I’m skipping Ghana’s blog. I’ll do it later. Brasil is fresher on the mind. And it was amazing.
As I sit here in my cabin writing this blog, I’m listening to my iPod because Mackenzie just put her newish playlist onto it. Its called “this is it”. She does one for every country, and this one is the finale. Some of the songs are awesome and bring a smile while others are sad and draw a tear. They make me reflect on what I’ve just done. I keep looking up at the giant world map next to my bed and I cannot believe I’ve almost been all the way around. Almost there. Wow.
Brasil-
So we docked in Salvador. It was obviously our last foreign port so I was definitely getting up for the sunrise. And I did indeed. But it was cloudy. It was still pretty though and the majority of my friends were up there so it was awesome to watch the lack of sunrise with them.
All 8 of us decided to hang out together that day because it was our last full day in port together cause others had trips and stuff with SAS. So it was Lis, Lauren, Liz, Kerry, Kelcie, Mackenzie, Steph, and me. We all walked to the elevator which was like a 5minute walk from the port.
Let me explain- in Salvador there is an upper and lower city. The lower city, but in actuality the entire city, is very dangerous so we were told to get the elevator to get up to the upper city. We all got there and it was a holiday and all the banks were closed so we had no money (we also can’t use ATM’s in the city because most are scams). Luckily the lady running the giant elevator was nice enough to let us 8 girls sneak in.
So this elevator is giant. It looks like a sky scrapper. But it takes you up to the upper city and once you get off you are taken back by this gorgeous view of the water and the city below and the lush greenery falling down the steep hills below. It’s so gorgeous. After a few photos there and a nice group shot our friend came up to us who had already been around a little bit and warned us not to go a certain way down the street because we would be mugged/robbed/hurt etc. great. Already? What had we been there like 15 minutes?
So we avoided that area and walked where we saw other SAS kids. This area seriously made me feel like I was in Rome. It was beautiful. The buildings are all different colors but it’s not like Bahamas ish its like Europe with a twist. So we walked around a little and decided we were hungry so we stopped at this restaurant to eat. We also met up with about 10 other girls as well and we all kind of hung out together and ate and had a good time. After our meal we went shopping and looking around a little. There are all these narrow alleyways with shops everywhere and bars and places to eat. It’s amazing. We found this bar there and they were playing live music in the street and a ton of us SAS kids were dancing and shopping and just taking our last port and having a great time. It was like something out of a movie.
So after we hung out there for a while we headed back to the ship to get ready for the night. We had dinner on the ship and had heard about a ton of people getting mugged, knifes pulled on them, chased down and so on. And this was during the middle of the day.
We still got ready for the night. We got all dressed up ‘cause it was our last night all together in port. We met up with the other girls again, who most of them live right by me in my hall, and we all headed out together. There were seriously 25 girls and 2 guys…welcome to SAS life.
So we decided to get our own cab with Lis, Liz, Kelcie, Kerry, Mackenzie, Steph, and me. I don’t know if you know, but most people in Brasil don’t speak English, at least in Salvador. So were in this cab trying to tell him to go to this bar everyone is going to but he has no idea what were saying and he’s just driving around and everyone is getting frustrated and mad and so on. So, finally Kerry, Mackenzie, and Liz decided to get out and find whatever bar they were looking for. This sounded like a really bad idea to me—walking around, all girls, at night, in one of the most dangerous places in the world, yeah wasn’t happening. So we had the guy take us back to the ship. We all collectively decided to stay in that night and just relax.
The next morning we all got up and this was the day that Lis, Kerry, Lauren, Jimbo, Mackenzie and me were traveling to a town about an hour away called Praia do Forte (Google it, it’s beautiful). All 6 of us managed to squeeze into this Brasilian man’s cab. With the backpacks and Mackenzie in the trunk (don’t worry, it was a hatch back) we were ready to go.
With one pit stop to get gas at an amazing gas station with the best snacks ever we had finally arrived.
Sidenote: there were magazines in the gas station that had some American celebrities in them and it was so strange to see celebrities like that. The magazine was in Portuguese but the pictures were nice.
Once we arrived we walked down a long stretch of road (which by the way is cobblestone) and literally it’s like an outdoor mall/town with shops, restaurants, and bars. It was so beautiful. If you walked about 10 minutes straight back on the same road, you ran directly into the beautiful Brazilian beach. The water temperature is perfect and the sand is so gorgeous and the water is as well.
We had our cab drivers friend walk us through the town and find us a hotel. As usual people find out were American and automatically think we want to stay in the Ritz Carlton penthouse suite. So we declined and conveniently pulled out Mackenzie’s lonely planet travel book and pointed to this cheap but nice place called Tia Helena’s. We made our way to the place and were shown two rooms that would accommodate all 6 of us.
After we settled in we were hungry and decided we would head out and get a drink before dinner. So we went to this gorgeous outdoor bar/restaurant and enjoyed a drink. It started to pour mid-drink but we were covered by the wood roof. Plus the rain stopped after like 15 minutes. Mind you this did bring 1000 mosquitoes, who I’m pretty sure were out to get me. So after our drink we made our way to the first Mexican restaurant we have spotted the entire trip. We were craving Mexican for like 3 countries now (uh yeah, we keep time by intervals of country—not a bad life eh?). So anyway, we made our way to the Mexican place and I enjoyed a delicious cheese enchilada and we devoured our chips with salsa and queso. That Mexican food was well needed and enjoyed.
After dinner we decided we were going to have another drink somewhere. So we decided on this area in the middle of the street (there are no cars) where plastic tables and chairs were set up. It was here where we were approached by a street kid (well he was 20). He tried to sell us this basket he weaves from these lilyish looking leaves. We got to talking to him and got him to sit down with us. His name was Williams and he knew a bit of English from learning it from tourists (mind you not many American tourists come to this area). So we made friends with Williams and he got his friend Matteo to come hang out with us too. After a while we decided to make our way to an outdoor bar with live music that we heard was good. We all sat down and enjoyed the music and company. This is where we met Fred (pronounced Fredge in his accent) who was the guitar player and all of the live music entertainment. He knew some American songs such as Black Eyed Peas, Don’t worry be happy, Jason Mraz, and of course Bob Marley. Mackenzie is a guitar player and has an amazing voice so we got her to get up there with Fred and we all danced and sang the night away.
I also met a guy named Bruno that night who is from Brasil (Sao Paulo) but lives in Australia (how convenient..I’ll explain later!). Anyways, the point of all these people introductions was to show that we made very good friends in this town.
So after this bar we all went to beach and hung out there for a little while but not too long. We had a long day ahead of us to follow.
We all woke up the next morning and had breakfast at the hotel. After that we made our way to a tour place Kerry had spotted out the day before. It was there we met (gah I’m spacing her name) but it is similar to Maria. And she spoke near perfect English and she hooked us up with the sweetest tour ever. We were leaving at 2 so she recommended we spend the morning going to the Projecto Tamar (Project Turtle?). But it’s a place that this town is famous for. They breed and save turtles. It was amazing to see this place set up. It’s like an outdoor museum literally right next to the beach.
After the turtle rescue we decided to get a bite to eat. We went to a pizza place (standard) where we got these hugeee delicious pizzas. I can’t even explain to you how fresh and delicious the food was. I would recommended ANYONE to go to this town to vacation. I definitely see my parents vacationing there. (sorry off topic…).
It was nearing 2 and it was time for us to get back to the hotel where our tour guide was meeting us. We met up with him and his name was Hector and he was from Uruguay originally. He spoke some English but not a ton. He took us on this open bus type deal a little bit out of the town. Because we were about to go ATVing through the Brasilian jungle. How awesome is that!?
Okay I know I’m traveling the world, but I’m still my cautious Jess self (but I’m getting better). So, no I didn’t drive my ATV, Lis did. I just held on for dear life on the back. We had 2 on each ATV. Kerry and Mackenzie, Jimbo and Lauren, and Lis and Me. Lis and I were in the back and we literally laughed and joked the entire ride. We mesh well together and get each other’s humor J (yeah, I know you’ll read this later Lis you FREAK).
We rode our ATV to a river where we were about to go ZIP LINING! They had this like huge wooden house area that it looked like people could stay at. I can’t describe it. I’ll add a video to my blog once I’m in FL so you can see all my pictures.
We got suited up in our zip lining gear and zip lined across the river to the other side. It was three stories high I believe. I’m terrified of falling like that but I did it and it was awesome. We got to zip line back to the other side and this time we got to go over the Brasilian jungle. Doesn’t get much better than that!
When our zip lining was done we then got to do a small trek in the jungle (while carrying a tube) because now we got to go tubing down the river. At this point in time I had around 20 misquito bites. My family understands how allergic I am to the bites but others don’t. My friends were shocked my bites were the size of a quarter if not bigger from not even itching the bites. So, I was about to call even more attention to myself for the pesky bugs by cruising down the river. It was so amazing to be able to do that though!
Sidenote: Microsoft Word keeps telling me my verb tense is wrong so just ignore it if it is. I’m so tired but I promised myself I would finish this blog tonight (its 12:00 now)
So after the tubing we headed back to the ATV’s and rode back to where we met the bus. The bus then took us back to our hotel. As soon as we got back to the hotel we all showered and got ready for the night. It was Friday night, which is like America’s Friday night (a big party) so we were excited for that.
We all wanted to get a nice dinner together for our last night in Paria. So we found this place that Maria(?) recommended to us. Once there I ordered stuffed crab shell and shrimp (a specialty) with mashed potatoes and broccoli rice. This was by far the best meal I have had in a long time. The food was AMAZING. All of us agreed that it was so good.
After dinner we decided to do a little shopping before we went out for the night. After shopping we needed to meet up at this corner pizza place that Mackenzie had met the owner of earlier that day. The owner Tiago (sp?) went to high school in the US so he spoke perfect English. He was awesome and he definitely became a close friend to us. Anyway he had live music from this guy we called Toasty who was from Germany. Tiago kicked Toasty off the mike and let Mackenzie sing and it was so awesome to hear her and another local sing a Jason Mraz song in both English and Portuguese together. I will never forget hearing that.
After we spent some time there we all headed to a bar for a while/ dance club where everyone goes on the weekends. It was such a fun time and we made such great friends.
The next morning we were so tired and needed some breakfast. After a lot of searching, we finally found a place that serves breakfast. I got an amazing smoothie and I’m spacing what I ate at the moment (man can you tell I haven’t had much sleep lately, I’m spacing everything). But whatever, the food was really good, once again.
After that we decided to get hair wraps. Well, I didn’t, but Lis and Kerry got one. It’s like the kind you get in Disney World that my mom always hated. While they got their hair wraps done at this outdoorish beauty place I sat in their recliner and proceeded to fall asleep.
I woke up and we all decided to head to the beach. I got to lie out on the beach for like an hour—which was so great. Anyone who knows me knows I love the beach. We spotted our friends Williams and Matteo on the beach and chatted with them for a little bit. The language barrier is so funny sometimes.
After we were done at the beach we decided to do some last minute shopping before we were heading back to Salvador. This is where I proceeded to apparently spend almost every last dime on both credit cards I had. Oh well, last port.
It started getting a little late (5ish) so we decided to leave. We got a big cab back to Salvador and as we left Tiago was waving us off. We really did make friends in this little town. I’ve thought about them every day since I left.
Okay not too much happened after we got back to Salvador, but Ill write it in another blog. I can barely keep my eyes open.
I’m 3 days away from arriving in Florida. It’s so strange. Can’t really be put into words, but at least I’m not going through this alone. Tomorrow I have my last finals and we also have our Alumni Ball. I’m really excited. I’m trying to spend every last minute I can with all my friends.
i'm sure there's typos in here. Just ignore them like I did.
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