way down the mountain I had a really great talk with Daniel about globalization and super powers taking things away from native peoples. It was really interesting…that guy is so smart. We also talked about his family a bit more and I found out that his 10 month old was in school. A little early if you ask me, but he was all about it. I could sit and talk to Daniel all day. The way down the mountain wasn’t too great on the ol’ ACL, but oh well…I rocked it out anyway. At one point we passed this girl who had hurt her ankle and one of the locals but her on his shoulders and hiked down the mountain like that the whole rest of the way. I was definitely impressed. Once at the bottom, brenna and I found a hose and washed all the mud and gunk off of us. Valdimar found me again (he had previously been talking to his friends about kissing a certain American girl...) RIGHT! Not gonna happen buddy! Anyway he found me and I managed to get out with his email address only…props to me for working that situation. We climbed into the vans, exhausted after hiking 9 miles and headed back to Lencois. The next event was the Peace group that we hung out with the first night was coming to the hotel to teach us some dances, and the hotel people were making us home made pizza. Hanging out with the Brazilians was so awesome. We had a couple of improv singing things, and they showed us some dancing. To trade off we decided to teach them the hokey pokey…I made friends with one of the little boys (he was probably about 7) and he became my dancing buddy. It was so fantastic. We had another sit down conversation, on why we wanted to go to Brazil, and why we chose to do Semester at Sea. A lot of people ended up in tears…it was so awesome hearing what they thought about us. They said that we gave them hope for Americans, as we wanted to learn about the world and spread the idea that we are all one global community. It was really just fantastic. We got a great group photo, and then went down for pizza…it was delicious. The locals hung out with us and we tried to communicate, but the language barrier was a bit rough. We just laughed it off and had a good time anyway. Some of the people decided to go out and party that night, but I decided to just go to bed. I was wiped and the next morning was going to be another early one. Goodnight to another great day in Lencois.

Day Four:

The original plan was to go to the Enchanted Pool, was is this really awesome deep blue pool thing, but because of the rain, the water was going to be black and it was really far away, so there really wasn’t a point in going. The guides made some adjustments and took us to a smaller waterfall/river. We saw monkeys. That was awesome. To cross the river we walked on this bridge that consisted of rope and two tree trunks. It was awesome. We hiked for a bit and then came to the waterfall. It wasn’t huge like the other one, but it was beautiful none-the-less. There were talks of jumping off, but the guides said it was too dangerous. Dang. I really wanted to do it. We went back to the lodge place (where we got out of the vans) and some of the people decided to swim and jump off rocks. I wasn’t feeling it…I didn’t want to deal with a wet suit in the car and I have jumped off plenty of rocks…so I was the picture chick. I decided that this is the one and only time I wont be adventurous…something came over me. Be disappointed if you will. Anyway, I got some cool pictures, it started pouring again, and we got back in the vans. We had one more thing to do before meeting up with the bus and the rest of the group: Climb to the best view point of Chapada Diamantia. The road up to this trail was so bumpy and out of control, but I loved it. We got up to the trail and only 5 of us wanted to go…lame-o’s…why would you stay in the van??!? We are in BRAZIL! I don’t care how tired you are!!!! Ok…that’s my mini-vent. Anyway, the 5 of us that wanted to do it got out and started up. The hike up way only about 20 minutes. We got to the top, my camera battery died, and we saw an amazing view of the park. We hung out there for a bit, our guides told us the traditional stories, and then we had to climb down so we could meet the bus. It was a good ending to Lencois. When we loaded the bus back up, I ended up sitting with Dave and we slept for a bit. Then…we decided, that since we were going to the biggest party in the world very shortly, that we had to pre-funk for it. So, Bennett told the bus driver to stop and he ran in and got whiskey and coke. OOOOHHH man that was a fun bus ride. We were taking shots and then we started singing songs and rocking out…it was so much fun. Definitely a bonding experience. When we got back to Salvador we were informed that we had approximately 5 minutes to get on the boat, change for carnival and get back on the bus. SWEET! Ok…ready goà get off bus; wait in line and take picture of Kevin and Bennett being ridiculous; get searched; run to room; put on 150 dollar tee-shirt for bloco; put on jeans; put money in shoes; throw hair in ponytail; shave armpits; put on makeup; spray perfume to cancel out smell of goat; and sprint back to bus. Yah I was one of the first ones out there…props to chicks who know how to get ready baby! Haha…anyway…we found a beer vendor and bought a couple for the bus, then hopped on and left for downtown Salvador. We got there and found our bloco, which is a trio electrico (a giant bus with a band playing on it) and a bunch of people in the same shirts. All the blocos are roped off, and you dance the streets of Salvador for six miles. Oh man…I was excited. We had a while before the parade was going to start so we all hung out and got drinks. Then we got a bottle of pee thrown on us…then I got burned by a cigarette. That was AWESOME. So it didn’t start off too great, but once the music started we didn’t even care. We started dancing and having fun…I loved it. We were all hanging out and having the best time…everyone was dancing with each other. We were jammed into our bloco…there were so many people. SAS had told the girls to be careful about the boys, so at first we were watchful…then we found out that we were in the gay bloco! SWEET! Hahaha Kevin got groped and kissed more than I did…it was so funny. I got my fair share of blue and white beads but that was by CHOICE…Carnival is like Mardi Gras on crack…you do what you gotta do for beads man. MOM, DAD: DON’T WORRY MY CLOTHES DID NOT COME OFF! Haha…anyway we danced the night away. Tiffany was a genius and brought a wrap on her head so when we had to pee, we left the bloco, squatted on the sidewalk behind the sarong and went right there…it was so liberating. The dancing and festivities lasted for 8 hours…it was euphoric. The bonding between the group was awesome…some people decided to leave early, but Me, Team Bauer, Tina, Dave, and Shelly made it the whole six miles. For the total time in Brazil we hiked/danced over 20 miles. GREAT EXERCISE! It rocked. At the end of the parade, we found a taxi back to the ship and went and passed out after attending the biggest, craziest party in the world.

Last Day in Brazil:

The last day of Brazil, we slept in until lunch. We were out so late the night before that I don’t feel bad. Team Bauer and I met up with Dani and Jordi and decided to check out the little market close to the port. We walked, found a bank for an ATM and found the market. It was cool…there were a ton of little vendors shoved into this huge building and it was overcrowded, but I got some fun things anyway. It was good to see Captain and baby jesus again….i had missed them. After shopping we went back to the ship and got ready for the ultimate goal of going to brazil: the brazilian steakhouse. For those of you who have never experienced this…I am truly sorry. Fully preparing myself, I put on my stretchy goucho pants and we left the boat around 5 30. Baby Dan and Piano Man joined the group as well. We shoved ourselves into a cab and went to the restaurant. Team Bauer was salivating the minute we walked in the door. We had to wait for a bit for a table, but it was all fine because they brought us delicious cheeseball things…if you know me, you know that’s my heaven, so I was excited already. When we sat down, we saw the grand buffet and were told to go there first then wait. The host handed up a metal thing with a green side that said ‘yes meat’ and a red side that said ‘no meat.’ Ok…so this is how it works: you go to the buffet and get the stuff that looks good, then people come around to your table and serve you all your meat from a sword thing. They just cut you off a piece. They brought sirloin, fillet mignoin, ribeye, flank, ribs, chicken hearts, Cornish hens, ribs of cows, lamb, salmon…pretty much just about any thing you can think of. They also brought delicious sides like fried bananas, cheeseballs, rice/shrimp dishes…oh my gosh I was in heaven. I ate myself pregnant that night. SOOOOO good…I want to go back and I am drooling just thinking about it right now. Team Bauer was the winner of the evening…he is a bottomless pit I tell you. I took a strong second…yes I out ate the rest of the boys…would you expect anything less? Then captain and I split quite possibly the best dessert in the world. It was this chocolate…thing. I don’t even know how to explain it so I am giving up. During the course of the meal, baby jesus realized she lost her phone, so when we were done we got to go on an adventure through Salvador trying to track down the cab driver that drove us to the restaurant. We found him and he didn’t have the phone. Dang. So got back on the ship, hardly able to move due to extreme fullness, and became depressed because we were leaving. Pulling away from Brazil was definitely sad, but I was also looking forward to Africa.
I learned so much about myself and the world in Brazil. I don’t know if I mentioned this already, but my friend referred to it as a spiritual orgasm, and I definitely agree with him. It was awesome…I cant wait to sit and talk about it with each of you who read this. For now… I am going to go prepare for an exam. I hope you enjoyed living vicariously through me in Brazil

ATTENTION!

New Fashion Trend

At muster drill today, Baby Jesus and myself officially decided that we have come up with the newest fashion trend…its got many uses and AND! It’s comfortable…what is this new wonder-piece-of-clothing you ask? The bright orange life jackets that we sport at muster. Now…some of you may be laughing at this statement, but I kid you not. I am going to revolutionize that fashion world, one life jacket at a time. Here’s a little visual:
The lifejacket has two rectangular pieces connected at the bottom that then separate (where they are connected by Velcro) and then go up to form a circle for head insertion. The piece that lies behind your neck is like a travel pillow in shape and size. The jacket comes fully equipped with a whistle and a flashing light that is activated when touched by salt water. There is also a strap that wraps around the waist to hold the jacket in place. Now…this jacket has many purposes, not to mention…it is HOTT! First of all, the jacket acts as a duel travel pillow. You have the back cushion thing that wraps all the way around your shoulders if you feel like leaning your head backwards or to the side. If the urge to lean your head forward comes upon you, no need to fear because the rectangular pieces at the front form a nice little ledge that you can very comfortably rest your head on and….as college students so often say…PASS OUT. I know you are sitting there in your chair completely amazed right now…but try to contain yourself…it gets better. Since we will be using these as travel pillows, we will be wearing them on planes. Have you ever actually thought to yourself that if the plane actually crashed in water, and you had to yank your chair off to use the life jacket under your seat, you wouldn’t know how to yank? Is there a certain yanking technique? What if the chair doesn’t come off? AND THEN once you get the chair off, you have to blow the life jacket up! WELL…if those thoughts have ever crossed your mind, then this new trend is the thing for you. It totally eliminates any possible worry, stress or anxiety about the plane life jacket problem…so far we have a travel pillow plus an automatic life jacket in the instance that your plane crashes. It also provides extra padding if you are hit by a car, bus, train or sumo wrestler, and if you ever go hunting…you sure as hell aren’t getting shot. Since it is obvious that this jacket must be worn at all times, it will have to be fashionable…CHECK! Need to impress a boy? Follow these 3 easy steps:
1) Raise hands to top of rectangles
2) Give said boy your best seductive face and a wink
3) Yank rectangles apart and thrust chest forward….AUTOMATIC CLEAVAGE!

You also have the whistle in case you need to direct traffic, and a flashing light in the instance that you decide that you need to have a disco dance party…automatic strobe light (in this case, you need to carry around some salt and some water, but hey…a disco party is TOTALLY WORTH IT).

Are we all in agreement that this jacket is going to change the world?!?! Can I get a hoo rah?? Baby Jesus and I decided to steal ours and Semester at Sea that we lost them…’what? I don’t know where it went…yes…I lost my gigantic life jacket in my tiny room…what are you talking about? I LOST IT!’ that’s our argument right there…then we will bring them back to the states, manufacture them and make our millions. Just hope and pray that you are one of the lucky ones that gets your hands on this fashion miracle.

i am a GENIUS!

I have come to the conclusion that every shower on this ship needs to be equipped with an OH JESUS handle. You may not be familiar with this terminology, but you all know what i'm talking about. Similar to the OH JESUS handle in an automobile (you know...the one you grab when you think you are going to die, or be slammed against the window in a painful manner), the shower OH JESUS handle would serve many purposes:

purpose number one: helllooo we are on a moving ship! as the trip goes on, the water gets worse and its hard to sit up straight, let alone shower (just TRY shaving your legs people). So...when the impending doom of being thrown face first out of the shower and into the toilet presents itself, the OH JESUS handle would save your life.

purpose number two: more room for hanging laundry! which i have become much better at thanks so much...no thanks to semester at sea though! no seminars were held! haha

purpose number three: let me set the mood here:
there you are, just finished with your nice warm shower and you are enjoying the steam in the bathroom. you didn't turn the lights on in your room because you are in rocky's energy class and you think you are doing the world a favor by saving some electricity, so its a cave in there, but light in the bathroom. you open the shower curtain and...OH JESUS! there's my steward standing RIGHT there because he thought i was gone! ahhhh! To prevent yourself from death or serious injury, just grab on to the handy dandy OH JESUS handle, and life will go on ..even though your steward saw you naked...its ok. (ok that didnt ACTUALLY happen to me, but i came close...just roll with me)

those are my thoughts of the morning...that is all.

FINALLY

Brazil: Day One

Alright. I am fully aware of the fact that I am an utter failure in keeping up with my blog posts. I would apologize profusely, but really, I’m not THAT sorry…I like to keep you guys on your toes ya know? That’s actually my lame excuse for not being on top of things, but hey…it’s all fine. Anyway…after observing how Team Bauer’s gigantic Brazil blog went over I have decided to write mine in increments. One blog per day in Brazil. This is officially the first one…I know you have been waiting so no need to fear, this is it for real…

Day One:

The new tradition is sleeping out on the deck the night before every port. That way, you can wake up at 4 30 when the crew has to clean the decks, and then stay awake and watch the sunrise over the city. I continued the tradition (naturally…would you expect anything else?) and it was good up until the crew decided to not inform us that they were cleaning the decks and we got full on water in the face as a wake up call. That was awesome. Ok…I’m being a little dramatic here…it was actually just a splash of sprinkles…but STILL…at 4 30 in the morning after nearly no sleep a little sprinkle can seem like the entire ocean is falling on you. Needless to say, we woke up and watched the sunrise. It was cool…I will have pictures later for you kids to salivate over. We went through the usual port routine (sunrise, breakfast, somebody special from country comes to talk to us, customs on the ship (stamp passport!), and then sit until we can get off). As soon as we got off the boat, we had a mission. Mission: Find tour guide Daniel and get on bus. Not so hard right? Well…not really, but we did have a few distractions. The second we got off there was a small drumming band thing there to greet us. We also all got bracelets and coconuts. It was pretty fantastic. My favorite was watching Roberto get his groove on with the bracelet ladies…(he is from Puerto Rico…and he knows how to shake it!)…once we had gathered everyone (which took kind of a while) we hopped on the nice air conditioned bus to leave for Lencois, which was about 6 hours away. Team Bauer and I sat at the front of the bus, right behind Daniel, our tour guide. This turned out to be the best place on the whole bus, as we talked to Daniel the whole way there. He is quite possibly one of the coolest people on earth. To put him in a nutshell, which I don’t particularly enjoy doing, but I will for your sake, you could call him a hippy-buddhist-vegetarian- tour guide. HE ROCKS. He has this view on life that we are all one global community (which is so true) and that we all need to be one with each other and with the earth. It was awesome just listening to him…he did most of the talking, which I really enjoyed. Aside from Daniel, the bus also offered a quick tour of Salvador and the Brazilian countryside. In Salvador, the only thing I could really see were the favellas. Talk about poverty…people living in poverty in America have it great compared to the favellas. They are teeny tiny houses stacked on top of each other with multiple families crammed into each house. I really don’t think that words can do the place justice…think of the worst poverty you have ever seen…and then multiply it by 100…then maybe you will have some sort of visual of these places. The police won’t go into the favellas to protect anyone, as they are too dangerous. The crime rate in the favellas actually isn’t that bad, as the people leave to go into the city to steal from people who actually have things. However, murder and other things are out of control…it’s truly a sad situation. When we got out of the city, we got a nice taste of the Brazilian country side. Well…when I wasn’t staring at the road fearing for my life that is. We were on this little two lane “highway” that led us into the heart of Brazil. There were horses tethered on the side of the road randomly…and people with coconut stands…it was nuts. Then…our driver would pass people up a hill when you couldn’t see anything….this was me:

Dear Baby Jesus,

Please don’t let our bus crash and explode into flames. Thanks

Love
Andrea

I’m still alive…thank you baby god. For lunch we stopped at this buffet, where you weigh you plate to pay for the food. I don’t know how I feel about that…I don’t think it gives you the right price…meat and rice vary substantially in cost, but oh well. It was only like 4 bucks or something, so I guess I can’t complain. Back on the bus I tried my best to read my book for history…yah that lasted about one paragraph…then I passed out. I woke up about 10 minutes before pulling into Lencois. The vegetation had certainly changed…there were a ton of trees and such outside…it was beautiful. Lencois was a cute little town with cobblestone streets everywhere. I loved it. As soon as we pulled in, we picked up Kikio, our other guide. Kikio was AWESOME! He had the most contagious laugh I have ever heard…and he laughed often. It was fantastic…whenever I have a negative thought, one thought of Kikio’s laugh and I get a smile on my face. Anyway, we picked him up and then drove up to our hotel, which ended up being a sort of house, turned hotel. It was cute…we got home made breakfast every morning with the most delicious mango you have ever put into your mouth. I feel as though I will not be able to eat mango in the States ever again…oh well…it was TOTALLY worth it. So we got to the hotel, dropped out stuff off and immediately turned around and went to a welcoming thing that a local NGO (non-government organization) was holding for us. The second we walked up, we were greeted by “MAMA AFRICA”…an amazing song that will forever remain in my heart. They were all singing and dancing…it was fantastic. We danced for a bit, and then we went into a room, took our shoes off, and they taught us some songs and dances. One of the dances included us crawling under the legs of everyone in the room…it reminded me of kindergarten or something, but I loved it. After the fun and dancing around we all sat in a circle and Daniel translated for us. The locals asked us about why we wanted to go to Brazil, and what we thought about it so far. It turned out to be a great conversation about how we are all one people, and we shouldn’t let country boundaries divide us. It was very moving…just seeing us all sitting there together, so different, yet so much the same. I feel like I am not giving my experience justice…it was just a beautiful thing. We ended up talking for about an hour ish, and it really could have continued, but we had to wake up early so we all circled up in two different circles and started to sway back and forth while this little tiny woman sang an amazingly beautiful song (which turned out to be the African national anthem…yes we were in brazil, but don’t forget about the African roots in brazil). It was beautiful…I absolutely loved it. Little did I know that is was just a taste of the amazing few days to come.

Memo

Dear All American Men:

Go to South Africa with a piece of paper and your pen of choice. Observe clothing on men ages 17-40. Take notes. Go home and apply notes to your everyday life. The end.

Love
Andrea