Bye, Bye Brazil . . .

Bye Bye Brazil . . .

I don’t even know how to quantify the amazingness of my time in Brazil. I was really nervous about how it would all turn out. I didn’t have any real plans. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. The day before we arrived, I got it into my head that I wanted to do an indy trip to Rio. I talked to a couple different groups who were doing it indy. In the end, I made plans to go with my friends from Texas A.J. and Chad. They had a hotel room booked but no plane tickets. I went to bed the night before arriving in Brazil with much tribulation. I had no idea how it would all work out. I am not the type of girl to run off with two boys to Rio. It’s not that I didn’t trust them. I knew they were cool guys, but I am just used to hanging out with girls. I don’t really have many guy friends at home. So, I woke up in Brazil with mixed feelings of excitement and uncertainness.

Unlike Venezuela, the view of Salvador from the ship wasn’t really spectacular even though we were actually docked right next to town. It took a little longer to get off the ship in Brazil than it did in Venezuela because immigration actually had to see everyone with their passport face to face. We had the usual briefing from the consulate on safety and logistics. And then we were finally allowed off the ship. The three of us left the boat and got some cash out of the ATM and looked into buying airline tickets in the port area. We finally decided to just go to the airport and get our tickets there. We got to the airport at around 2:30ish in the afternoon and booked a flight for 5:50 that evening for around $260 each. Then we started celebrating our trip to Rio at the airport bar with a couple drinks. While we were there, we met this great, interesting guy who worked for the U.S. embassy in Rio. He gave us a lot of good information and tips. He even gave us his phone number in case we had any problems in Rio. I’ve never really thought about working in foreign services or anything before, but after the different people I’ve met on this trip so far, it is definitely an area that I’d like to explore further. At the airport we also ran into two other SAS kids that were on their way to Rio and made plans to meet that evening.

We got into Rio around 8ish and took a cab to our hotel. It was actually sad because it was raining and we were hoping that the weather would improve since we had planned to spend a lot of time on the beach. I was in love with our hotel. It was very old style European shabby chic. It was right on Cococabana Beach. Our room was really cute. It had hardwood floors, three beds, big closets, a mini fridge, and really cute gold trimmed towels in the bathrooms. We did a little unpacking and then Katie and Phil (the SAS kids we met at the airport) arrived and we headed out for the evening. Chad had talked to our interport student, Victor, and gotten some good suggestions of places to check out in Rio. So, the first night we headed out to the club that he said would be good. Now, remember, at this point, it’s pouring rain. When we got to the club after a very confusing taxi ride where the driver made several wrong turns and kept telling us to “take it easy” as we cracked up, we found out that there was a private party until midnight. It was around ten then, so we went trekking through the rain hoping to find someplace to eat/chill until midnight. We ended up finding this great little bar/restaurant where we all ordered dinner and drinks and laughed a lot. The food and beer was really good and cheap. Then Katie and Phil took off (and that was the last we saw of them in Rio unfortunately) and the three of us (me, Chad, A.J.) headed back to the club.

At first they wouldn’t let us in but then the manager brought us to the front of the line and let us in. It turned out that the private party they had been having was a publicity event for this Brazilian sitcom star who was posing in this magazine. So, it was essentially the release party for this magazine. She was still in the club with her possee, so we were able to get a couple pictures with her. The club itself was amazing. It was kind of open aired, in a way. It had walls and a ceiling, but the walls didn’t go all the way up to the ceiling. Then there were all kinds of waterfalls and ponds with fish along with a lot of low golden lighting and tiki type wood. We ended up meeting some locals who spoke some English. So, we drank, talked, and danced with them. We were all trying to samba, and we thought we were great then, but I’m not so sure how we actually looked . . . The one local guy had me take off my shoes and roll up my jeans to samba. I felt like I was in the movie Dirty Dancing (not because the dancing was dirty, but just because it was so artistic and the take off of the shoes and rolling up of the pants thing). Anyone who loves Dirty Dancing will get the comparison. Anyways, we had a great first evening in Rio and headed back to our hotel at some wee hour of the morning.

The next day, we woke up to gloomy weather. It wasn’t really raining much, but it was cloudy and somewhat cool. We spent the day walking around Rio. It was such a cool city. It had a very old style European feel to it. A.J. compared it to New York mixed with South Beach. I think that was a somewhat accurate comparison. There were tons of stores all compacted together much like Chicago or moreso New York. The cool thing though was that they were all open. There were no doors, just fronts of the buildings that you walked right into. There were tons of grocery stores, drug stores, restaurants, clothing stores, and my favorite little holes in the wall where they just served drinks. Also adding to the ambiance of the city were the stoned sidewalks and walkways, pretty much any surface other than the actual streets. They were a wavy black and white pattern. Then of course, there was the natural beauty of the ocean, beaches, and mountains. All this came together to make a beautiful eclectic Brazilian resort town.

So, we pretty much just spent the morning walking around checking things out, shopping, and eating. We went up to the top floor of the Meridian Hotel for a great view of the city and the Christ Statue. We also saw The Palace Hotel which is the big hotel where all the celebrities and rich and famous have stayed since the 30’s when Cococabana first became the place to be. In the afternoon, we decided to go on a tour of a jewelry manufacturing plant. It was really interesting. And, I decided to buy myself a birthday present. So, I picked a pretty white gold necklace with little chips of seven different stones. It was a little bit of a splurge, but I love it. However, this was the beginning of my fall from grace with the budget gods. After this, I went a little nuts and started buying way too much.

Anyways, that night, we had dinner at a pretty fun and inexpensive place that brought around different pizzas continuously and had a huge buffet of meat, sides, and salads. That’s kind of the style of dinning in Brazil. It was a lot of fun. Then we met up with a few other SAS kids and had a bottle of wine at a restaurant while we waited for the evenings club to open up. Then we went to the club together and had a great time once again. There was some sort of famous singer up on stage and everyone was dancing and knew the words. Again, we returned back to the hotel at the wee hours of the morn.

The second morning, we woke up to sunshine. So, we spent the morning on the beach. The waves at the beach were huge and powerful. I went in once to play in them and was trying to go in with the surf. Man, those waves really kicked my ass. I was doing like summersaults because they were so strong. All the people on the beach were laughing at me, but I had a good time. In the afternoon we did some more walking around, drinking, shopping, and eating. Then, we bought some beer and a sand pail to use as a hobo cooler (to my Milwaukee friends who understand the power of the hobo – it rocked). So, we went out to the beach and sat there and talked and hung out until it got dark. That probably has to be one of my top Rio moments, sitting on the beach with a bucket of beer and friends as the sun set.

That night, we had the best meal of our trip. We went to a really nice Brazilian Churrascaria (steak house). I think that it cost 23 reals each (which is around $10). There was a buffet with different salads and sushi. Then they bring to your table different little sides such as cinnamon coated banana, rice, cheese filled breads, onion rings, and fries. Then, there are waiters that walk around with huge skewers of meat and cut slices on to your plate of what you want. We had tons of really excellent filet. The highlight of the meal was when they brought around a piece of filet that was infused with gobs of white cheese. I think that the boys were just about dying with pleasure. We also had a nice bottle of red wine to top off the excellent meal.

After dinner, we headed out to a different part of Rio called Le Blonde to a club that was recommended by the concierge at our hotel. Unfortunately, the club was closed for remodeling, so we just ended up checking out a couple local places on this strip type area in Le Blonde. It was a beautiful, ritzy area. At one bar, we had screw drivers made with fresh orange juice squeezed right in front of us. After a little while, we headed back to Cococabana to a club that someone had recommended. It was a ton of fun. As usual we were pretty close to the only tourists. However, we did run into some English students that we had met on the beach earlier in the day. It was actually such a comfort to be able to speak English to someone. Anyways, it was another awesome, but crazy evening. And, that, our final night in Rio, was the latest and craziest night out. When we woke up the next morning, A.J. made a comment that perfectly summarized how we were feeling. He said, “It’s a good thing that we’re leaving Rio. If I stayed any longer, I’d die.” It was just so true because we just had such a crazy time. This is also when we formulated the plan to make “I survived Rio” t-shirts.

Anyways, we had a flight out of Rio at 11:45 that evening. So, we checked out of the hotel and did some walking around and eating in the afternoon. At four o’clock we met up with a man that we had arranged to drive us around for the evening and then drop us off at the airport. So, we went up a mountain to see the famous Christ statue. Unfortunately, it was foggy, so we didn’t get to see much of a view of the city from the mountain, however, we were able to get a pretty good look at the Christ. It is as big as the statue of liberty and was pretty cool to observe shrouded in fog. After that, we went to the local market and I did a lot more damage to my budget. I actually had to buy a really large bag to get everything that I bought back to Salvador. After the market, we had our last Brazilian meal. We went to another Churrascaria that was very similar to the one from the evening before. We had another good meal which was highlighted by A.J. accidentally trying chicken hearts and gagging. Then we were off to the airport.

Our flight was scheduled to take off at 11:45, but because of a strike, we left a little late. So, I rung in my 23rd birthday in an airplane sitting in Rio. It was awesome! The flight was somewhat uncomfortable because the chairs didn’t go back very far and we were all so tired. We finally made it back to the ship at around 3:30 in the morning. When I got into my room, my Brazil mail was waiting for me. So, I had a great time reading my birthday mail. Thank you to everyone who sent mail. It was so exciting to receive it. After reading my mail, I passed out.

I woke up relatively early the next day. Since it was my only day in Salvador, and my birthday, I wanted to make the most of it. It was really hard to find anyone since so many people were off on trips. So, I just got ready to hit the town and ran into a girl doing the same, so we went and walked around Salvador, shopped, and had lunch and drinks. Salvador was so different than Rio. It was gorgeous. There were tons of markets, old artistic churches and buildings, and beautiful cobblestone streets everywhere. It was a romantically beautiful city. The girl that I was hanging out with had to head back to the ship around 5, so I went back with her. Now, it was my birthday and I wanted to go and party before we had to be on the ship at 9. So, I ran in and changed and took a quick look around for any of my friends on the ship. Everyone was obviously already out, so I was like “what the hell” and just got off on my own and latched on to the first group of people I saw. I walked into the main town with them and then saw someone that I knew who was up for drinks and dinner, so I went with him.

We ended up running into a group of seven others that I didn’t know any of and decided to go to dinner with them. There were five girls and two guys. They were heading to this restaurant that they had seen earlier. We ended up joining them. It was amazing. You walked into this long narrow hallway that was like walking on a wooden bridge lit by lanterns. Then you walked upstairs into a pretty, fancy dining room. We were the only ones up there. Below, us outside was a band playing Brazilian music, so we had great dinner music. We all ordered different filets, which cost about $10 U.S. a piece and lots of drinks. It was such an awesome group of people that I related to and had so much fun with. I really hope we all hang out more on the ship. Anyways, until this point, I hadn’t mentioned that it was my birthday to any of them. But, I was just having an amazing time. Well, the band below started to play and sing happy birthday in Portuguese coincidentally. All the girls were like “wow, I wish that someone would sing happy birthday to me in Portuguese on my birthday.” And, I was like, “well, this is actually sort of a weird thing to say, but, it actually is my birthday.” It was so cool though. We just had the best time. All nine of us took the biggest tequila shots ever poured (more like two or three shots). We actually tried to order more, but we had drank all their tequila. Anyways, earlier in the trip, I had been making plans to hang with all these people I knew on my birthday, and I ended up having the best birthday ever with virtual strangers. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Our food took a long time to come out and it was a long walk back to the boat so we ended up being one minute late to the boat, so we all got a little dock time in Cape Town, but it will only be an hour or two. It wasn’t really our fault. We were in line in plenty of time, we just didn’t swipe in on time because of the line.

Anyways, back on the boat, I hung out on deck and caught up with people. At 11 o’clock, I said goodbye to Brazil as we pulled away. It was absolutely beautiful pulling out with the lights and city in the background, slowly slipping away.

Back on the ship, we have eight days until we arrive in Cape Town. We are going to lose an hour for five of the eight nights. Luckily, we don’t have another global studies test before then, but I’m sure we’ll be busy with course work for other classes. We have a day off of class the day after tomorrow to celebrate Neptune Day (crossing the equator). We also have Archbishop Desmond Tutu aboard, which is pretty exciting. He is going to be giving lectures and enlightening our shipboard community in various ways. Other than that, I am going to try to do a lot more resting than I did on the way to Brazil. I really need to try to recover a little from the craziness of being in port. I'm actually pretty excited because it looks like they are about to start showing normal movies on the tv nightly. They are playing Waterworld and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tonight. I think that I'll skip pub night and do that. I’ll update once or twice before Africa. There shouldn’t be too much to write about. Just back to school life . . .

Until then, best wishes to everyone.