Salvador, Brazil- Part 2

So after running around the city and experiencing Carnaval at its finest a few friends and I decided that we needed a little break. And this break took place on an island right off of the coast of Salvador called Itaparica. The 6 of us walked to the dock where the “community boat” (basically a ferry with just people) would carry on our 30 minute ride over to Itaparica. When arrived at the dock we found a lovely little surprise for us. Because of Carnaval everyone had the week off of work, so the line for the community boat was about an hour long. And normally this would have been no big deal, however it was probably 95 degrees out without humidity (so think sauna with a bunch of Brazilians). It provided for some good times, full of sweat. Yay! Once we arrived on the island we took a taxi about 30 minutes because the place we were going to stay at was located on the opposite end of the island. This experience was rather entertaining as the taxi driver got lost about 4 times on the way and then when we finally did get close we had an “incident.” There were some friendly little donkeys simply chillin in the middle of the dirt road we were on and did not feel like moving when our taxi needed to get by. The taxi driver and his friend jumped out of the taxi and tried to get them to move, but they still did not feel like budging. So we had to back up. Once we arrived at our place we wandered around for a bit. We wandered first in the actual place we were staying, Zimbo Tropical and then the town. Zimbo Tropical is just a bunch of bungalows and a house (where we stayed) in what I like to call the jungle. There were all sorts of animals in the jungle, like little monkeys, or lemurs rather, birds, turtles and tortoises, lizards, and other fun things. I will try to post a picture of that so you kind of understand what this jungle I am talking about is. So the house we slept in was pretty cool, minus the mass amounts of bugs that were sleeping with us. Before we went to bed we all bugsprayed ourselves, however for some reason this did not help me as I am currently a walking bug bite. Now for the wandering around the actually town. Itaparica is not a huge touristy place to begin with, which was part of the reason that I wanted to go there…to kind of try and experience the real deal. And the real deal we got. The island only had about 35,000 inhabitants (according to the taxi driver who we conversed with in broken Spanish) and one paved “highway” (one lane on each side). And what I mean by less touristy and the real deal is that the 6 of us were the ONLY white people in the area. When we walked on the beach right after we arrived, little kids were yelling the word “gringo” out at us. We all just laughed. Also, while on the beach we tried to communicate with this little boy playing with us in the water. He asked my friend if he was “japaneso” and he responded back with “koreano.” I feel as if this kid may have never seen an Asian person before in his life. He then continued to ask if the rest of us were “italianos.” We just smiled and laughed a little, especially since my friend Sarah is very blond and blue eyed. So this was a cultural learning experience for both the little boy and for us, the italianos. And did I mention that NO ONE spoke English on this island. So imagine 6 American college students trying to get around, order a meal (this was really entertaining), or even hold any kind of conversation with anyone. It was quite interesting. Because of this language barrier I can now speak about 3 phrases in Portuguese including, “how much does this cost?” And “what is your name?” Pretty good huh? I also have been able to some how communicate with taxi drivers trying to explain to them where we need to go or that we need to get back to the port not the aeropuerto, as one taxi driver thought was our destination. Good thing we clarified that one. We left Itaparica and our cultural experience there that afternoon to head back to mainland Salvador for another evening of Carnaval activities. We went to Barra again and watched a reggae band for quite some time, dancing and singing with the Brazilians to Bob Marley. Apparently Bob Marley is universal. We then danced up the street again with the blocos (the floats and the procession of people following it) to end a fabulous evening. All ‘n all a good time. Ciao.


QUOTE/STORY OF THE DAY:

Background: The little boy who called us Italians also decided to tell our friend Matt that he was crazy in Portuguese because of his “crazy” haircut. Matt had just recently shaved his head with a strip down the middle. One of us used our hands to signal the crazy sign in regards to Matt’s shaved head and he did the same thing saying “doide, doide.” The word quickly became our favorite Portuguese word. We haven’t stopped saying it since.

So the quote of the day is…“Doide” (aka- crazy…at least we think so)

P.S. these pictures are of the jungle and the house.

Salvador, Brazil- Part 1

Day one of my adventure in Salvador began with Megan and I dragging ourselves out of bed at 0500 hours so we could watch the sunrise as our ship pulled into Salvador. Several hours later after immigration, breakfast, and a political debriefing 6 of us set out to discover Salvador. We began our adventures by exploring the Mercado Modelo- basically a market full of Brazilian art. Although I found it rather commercialized (geared towards tourists with lots of the art being mass-produced) I still thought it was pretty cool to just check it out and people watch. After the Mercado we walked to the elevator, literally an elevator that takes you from the lower part of the city to the upper part of the city, so we could wonder around in the upper city. Right outside of the elevator there were men practicing Capoeira (a Brazilian martial art), which was absolutely incredible to watch. We then walked around, checked out some of the pre- Carnival festivities, had lunch, and shopped a bit. This is when we met the Chilean and the Argentineans. The Chilean was the first person we found in Salvador that actually spoke English so we took that opportunity to chat a bit with him. He was an artist from Chile who was traveling throughout Latin America. He had only been in Salvador for 2 weeks, but he had great stories to share with us regardless. After our discussions with him we headed back to the ship to prepare ourselves for Carnival. That’s right- Carnival, the worlds biggest party. We formed a group of 20 or so of us, hopped in 4 taxis and traveled to Barra (apparently the biggest place for Carnival in the area). Once there we followed the crowd down streets with all sorts of venders selling everything from little nic- nacs to food and of course drink. At the end of these streets was the main street with all of the floats and masses of people. I was just fine, being as little as I am, standing where we were watching the floats go by from a slight distance and not getting smooshed by millions of people, however my group decided they wanted to push forward. So push forward we did. All 20 of us jumped into the middle of the street in front of the floats and danced our way up the street with the Brazilians. It was the most ridiculous experience of my life. I still cannot even believe that I did it. It was so out of my comfort zone…Just picture millions of drunk people on one street, dancing, singing, and sweating all over the place, rubbing up against you, pushing you every which way, dumping beer on you, and grabbing you, all as you try and make your way up the street walking/dancing through a nice mixture of pee, beer, sweet, and other fun liquids. But regardless of all of those things, I did it. And I LOVED it. It was an experience that I will never forget. Dancing and singing with thousands of Brazilians was incredible. Everyone, regardless of race and/or nationality was able to dance and sing together in the street. Now picture that. This is why I loved it. Everyone was just there to have a good time. And while having such a great time we met awesome people from all over the world. We met a kid from Iceland, a kid from Israel, and randomly 2 kids who just graduated from UCSB, one who went on Semester at Sea in 04. Such a small world. So after miles of dancing up the street we decided that it was time to retire. It was getting late and some of our group had to get up in a few hours to catch a flight. We couldn’t find a taxi so we opted for the next best thing…the public bus. Oh yes. We went on the public bus in Brazil-it was only 1 real (.50 cents) and it provided for a fun time. So 20 of us got on the bus with our 2 new friends from UCSB and took it back into town. Forty-five minutes later we arrived by the dock and made our way back to the ship. By this time we were all exhausted and glad to see our ship. P.S. Sorry I do not have any pictures from Brazil except the sunrise one. I did not take my digital off of the ship for fear it could get stolen. I did take a disposable out with me, however those pictures are not yet developed…so hang in there for those.

QUOTE/STORY OF THE DAY:
Background: During Carnival men like to try and grab and/or kiss you...

My friend Sarah, who is tall and blond (what the Brazilians tend to go for), was being slightly pestered by this man who wanted to kiss her. He made this very clear to her by blatantly asking her for a kiss. She proceeded to tell him that she was married and had 2 children (she is a very smart cookie). He then pointed to his beer can, shaking both the can and his head disapprovingly, drunkenly singing… “I don’t care.” It was funny.

Puerto Rico!

Alright, so now for the good stuff. As you all know I am currently in Puerto Rico, which is the first port on my journey. Heck yes. After only 2.5 days at sea I was already ready to get off the ship and begin my travels and cultural learning experiences. Once our shipped docked in Puerto Rico everyone was herded into the Union (our meeting place) at 8am for a mandatory presentation where some dude would ramble on about how amazing Puerto Rico is. Great I thought, who wants to listen to some dude ramble on at 8am (can’t emphasize the time enough) when you could be sleeping a little longer and then get off the ship and explore? Well, turns out that the some random dude was our good friend the Puerto Rican Governor and his friend the Secretary of State. Now that is pretty cool if you ask me. We were welcomed to our first destination by the Governor and Secretary of State and were on tv on about 5 different stations in Puerto Rico. Not too bad of a way to be welcomed to Puerto Rico if you ask me. Once his shpeal was done I had my first organized trip through Semester at Sea- a walking tour of the fort El Morro and Old San Juan. It was a very interesting fort with lots of history, so naturally I enjoyed it. Also on this trip I saw the capital building, a 16th century cemetery right along the ocean, and a really cool Catholic church. Following this tour 5 of us decided it was time for lunch. We found this great little restaurant and “had” some typical Puerto Rican food. Well, I guess you can call it “having” traditional Puerto Rican food…I had black bean soup and simply watched one of my new friends “have” typical Puerto Rican food. It was this Octupus and vegetable dish. It looked amazing, let me tell you! Following this my new friends and I wandered around Old San Juan for about 4 hrs. We found some of the most amazing spots in the city that normally you would probably never find. Leave it to the curious college students to discover these places. After wandering forever we walked back to the ship, showered, and prepared ourselves for a meet and greet with some local university students. We attended Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico where the student government greeted us with typical Puerto Rican food, music, and dancing. It was an all around good time. I learned a lot. One of the most important things that I learned there was that Puerto Rican men can dance…really well. VERY educational.

Day two of Puerto Rico began with an early wake up to watch the sunrise. I decided that I wanted to see at least one sunrise in every country. So, I got up at 6:30, walked to the 6th deck, and watched the sunrise, by myself. It was beautiful (picture #1. Beautiful I know). Not only did getting up early provide me with the ability to see an amazing sunrise, it also provided me with a little surprise. Walking around the deck at 6:30am, apparently getting some exercise, was Des (my nickname for Archbishop Desmund Tutu). He saw me there by myself and said good morning, and I, still shocked to be face to face with him, replied with a hello Father. It was great. This was my first interaction with Father Tutu. What a fantastic way to start my morning. So then my day continued with another adventure into the city where Megan (one of my new friends- big thanks to Prim for that one) and I went to Walgreens and Pueblo to pick up a few necessities. In both Walgreens and Pueblo (which is a grocery store) there were probably some 30 other SAS kids running around grabbing their bottle of shampoo that they forgot or an extra box of granola bars (realizing that they were definitely going to need them). We then proceeded to a ghetto jewelry store in hopes of finding a watch (since Megan did not have one, and mine some how had already broke). Fortunately for us the store carried some Casios for only $12. We each bought one. Hope they don’t break by Brazil. Later that night I went to probably one of the coolest places…bioluminescent bay. For those of you who don’t know what that is…it is a bay that has phytoplankton that light up when you touch the water like little pieces of glitter. Your body also lights up when you get in. In order to get there you have to kayak for about 20 or so minutes, which was a fun experience all in itself. My partner and I were such great kayakers- we only crashed into the sides of the path 3 or 4 times and only managed to get stuck once. When we got to the actual bioluminescent bay we were able to jump in and swim around, lighting up in the process. Very cool.

Day three was once again a very jam-packed day of adventures. Traveled to the El Yunque rainforest (picture #2) and hiked around for a while. It was quite beautiful. Look below for some pictures of that. Also jumped in the waterfall, which was absolutely freezing, but well worth it. Had the most amazing lunch following this. We all cleared our plates and went back for seconds (picture #3). Then it was time for the beach. Luquillo beach was amazing. The whole time I kept thinking how incredibly unfair it was that I was swimming in such a marvelous place while my friends were either stuck in school or freezing in Colorado, perhaps both. Sorry guys. I enjoyed the beach for you. Promise. Hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all!

All Aboard...

Hi everybody! I most certainly hope that all of you have been doing your homework and following me on that exceptionally large map of the world I suggested that you purchase as I have officially begun my travels. I am currently in the first port of Puerto Rico. Very exciting. But let met just backtrack for a second here and start off by setting the scene for you. These past few days have been quite overwhelming, but of course overwhelming in the best possible sense. The MV Explorer, my ship, consists of 702 college students, which is overwhelming in itself…plus the numerous faculty, life long learners (adults ranging from early 30’s-early 90’s), the ships crew, and of course Archbishop Desmond Tutu (aka- Father). Ya, so basically my ship is a floating dorm with a minimal number of adults. And this is not just any ordinary dorm, it is one where you are eating, studying, sweating, traveling, and doing everything with these people (who might I add, you barely even know) while sailing around the world. If you love everyone, then great, you are in luck. However, if you don’t like someone, then that is just too bad, you are stuck with them. So I guess it is good that I love everyone huh? Also, good luck trying to remember who anyone is or how to find them after you meet them. For example, good luck trying to discover who that person was you had dinner with last night, because both you and your dinner mates have no idea who he or she was or how to get a hold of them. You all seem to remember that the name sounded like Mark, but it could have been Mike or Matt or any guys name that begins with an “M.” And then trying to remember or find out where he lives is an even more challenging task. Good freaking luck. I think he lives on the 4th floor…good thing there are like 400 people living on the 4th floor. Ya, it is quite a challenge. But I like challenges, so this is definitely a good thing. And now I feel like I just wrote a novel, so I will write again either tomorrow or the next day filling you guys in on my adventures in Puerto Rico, and if you’re lucky I will even include some pictures (I already managed to take about 200 of them).