My 5 days in Salvador Brazil!!

Bom dia!!That's Portuguese for good morning :)
This is my update for all 5 days in Brazil, so I know it’s a little long… maybe read it in pieces.

Brazil
Day 1:
I set my alarm for 5:45 so that I could be up in time to watch the ship dock, but I actually woke up at 5:20 and couldn’t sleep because I was so excited so I grabbed my camera and headed up to the 7th deck. There were already a lot of students up there surprisingly. The sun was just rising so I pulled out my camera and took a bunch of pictures. The ship was docked by 6 am and breakfast didn’t start until 6:30, so I found Megan and we just hung out on the deck until then. By the time it was 6:30 there was the longest line I have ever seen for breakfast! So we got in line and ate outside. After breakfast I went back to my room and got dressed. We had a meeting at 8am that we had to go to before we could get off the ship. The meeting consisted of some last minute safety tips and stuff like that. After the meeting we headed back to our rooms to get everything ready to see Brazil! I left my camera and strapped on my money belt because of all the warnings we had been given. I also put some money in my shoe just in case! I even took off all my earrings. We didn’t get cleared to get off the ship until around 10.
I met up with Megan, Kate, Shane, Robin and another Kate to explore Brazil. We got off the ship at around 11 and as we walked off the ship there were these two ladies dressed up in these big dresses that tied ribbons around our wrists. You are suppose to make a wish and when the ribbon falls off your wish will come true. I got a green one! A speaker on the ship said the first one he had took two years to fall off! There were five or six other cruise ships getting there that day so the dock was full of people. One other cruise ship had a whole band playing music for them as they got off. We walked through the terminal and exchanged a little more money. As we walked out we were bombarded with people trying to sell things. After we got through that we followed a path that was on a map we got from the ship. It took us to the lacerda elevator which takes you to the top part of the city. You usually have to pay five cents but it was free that day because of carnival. They pack as many people in as possible and there is a person who sits in there to push the buttons. I was definitely feeling claustrophobic while I was in there, but we made it out ok.
Once we were at the top we were all pretty hungry so we decided to try to find a place to eat. It took us a while to agree on something but we eventually fount a nice restaurant on the second floor of one of the buildings. Ordering was really hard without knowing Portuguese but we eventually got what we wanted. I ordered chicken with rice and beans, and it was really good. The rice and beans were amazing. After that I got some fresh mango juice which was kind of like a smoothie. It was soo good, way better than anything from Jamba Juice! I tried some of the fried cheese balls someone else got and they were really good too. After we left we shopped around a bit. We bought some post cards and decided we would wait another day before deciding what else we wanted to get. I didn’t feel that Brazil was as scary as I thought it would be. Shane brought his camera and it was fine. We eventually decided to head back to the ship so that we could rest up for Carnival that night. By the time I got back I was so tired, I set my alarm and took a nap.
I got up and met with Megan and Robin in Megan’s room to get ready for Carnival. We had all signed up for the semester at sea program “traditional Carnival: more mellow, but just as fun”. We didn’t have costumes or face paint so we did that best that we could with the make-up that we had… it was pretty funny. We headed down to the dock to meet up with the group and a lot of other people weren’t dressed up so we didn’t feel too bad. There seemed to be about 100 of us there. We walked up to Pelourinho, which was where we went earlier in the day except they lead us up some side roads instead of the elevator. Pelourinho is the name of a post where they use to whip slaves. We had a bunch of security guards surrounding us as we walked up. They showed us around a bit and explained what was going on. We went to the front of a church and they told us that we would meet up there later when it was time to go. Then they lead us to a restaurant were we got some water and they set us free for two hours until we had to meet back at the church.
Megan and I were really hungry but the restaurant we were at was too expensive so we decided to go this cheap hamburger place we had saw earlier. We met one other girl that went with us. It was a little scary by our selves. Nobody tried to kiss us but one guy did grab my hand very firmly and shake it. We made it to the place and we got a cheeseburger and Guarana, which is the main soda of Brazil. It’s made from a really energizing fruit, and I thought it was really good! The cheeseburgers were okay, after all it was only 5 reals for the whole meal which is like $3 usd. Right in front of where we ate there was a samba stage were different groups would perform on and when they were done they would continue marching through the streets. After we were done we headed back to the restaurant we were at originally to meet back with some people who decided to eat there, but they were already gone. We decided to just head back to the church a little early, but right as we tried to walk out a couple samba groups were coming down the narrow street so we just stood to the side and watched. There costumes were really cool and they were followed by brass bands and drums. One guy had this huge dress on with feathers on the back and it was all lit up and it was so heavy he had people hold it up for him when he needed a break and they gave him water. On top of that he was wearing high heeled boots, I have no idea how he was doing it! After they went through we got back up to the church and watched the samba stage. This one group had a bunch of guys and girls dressed in not much more then thongs and a couple feathers and they were covered head to toe in silver body paint.
At 9:30 we headed to the elevator to get back to the ship. Our group had gotten a lot smaller because a lot of people decided to stay longer. Semester at sea had set up for a shuttle to take semester at sea students from the elevator to the ship, which was really nice. As soon as I got back I took a shower and sent some emails and then went to bed.
Day 2:
Megan and I signed up for a semester at sea trip to Itaparica Island which left at 8 am so we got up early and went to breakfast on the ship. We went back to our rooms and grabbed our stuff, and this time we had our cameras! We headed out to the dock to meet with the trip. From there the group walked to the harbor where we boarded a boat to the islands. We were first headed to a smaller island. On the way there they served us fresh fruit. I had the mango and it was amazing! It took us about an hour and a half to get to the first island called Ilha dos Frades. I posted some pictures of it previously. Only 20 families actually live there. We had a little over two hours of free time here. First Megan and I walked up this hill to the remains of an old church. The roof had fallen in and it was covered in graffiti. Inside you could see a grave stone for someone buried in 1931 and out behind the church there was a graveyard but none of the graves were marked with names or dates. One had fresh flowers on it, so it seemed some of them were recent.
After being up there for about 15 minutes we were so hot we had to go down to the beach and get in the water! The water was so warm it barely even cooled us down, but it was still really nice. The water was really clear and you could see little fish swimming around your feet. After swimming around to a while we were going to get out but we saw a sea slug that had washed up on the shore. Megan knew what it was because she worked on a beach where they use to wash up a lot, but this one was black with green circles on it. She picked it up and carried it further out into the ocean. After this we got out and dried off. We ordered some fresh juice, I got mango again! This time it was actually juice and not like a smoothie. We sat for a while and then headed back to the boat. Once everyone was on we were on out way to Itaprica Island where we would have lunch! We were so hungry already.
The boat ride was about 45 minutes and when we got there lunch was ready and waiting for us. It was a buffet at this restaurant that was right on the water. There were all kinds of things and I tried pretty much all of it. I had some sort of potato salad, rice and beans, spaghetti, some type of lasagna, meat balls, chicken, and beef. My plate was as full as possible and I ate it all, it was really good. I think the rice and beans was probably my favorite part. After eating we decided to try to walk around but there wasn’t much to see where we were. We sat down at another place and tried to get chocolate ice cream and ended up with coffee flavored, but it was still really good. We got back on the boat and headed back to Salvador, which took another hour and a half. We were all really tired and a lot of people slept on the way back.
We got back to the ship a little after five and went straight to the shower. I relaxed for a while after and then got dinner even though I wasn’t that hungry because if you miss the dinner time you can’t eat until breakfast. After dinner Megan and I sat in the piano lounge and wrote post cards. The rest of the night I just relaxed and started a little bit of this blog.
Day 3:
I slept in till 9:30 which was really nice! Breakfast was no longer being served so I had a granola bar for breakfast and then met up with Megan, Robin, Kate and Tracy. We headed to Pelourino again in hopes of finding an internet café, shopping and getting some lunch. We walked through the Mercado Modelo on the way there, which is a big shopping center in front of the elevator. We looked at a lot of different things but didn’t buy any. Next we headed up the elevator. We shopped around for a while and then found this guy who was painting tiles with his hands and they were really beautiful. Robin wanted to wait for him to make one for her, but the rest of us were really hungry so we left Robin and Kate there and searched for a place to get lunch. It took us a while to find a place but we finally did. It was kind of expensive so I decided to get two appetizers… those cheese balls I tried the first day and French fries! Hehe.. The cheese balls weren’t nearly as good as the first ones I tried, but it was food! And definitely better than food on the ship. Lunch took a lot longer then expected so when we went back and looked for Robin and Kate they were gone. We decided we would look for an internet café. We finally came to one and Kate and Robin happened to already be there. All the computers were full so we had to wait a while but we eventually got on, I was so excited! That’s when I was able to post those pictures.
Megan and I were done, but Tracy was still on so I decided I wanted to try Acai. Javier was our interport lecturer on the ship and one night he talked about food to try in Brazil and this was on the list. I saw other people eating it in the café and it looked really good. Acai is an energizing berry and they blend it up with ice or something to make it really cold, kind of like a smoothie but it’s served in a bowl and you get banana or other fruit on top of it and they also give you granola to put on top if you want. I ordered mine with banana and Megan ordered hers with pineapple, and this is probably my favorite thing that I have had in Brazil so far! I hope I can find it when I get back home. After this we headed back to the ship to get ready for the soccer game!
The day before we arrived in Brazil we had a preport meeting and they announced that Dean Gaither had arranged for a semester at sea trip to a soccer game at the last minute and there were 200 tickets available. As soon as Andi and I heard that we ran to the field office to get in line to buy them even though we were suppose to stay for the meeting. We ended up being like 20th in line. After we had got ours it was like a mad house! Everyone was pushing and shoving, I’m so glad we raced there right away. Then once we were in Brazil they announced they had more tickets and there should be enough for everyone to buy.
So back to Thursday, we got back to the ship and started to get ready. We went to dinner at 5:30 on the ship and there was a huge line because basically everyone who was on the ship was going to the game and wanted to eat first. We ate our food and then finished getting ready. At 6:30 we were down at the dock ready to go. There ended up being eight buses of us, that’s over 300 people! It seemed to take forever to get on the buses, but we finally did. It was about an hour drive to the stadium. It was nice to get a view of more than just the port for a change, but it was night so we couldn’t see too much. A lot of students dressed up in jerseys for the Brazil team, but the funny thing was the game was actually between Bahia and Pocoes. A couple people had the right jerseys though.
We pulled up to the stadium and it was about the size of a high school football field. There were stands only on one side of the field. We looked so funny pulling up in our huge eight buses.. I don’t think the Brazilians knew what was going on. We packed into the stands just as the game started. I tried to take some pictures but they weren’t coming out because of the lighting. There was this little boy sitting in front of us who looked to be about seven or eight and he was really into the game, it was so cute. There were vendors walking around with different snacks like popcorn with coconut on top, this sugar cane that you would suck on, and this guy with a huge canister of ice cream that he would carry on his shoulder. Megan, Andi, and I decided to try the ice cream. It was a mix on chocolate, lemon and coconut in the canister and it was pretty good. Luckily we didn’t get sick or anything. There were military looking police that stood around the field and some of them even had German shepherds. Then at half time they all ran out onto the field to escort the referees off the field, which I thought was pretty interesting. I took a picture of this, hopefully it came out okay, I haven’t checked. At one point these two younger boys that were selling stuff stood in front of me and made hand signals that they wanted me to take a picture of them, so I did and they seemed so excited. I had heard previous semester at sea people talk about this but I still was surprised. There was one group of people that were really into the game and there was a whole chant that they were singing. That only part I understood was when they would yell Bahia! Bahia! Bahia! In the end Bahia won 2 to 0! It was really cool to watch, I’m really glad we were able to go. We piled back into the buses and a lot of the Brazilian kids were waving to us from outside the buses and some of them came up to window and wanted their picture taken again. As the buses headed back I fell asleep and next thing I knew we were back at the ship. It was around midnight so I went straight up to my room to go to bed.
Day 4:
I slept in past breakfast again and had a granola bar for breakfast. It was the last remaining snack from the shopping I did in Puerto Rico. I really don’t like the ship food and had been surviving off my snacks, so I don’t know what I will do on the way to South Africa, but oh well. I called Megan and we decided our mission for the day was to get stamps for our post cards, do a little shopping, and get some more acai!! So we met up with Tracy and headed out. We found stamps right away so that was good. Then we walked around the upper city again and did some shopping. Megan was telling me about these flip flops called Havianas that they make in Brazil and actually sell back in the US, and she says they are the best flip flops she ever owned. So I decided that I had to get some. Apparently I’m not very good at bargaining because we went to like three different places that wouldn’t lower the price. I ended up getting a pair of blacks one with little Brazil flags on the strap. I also wanted a shirt, but I couldn’t find one that I liked.
We headed back to the internet café for our acai! We also order a pizza because we saw someone eating one yesterday and it looked amazing. I ordered my acai with mango this time and got a large. It was so amazing.. I’m really going to miss it. Our pizza came out after, which was also amazing, probably one of the best I ever had, or I’ve just been eating too much ship food lol. Then we tried to find the guy that was painting tiles again, but we had no luck. We actually found another guy doing it but he wasn’t nearly as good. So we headed back to the ship and looked in a few stores along the way, but nothing was really standing out to me. I wanted to buy something that I would know came from Brazil, but I just couldn’t find it. So we got back and I worked on some homework and sent some emails and then Megan and I got dinner. I had a trip leaving at eight the next morning so I just decided to stay in and do class work and watch some tv shows on my computer.
Day 5:
I got up at seven and got ready and went to breakfast. I ended up eating with one of the professors on the ship and he was telling me about what semester at sea was like when he went ten years ago, which I found really interesting. It’s so weird to live with your professors and see them everywhere. After breakfast I went back to my room and got my stuff ready for my trip, still not sure what to expect. It was called coastal environments near Salvador and it was for my geology class. We met in the Union first where a geologist gave a presentation of the costal environments. A lot of it we had already talked about in my geology class. After the presentation we headed off the ship and picked up boxed lunches on the way out. We learned that we were headed first to Praia do Forte where they have a marine turtle research and preservation project. We had an 80 kilometer drive which took quite a while. We made one quick stop at a little fishing port to take pictures and our guide explained to us about fishing in Salvador. The rest of the way there the guide and geologist explained other things as we would pass them. It was nice to drive out of Salvador during the day and get an idea what other parts of Brazil where like. Our whole time here I hadn’t seen a McDonalds and I was so shocked, but then we ended up seeing one on the way to Praia do Forte, and we also saw pizza hut!
We finally arrived and the first thing we did was walk to the beach where there was dead coral reef that we could walk way out on because it was low tide. The geologist explained that in the past 5000 years the sea level has actually dropped 4 to 5 meters which is what allowed this to happen. In the tide pools there were really pretty blue fish, I tried to get pictures of them but I won’t be able to post from the ship. There were also a bunch of cool little crabs. There were cutest kids out there and they caught a fish and wanted me to take a picture of them. I wish I could speak Portuguese! After this we went to see the turtles. There were all different ones in these little tanks, I felt so bad for them. We even saw little baby ones, they were so cute. The project helps protect the eggs that the turtles lay so that made me feel better, I just hate to see them in the little tanks. We sat down and ate our boxed lunches after this and just relaxed for thirty minutes until we had to meet up again because it is so hot and humid in Brazil! We walked back to the bus and had two more stops on the way home. The first one was at another beach to observe the mangroves; we were only there for about 15 minutes. Next we went to the ocean where there was an industrial outfall from a petroleum plant. It was so strange because right behind the ocean where it was dumped there was a river where a bunch of locals would come to BBQ and swim, and I don’t see how that can be healthy. One of the problems with the sewage outfall is that the currents carry it right into the all saints bay, which is where our ship is docked! I learned a lot more, but this is all I can think of right now.
When I got back to the dock I was so excited because they were having a so long Brazil BBQ to encourage people to come back on the ship early. So I get up there craving hamburgers and hot dogs and they didn’t have either! What kind of BBQ is that?! So I just ate the potato salad and macaroni salad and corn on the cob. The chicken and pork ribs didn’t look too appetizing to me. On the bright side they had vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup!! So I filled up on two servings of that hehe. Megan and I decided we would just have to go back and buy cheeseburgers later. So now I’m back in my room and the ship should be leaving in a few hours. I have a paper due on a church in Salvador tomorrow, my first global studies test on Tuesday and a finance test on Sunday! So all this work will hopefully make the nine days at sea on the way to South Africa go by faster. On Thursday we won’t have class because it’s Neptune’s day. This is supposed to be when we cross the equator which was last Saturday, but whatever should still be fun. The tradition is to shave your head and for those who don’t I think the ceremony involves getting fish guts poured on your head, kissing fish, and kissing Neptune. I’ll let you all know for sure when it happens on Valentines Day, what a way to celebrate haha.
So looking back on my five days here I had fun and saw a lot of neat things. I think it would be nice to see the other parts like Rio de Janeiro or Iguacu Falls, so maybe next time! I’m looking forward to hear stories from students who went to these places. I hope everyone makes it back on the ship tonight on time! Surprisingly in Puerto Rico everyone did. I’m a little worried about hitting rough seas on the way to South Africa, so we’ll see how that goes. I only start feeling sick in class for some reason. But anyways hope everyone is doing well back home, I miss you guys so much!