CARNAVAL- Salvador de Bahia

WOW is really all I can say about Carnaval. It was amazing. The way I have described it to those that are from the east bay like me is to imagine Bay to Breakers, the ridiculous parade/run that happens once a year, times its size by 10 and then do it every day for 6 days in a row. There were these huge floats with Brazilian pop stars at the top, so if you wanted to be part of that concert you had to pay. There were people that would hold a big rope and those that were inside the rope, were the official attendees of that "bloco". Otherwise, you could be around or beside it and be "popcorn". Men would buy these blue and white beads and give them to girls that they would kiss, kinda like mardi gras. How many beads I acquired, you will never know:) We decided to be part of the Skol bloco, which had yellow shirts and then you could pay some ladies to cut it up and make it girly, which of course, we did. I would have done it myself if i had the materials! The night was great...being inside the rope was a lot easier to dance, not have gross men grab you, and safer from robberies. One night, we were walking along as popcorn, and all of a sudden there were about 5 guys that were coming in the opposite direction and made it so Jess and I could not move at all. I had nothing on me, so I wasn't worried, but jess couldn't even put her hands to her pockets because they were pushing her so much, and they stole her money. It wasn't much since we knew we weren't supposed to take out much, but still, enough to not get to buy beer the rest of the night! Back to the bloco night; on the way home from the bloco, which dropped us off at the end of the parade, 7 km away, it started raining. Then, one of the girls from our hostel we were with had to go to the bathroom so we went up this muddy hill. I didn't need to go up there at all, but didn't really realize what was going on, so I just followed. On the way up, my shoes have absolutely no traction whatsoever, and i slipped going upwards on the hill, but still managed to get covered in mud on my front side. I was wearing my cute white shorts and yellow shirt. Then, I realized I didn't need to be going up this hill so I started back down and I fell on my ass. At this point, i was completely covered in mud, and being the girly girl I am, being dirty is not my favorite thing. But, it was raining and I was in a good mood and we just danced and laughed all the way home. I took a shower fully clothed.

I can't really tell you what we did during the day because it wasn't much. We had a great group of people to hang out with at our hostel so we usually just hung out and rested for another night out. I met a guy who is from Los Altos and he reminded me of my friend from home so we got along really well. There were mostly Australians, but also brits, puerto ricans, spanish, and brazilians within the hostel. And one man that worked at the hostel, Mr. Wellington, helped me clean my shorts. Everyday he would try to explain to me how they were doing in portuguese and I would just smile and try to speak spanish back. After 5 days of bleaching, they are decently back to normal.

My other favorite night was when we went to a camarote. These were clubs that hosted parties where you could eat and drink all inclusive, and watch the parade go by or dance inside the club. We went on the very last night because there are simply too many people outside on the last night to try to be in the crowd. We got red shirts this night and they decorated them for us inside the camarote. We were determined to make the most of our night, so we managed to get there at 5 when it started and stayed til 5 when it ended. We ate hamburgers, pizza, sushi, and drank skyy vodka (a big brand name in south america!)and champagne. We were living the high life...by the end of it I was so stuffed and tired...we had wanted to go to the sunset party to end carnaval but we never made it. But, it was a good end to carnaval. Even after living a week in a 15 bed dorm with many more smelly guys than girls, a dirty city smelling of piss and vomit, grabby/touchy/forward Brazilian men, and not being able to smell vodka without a gagging reflex, it was the best party I have ever been to and am so glad I went!

Praia do Forte
Since our bodies needed relaxing, Jess and I went to a beach town about 2 hours away from Salvador. It is known from Californians as the Carmel of Brazil and they were right. It has an aquarium of sea turtles where we went the first day and cute shops galore. We treated ourselves to a hotel instead of a hostel and wow was it nice to have our own shower and our own bedroom. We had a couple of amazing dinners, 2 of them being Moqueca which is a shrimp stew that is served with rice and beans. I don't know how they made it so amazing, but we loved it and got it twice in 2 days. There is also this berry in Brazil called Acai which is supposed to have the most vitamins of any fruit or something like that, and it is more like a dessert than a fruit when they make their acai shakes. We went brazilian bathing suit shopping which was quite an adventure. Usually I just have to make sure the top fits right and then get whatever size bottoms I need, but this was the exact opposite. The bottoms are sooo small in Brazil and I am not about to come home sporting a thong on the beach. I did get some bottoms that are more risque than I am used to, but I literally bought the biggest butt bottoms they had to offer. I ended up getting two new swimsuits because the designs in brazil were nothing like I have seen at home and so I had to, right? Right. I also got 2 pairs of havaiana flip flops because they are from brazil, thus really cheap. I got a pair that I have seen in the US for $75 since they have some little diamonds on them for about $15 US. I love good deals.

On the last day of our trip, we decided to go scuba diving. I have never done it before but you don't need any sort of classes before you go here, so we decided to try it out. We went out with our instructor and his helper, both who spoke very little spanish and even less english. We had about an hour pre lesson which could have happened in 20 minutes had there not been such a language barrier. Finally we went out to the water and i kinda started to freak out. I went under water and was breathing with the tank but wanted to go up immediately and get real air but realized that that was the whole point, to stay underwater the whole time. So after I had my little freak out, I relaxed and we managed to scuba dive for about 45 minutes. The water was not too deep but we still got to see a lot of cool fish. No sea turtles, but it was still a lot of fun and now I would really like to do it again, maybe even take some scuba classes (in english this time!) The last night, we had dinner and drinks and did some more shopping and got a taxi at 3 am to the airport. Jess and I had a great trip and it really made me miss being with my friends from home...there is nothing like hanging out with people that you are totally comfortable with. I also found out that we were good travel buddies...we seemed to be wanting to do the same things and when she wanted to party more than me (i admit i couldn't hang as long as could!)she would go and i would stay. She was sad to be going back to work knowing that most everyone was still traveling around south america, but hopefully she will get her chance soon. I am not looking forward to that whole 2 weeks of vacation a year thing...yuck. I needed a vacation after my 2 months of working!