Day 1: Everyone met up in Contagem at the same place we had our inbound orientation. It was really awesome to see everyone that I haven't seen in months! This northeast trip was only for my district (4760) but not the whole district went. There were 42/56 of us there. 42 exchange students, 18 different countries, 2 chaperones, 10 hotels, and 2 leaders. The first day was really chill, it was just basically a reunion. Every night of the trip, we had a meeting to discuss what would be happening the following day. This first meeting, we introduced ourselves to the leaders, Nina and Lulu. Nina explained the game 'Jegue Porreta' to us. Basically if someone does something funny or stupid that day, someone tells what they did and everyone votes which story is the best. If your story wins, you have to wear a giant pacifier (Chupetao) around your neck for the entire next day. Doesn't matter what we do that day, you have to wear it. The best part is that at some point during the day, the person with the "chupetao" gets to yell "Jegue Porreta" and everyone else has to lay on their backs, flail their arms and legs in the air while screams nonsense. And yes, this happens in public places. Some people really who watch us think there are bombs going off or something so they run away. It's really quite hilarious.
Day 2: Everyone had a medical exam, then we had a 4 hour lecture on the rules of the trip. The rules were basically the same as the rotary rules. Last year apparently 8 people got sent home from this exact trip so they were really stressing the rules this time. Spoiler Alert: no one during this trip got sent home! That isn't a common thing...
Anyways, we went grocery shopping for the 16 hour bus ride ahead of us and then after dinner we had forro and funk dance lessons. Funk is basically shaking your butt with technique.
Day 3: Everyone was up early, packed the bus, and headed on a 16 hour bus ride to a hotel in Bahia. I barely slept on this bus ride because I was just way to excited. We watched some movies, had a dance party on the bus and just talked with everyone.
Day 4: Up early again for another 6 hours to Lencois. We had lunch in the city and then walked to this natural pool with a waterfall. It was right in the middle of the forest so we had to hike there. The water was so refreshing, I could have stayed there all day. We walked back to the hotel, swam in the pool, and just hung out. The food at that hotel was fantastic! I ate waay too much but it was so worth it.
Day 5: Took the bus to a place outside of Lencois where all of us went snorkeling in these fresh water caves and zip lining into the water. After, we bussed to a different spot where we hiked down a mountain to explore in some huuuge underground caves. The air was so fresh and it was so isolated that there was almost complete silence. It was truly amazing to experience. We then went back to the hotel, stuffed our faces, swam, and slept.
Day 6: Early onto the bus to go to Morro Do Pai Inicio. It was a long hike up the mountain but luckily it wasn't hot outside yet. The unfortunate part about the weather was that it was very foggy so by the time we climbed all that way, there wasn't a lot to see because everything was white. We stayed up there taking pictures with all of our flags and by the end, it started to clear up. The view was absolutely stunning, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. We then went o another natural pool in Lencois that we also had to hike to. It was so cool because it had cliffs and a giant natural slide. It kind of hurt sliding down it because it was just a huge rock but it was so amazing! We stayed there until the sun went down and then hiked back to the hotel. After dinner we had a Capoeira presentation. Capoeira is a very famous kind of dance fighting here in Brazil. The presentation was really neat to watch because they also brought in little kids who have started training as well. They got many exchange students to participate as well. At the end, they busted into some Samba!
Day 8: We took little sail boats to a sand bar way off the shore of Maceio. There were people selling things from floating coolers or off of their boats. We played frisby and other water games. By the end of our time out there, everyone was staring at us. We made a scene everywhere we went. When we got back to the shore, we got to do some shopping on the beach. Sandra and I were so excited that we didn't really listen o the instructions of where to meet up with the group again. Long story short, we thought we had to meet in another place and we were already late so we began to run like idiots down the street, flailing our arms for the bus to wait for us because we thought it had left without us. In actual fact, we were supposed to meet up right outside the 'street mall' but instead we finally caught up to the bus only to find out that no one was on it, the bus was actually about to pick up the whole group. So needless to say, we won the Chupetao for the next day. The later afternoon was spent at another beautiful beach down the street from the hotel. We stayed there until the sun went down then went and had dinner.
After our wonderful day at the beach, we went back to the hotel to get ready for a night out at a forro place. This place was so authentic and so cultural. We danced all night long and lucky me, I had to wear the chupetao while we danced. I even got to go onto the stage and sing with the band.
Day 11: Visited the largest cashew tree in the world. I am telling you, it was huuuuge! We were able to walk all around through it. It felt like it never ended. I got to try fresh Caju juice from the tree as well. After, we went to the beach, shopped a little, took lots of pictures. I also held a blow fish right from the ocean! It was blown up while I was holding it but then began to deflate because I think it was dying. My bad. I also found some sand dollars! After dinner, the leaders put on a nice dance party for us at another hotel right on the beach. There was a DJ, a pool, a table full of fruit, and a cake. We danced a ton and took lots of pictures. It was so cool because everyone dressed up so fancy.
Day 12: This day was such an amazing day. We got into groups of 4 and got to ride on these dune buggies all over the sand dunes in Natal. It really looked like a desert actually with an ocean in the background. The sand was so soft and the hills were huge. Our driver was a maniac! He drove off the trail, almost hit the other buggies, went really fast over bumps and down hills. It was great. We got to stop a lot of the time to take pictures of the scenery. It was gorgeous! I got to take pictures riding a donkey on the top of the sand dune! It was a little random at first but I was definitely not about to pass up an opportunity to ride a donkey in the desert. After that, we drove up to this one place where we got to go sand boarding! I completely failed but it was a lot of fun. We then took the buggies to the beach where we relaxed, got beach tattoos, drank coconuts, and tanned. We met up with the other group of exchangers again which was really neat! On our bus ride home the traffic was really bad so we eventually had to get out and walk to the hotel. The cool thing was that we got to watch the opening of the new stadium in Natal. We watched the rope cutting and everything. That night we had an all-you-can-eat pizza dinner. HOLY I am telling you, it was amazing. The waiters went by with every kind of pizza you could imagine. There was no end. There was even dessert pizza with bananas chocolate, strawberries, everything! My goodness that was amazing.
We arrived at the hotel at about 11:30pm. Now. All of the hotels on the trip were good, clean and reasonable for the price...except this hotel. This hotel was creepy, smelly, and basically falling apart. Our hotel room didn't even lock for one thing, the fan looked like it was going to fall and slice someone in half and the bathroom door didn't close either. It looked like an orphanage basically. The only thing in the room were beds; we literally kept the keys on the floor because there was no table or anything. But thankfully it was just for one night.
Day 14: We drove another 4 hours to a small city outside of Salvador. We went to a beach called Praia do Forte which is famous for its sea turtle exhibit. I got to see all sorts of different sea turtles, stingrays, sea urchins and lots more sea creatures. I held the sea urchin and pet the stingray. It was pretty neat. I ate subway for lunch which of course was just an awful choice. I'm not going to go on my subway rant right now because this blog is supposed to be about the trip. I will just say it was bad...I got a ham.
Anways... we bussed to Salvador, ate supper at McDonalds, and then had a talent show. Everyone had to do something so the two other Canadians and I sang Canada's anthem. Everyone had something really random to show which was pretty cool. Then the boys took it a little further and did a strip tease. They shouldn't have called that a talent...
Day 15: We did a bus tour of Salvador then got to see the famous church with all the 'Fitas' in front. Fitas are these little ribbon type things that you tie onto the outside of the church. There are all sorts of different colours that mean different things. You tie 3 knots and make one wish for every knot. You can basically tie them anywhere and make 3 wishes. While Sandra and I were walking around, we came across these funny dressed guys holding a basket of a bunch of leaves. The guys approached us friendly and asked our names. They then began to brush the leaves on our faces, throw rice and grains on us, spray kind of a mint scented perfume and then finally powder us a little with this flour type substance. The were saying prayers while they did it and then at the end they said we were blessed by God. So I guess we accidentally got blessed in Salvador.
We took the bus to this other market where we got to shop for quite some time. We took an elevator up to a really high point in Salvador where we could see the whole city and the ocean. After lunch we had some more free time to shop and explore a really neat part of the city before we had to meet up for this show at 7:30. In Salvador that day there was a concert going on but the area was blocked off with police. Sandra and I got to go in and check it out. We left all of our things with some other exchange students so nothing would get stolen. The concert was soo packed with people and actually kind of freaky at times. There were people throwing drinks, grabbing our arms, touching our hair, doing drugs right next to us all on the way into the concert. It was freaky but once we got in, it was amazing! The singer looked like he was 65 but he was still rocking the stage. It was a really chill reggae concert and I loved it! The singer was giving away CD's near the stage so I ran there but the first round I didn't get any because everyone was crowding. I waited again and still didn't get a CD. After waiting, the singer looked at me as I held my hands out and he went and got a CD just for me. It made me so happy even though I have never heard of this band before. It's a good souvenir now.
We then left the concert to meet up with the group so we could watch an authentic dance. The dance was so amazing and so cultural! I really wish I could have taken pictures or videos. The dresses were amazing and the singing and instruments were live as well. It was a really cool cultural moment that I am glad I got to see.
Day 16: Another 10 hour bus ride to Porto Seguro! I'll tell you a little bit of what the bus life is like because we spent a lot of time on there. Basically, everyone sleeps, we watch movies, we play the CD of the music of the trip, and mostly we just converse with one another. I really got to know a lot about people after spending that much time on the bus. When we arrived there, ate dinner, and started designing our shirts for the following night. They gave us shirts and told us we had to wear them to the party the next night but they said we could cut them and tie them how we wanted to so all the girls got together in one room and helped each other. It was pretty cool.
Day 17: Woke up, went to the beach which was across the street, tanned, swam, etc. I held one of those cool sand crabs that walk sideways. It didn't pinch me which was a plus. We headed over to the stage because they were calling up people to dance. I would've gone too but I was too late getting there. There was a crowd in front dancing as well. After the volunteers, they had a group of professional guys and girls dancing. It was amazing. Amazing because they were good dancers but mainly because I have never seen so many abs all at once. Brazilian abs dancing. Holy.
We were supposed to dance along with them but to be honest I often found myself just standing there staring...maybe a little drool, I'm not sure.
Anyways, after that we went out for lunch then visited an old part of Porto Seguro. This was the first city founded by the Portuguese way back in the 1500's. There was so much history and culture there, it was really cool to learn about. We got to do some shopping, I tried a really authentic food called acaraja. It's kind of hard to explain because it had a bunch of unknown things in it but I liked it. And if you know me you will know that I generally will try things before I know what is inside.
We then got to do some more shopping near the beach, I held parrot who then began to climb me which was not okay so I kind of freaked out. I also tried to teach it to say Canada but it ended up saying something like 'rararaaa' which I think is pretty close.
After supper we all got ready and headed out to the club with our cut up T-shirts. We danced and danced and danced until our feet hurt and we couldn't dance no more. Twas an excellent night.
Day 18: Aaaand another 11 hours to Guaraparas which was another temporary stay hotel just for the night. It was a shame though because that hotel was so nice! Each room had a hammock outside! After dinner we basically all just hung out in the hammocks, talking and such.
Day 19: Another 8 hours to Rioooo! Once we arrived in Rio we went shopping on the beach, ate all-you-can-eat pizza again (OMG), then just relaxed because no one could move after all that pizza.
Day 20: One of the most memorable days of the trip. In the morning we started off with a tour of the most famous soccer stadium in Brazil called Maracana. The cool thing about this is that none of the other trips got to do this tour because the stadium wasn't ready until now. It was so new and shiny, I couldn't believe it! We got tours of all the different levels including the VIP room, the dressing room of the players, the practice room, and the actually grass itself. That stadium is huuuuge I tell you. Whenever you get the chance, look up Maracana on Google Earth, then zoom out and see how huge it is. It's crazy.
From Maracana we went straight to go see the Christ. I've already been so I knew the excitement of the others. Even though it was my second time, the view still didn't lose it's value. It truly is one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The only unfortunate part was that it was full of tourists and also 40 degrees out. We rushed to get a bunch of pictures in then relaxed. After lunch we went to another super famous tourist point called 'Pao de Açucar'. This was another mountain that you had to get to by a gondola. You could literally see everything from up there as well, including the Christ. We stayed up there and watched the sun set over Rio. That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. The colours were outstanding; I wish I had the perfect words or even pictures to do it justice. Ever have those moments in your life where you look around you, everything goes silent, colours become brighter, time stops, and your breath seems to be completely taken from you? I have. Watching the yellows, the reds, the oranges, and the darkness behind it all mix together behind the famous mountains, the same mountains I have seen in many pictures, then watch it all fade away slowly; that was when my breath was taken. I had a moment of realization that I didn't want to ever sleep because finally my reality was better than any of my dreams.
Day 21: I woke up early to go on the tour of the Favelas. For those of you who don't know, favelas are the area of the cities where the poor people live. If you look at pictures of big cities in Brazil, you will see the outskirts are made of those torn but colourful looking buildings. Those are favelas. Rio has the biggest favelas in the world so I really wanted to take a tour to see what their life is like inside those small houses. We went all the way up the mountain, did a tour between the houses, on the streets and in one of the schools. I have never seen anything like it. These houses were so small, so torn, and so close together, I couldn't imagine what it would be like living there. Whoever is reading this, take a look around the room you are in right now and just know that it is probably bigger than most of the houses in the Favelas. An interesting thing is that 90% of the people who live there, work. The construct buildings, roads, etc. The use that money to build onto their houses, sometimes they use it to buy TVs, phones, etc. It appeared that they didn't really use that money for the things that you would think. They all wear normal clothes, use cell phones, watch TV, but they have the TV in the kitchen which is generally their living room too. It was interesting because these people didn't appear unhappy at all, they were all actually very friendly and upbeat. Even though they don't have as many things as we do, they lived a happy life. I loved that tour because it made me appreciate even more the life that I live and the things that I have.
After the tour we had some free time to get some lunch, walk around Rio, etc. We all met up after and headed to Copacabana beach. We spent the afternoon just relaxing on the beach, taking pictures, did some more beach shopping. We went out for dinner again at a really good restaurant. We all hung out at the hotel after just talking and laughing. It was a really relaxing night.
Day 22:The last day of the trip! Okay the last day of doing things.. We took a 3 hour bus ride to Angra Dos Reis where we ate lunch, then boarded the big boat. Angra Dos Reis is famous because it is surrounded by tons of islands. They say there is one island for every day of the year. That day we got to visit 5 of them. The water was so clear and beautiful. We were constantly surrounded by beautiful islands. You know the stereotype islands you think of where it's just a small island with palm trees and nothing else? Well, that is exactly what these islands were. After our island hopping, we headed back to our last and final hotel right on the water. My room was on the top floor and had a great view of the water. There was a pool, a dock, a pool table, and a lounge area outside. After dinner we had our last meeting where the leaders said their thank you's and everything. We then did a little awards ceremony. I won 'Most Brazilian', 'Funniest', and 'Best Dancer' for the girls. It was a nice surprise! After the ceremony, the DJ arrived and we had another dance party. There was a light show and everything. Our curfew that night was 3am but we danced for so long that Nina (our leader) said we can stay up if we want to. Tucker (my friend from New York), Stian (Norway), and I stayed up until the sun came up. Tucker and I ended up not going to sleep at all until the bus.
Day 23: As I said, I didn't go to sleep. I stayed up talking with Stian, Tucker, and Nina. It was really nice to relax and have some good conversations. We ate a quick breakfast then boarded the bus for one last trip: Belo Horizonte. It was supposed to be another 8 hours but the bus broke down we didn't end up arriving until 8:30 at night. I slept pretty much that whole time so it didn't really matter much for me. We arrived in BH, said our goodbyes and our hellos and headed home.
I anticipated this trip for over a year and I can't believe it's already over. Every day was filled with fun, laughs and surprises. It exceeded my expectations. Thank you so much Terra Brasil for making my dream trip come true.
If I could, I would've liked to have written every small detail about it but I think it is long enough. This trip will always be looked back on with great memories.
Thanks for reading :)
P.S The rest of the pictures are on another post.
No comments:
Post a Comment