Alissa's Adventures Through Brazil

Hey everyone,
Now that I am about to enter South Africa, I will tell you about my travels through Brazil. As we arrived, we woke up at 6:30 am to see the ship pull into the port. The port was full of tall buildings and a huge crane that ended up right next to the ship. After pulling in, everyone had to go through immigration and meet face-to-face with a Brazilian Customs Officer. Once the ship was cleared, I stayed and took a nap on the ship until my trip later that day. Once I awoke from my nap, I went on a day trip to the Candomble temple. Candomble is an African religion that was originally forbidden in Brazil. At this temple we got to see the buildings that contained the shrines for each of the deities (you can only go in if you are part of the religion), and we also saw a museum containing many items that are used in the religion. Once we were done in the museum, we met the priestess of this Temple who told us a great story. Something I found interesting about this Priestess is that when she was a teenager she decided that she did not want to be a part of this religion and left for many years. Eventually she came back and then was selected as the Priestess. The next cool thing about the Priestess is that if you bought a beaded necklace, each of which symbolized one of the deities, she would bless the beads and then put them on you. I bought one and I was able to have her bless my beads. Alex recorded this for me so if anyone wants to see it, I will show you when I return home. After the Candomble temple, I went back to the ship for the rest of that night, did a little homework, and then went to sleep because I was exhausted.
For my next day in Brazil, I did not have a planned trip until the evening so during the day a little group of us walked up to the city and looked in many of the shops and the main marketplace (mainly crafts and souvenirs). For everyone reading this that has never been to Salvador, Brazil, I will tell you about the interesting way to get into the main city. The city sits on a huge hill or so and in order to get up there you must ride in an elevator about 10 stories high. I think that is about how high it was. Anyways well, I hate elevators and for this one they pack as many people as they can in it and then they have an elevator worker who runs the elevator. It was kind of scary. As we left the city that day, it is about a ten minute walk from the elevator to the port where the ship was. As we walked back, it started to pour huge drops and we got absolutely drenched. We were running from overhang to overhang to try to have a little protection, but it was a true adventure! Once we got back and dried off a little we relaxed for a few hours and then met with our group for our organized trip, which was called Traditional Carnival. For this we went back up to the city to celebrate Carnival, which for those of you who might not know what this is, it is what Mardi Gras is based off of. It is crazy! People fill the streets and celebrate by dancing and watching floats filled with many people and loud music go by. There were also kids who bought this soap spray stuff and sprayed it everywhere and on everyone. It was a lot of fun.
For my next day in Brazil, I had a day trip planned. Like Chris, I went to the Praia Do Forte Escape, which is a very touristy preserve for sea turtles. On the way there, we stopped at a beach that had mangrove trees and we learned more a lot about them. Then our next stop was at the Castle of Garcia D’Avila, a Portuguese settler. The ruins of this castle that was built in 1552 is all that remains. Finally, after this stop we finally reached the marine turtle project, where we got to see many marine turtles including baby turtles. I even learned a very interesting fact: when a turtle egg is laid, the sex of that turtle will be determined by the temperature of the sand (warmer sand will produce females and colder sand will produce males). After we looked at the turtles we ate lunch in a local restaurant and it was very good food. Once lunch was over we had about an hour to explore and then we returned to the bus for the ride back to the ship. That night I again just relaxed on the ship because I was tired from walking around all day in the heat and humidity.
The next morning was the beginning of another day trip, in which I did not go with any of the fellow bloggers. One of our friends that we have met, Jay, was on the trip as well and I met another girl Heather, who I hung out with for most of the day. On this trip, we first stopped at a little market area that had all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and even mud crabs that were still alive and looked disgusting because they were all covered in mud and smelled really bad. In this little market town, we walked around a little and saw very pretty buildings. Once we were done there, we continued our trip to a local farming town, where we got to go to a local woman’s home. At her home, she let us sample chocolate that she had made from cocoa beans, as well as the fruit that these beans come from. I did not try them because it seemed a little too fresh and maybe not very safe to eat. After this little farming town, we traveled to our final destination of Cachoeira. When we first arrived, we ate lunch at a pousada, which used to be a monastery. There was a table set up for about 45 people and it was just one long table. It was strange. The food at this place was very good as well. After our lunch, we got to walk around Cachoeira, where we went into the old jail and saw the house of some very famous singers. I didn’t know these singers but our guide told us that this brother and sister are famous worldwide. We then walked down by the waterfront, which was very beautiful. All of the towns that we visited on this trip were nice and quiet compared to Salvador, since everyone had left these remote towns to celebrate Carnival in the major cities. It was a very relaxing and scenic day even though we had to do a lot of walking. We then took the 2-hour bus ride home, which was nice because I got to take a little nap.
When we returned to the ship, Jay and I swore that we were exhausted and did not want to go out that night. But once we got back and were sitting at dinner we somehow got convinced to go back out to the Pelourhino (the upper city in Salvador) to celebrate our last night in Salvador, as well as the last night of Carnival. Once we got up to the city, we decided to go to the right instead of left like we had done the night of Traditional Carnival. To the right there were probably thousands of people packed together dancing and watching the floats go by. It was so much fun and a great way to spend my last night in Brazil. The only creepy thing that happened to me in my whole Brazil stay was that night when some random guy walked by and tried to touch my wrist or hand. I realized that he probably did this to try to steal my watch because I accidentally forgot to take it off before going up. Anyways Carnival overall was a lot of fun and I am happy my fear did not get in my way.
Now, finally the last day in Brazil. On this day, we went back up to the city to buy souvenirs because I had about 160 reals to spend which equals about $80. You would think that it would be easy to spend money, but Alex and I had a lot of trouble. Some stuff just seemed too overpriced for what it was and we just did not want to pay, but eventually after about 4 or 5 hours, we spent all of our reals. While up in the city, we also tried to go to an internet café. After, we finally found one where the prices seemed reasonable we attempted to check mail. It ended up that the computers were very slow and I was the only one able to check just one e-mail account. It was a little ridiculous. Well after these long five days in Brazil, I was very happy to get back on the ship and to not have to walk so much anymore. That night when we were on the ship, we enjoyed watching a few students return late to the ship, which meant that they were going to get dock time in the next port. In addition, Alex, Sheryl (my roommate), and I went up to the 7th deck to watch the stairs that we had been using to get on and off the ship get pulled back up to the 7th deck where they reside at sea.
When I first entered Brazil, I was so scared to even get off the ship because we learned of all the horrors that we might face in Brazil. I am very thankful that nothing happened to me or any of my friends. I did hear some stories from others. One girl in the post port said that her and a few friends got held up by knives and all of their cameras and stuff were taken. I can’t even imagine that happening. Anyways I think that is enough information about Brazil, and hopefully since I am already in South Africa it won’t be too long until I post my next blog!

I love and miss you all!
Alissa