Rio de Janeiro

And now, the last stop on our trip of a lifetime: Rio de Janeiro.  Can't you just hear the lively samba music when you form those words in your mind? Rio de Janeiro.  For anyone who has watched the movie Rio, or its sequel Rio 2, I can confirm that it is almost exactly the same.  The happy waiter arriving at your plate unannounced, jollily shouting, "Picanha???!", the crazy motorcycle drivers navigating the city, and the small, beautiful streets winding around the hills- its all there.  One of my favorite things about this city is the way it is constructed around nature.  Rio is known for its hilly, forested landscape as well as the look of the sun on the water each morning and every night.  What I loved is that the touristy city lives in harmony with these beautiful points of nature, built around and with the landscape.  

Another characteristic part of the city is the religion.  From Christ the Redeemer to every church in the city, a religious feeling connects the majority of the touristy points.  And the touristy points are basically what we did on our three days in Rio.

We went on a cable car ride to the top of the famous Pao de Açucar (the Sugar Loaf).  From the top we could see the city so well, stressing again how it is built around the hills and water of the land.

Some more of that Mexican/American love.

The next day we went on another cable car to the Christ statue, again giving us a beautiful view of the city.  It was a pretty good hike after we got off of the cable car and it was only when I got to the top that I noticed the electric stairs that everyone else was using.  

The picture below is an item of pride of mine because it was a ruthless battle to take it.  Unfortunately, the day of our tour that we decided to see the statue was a Sunday and this touristic point was simply CRAWLING with tourists all battling to take the same picture.  There is even a green screen and a photographer when you get back down the mountain for the poor souls who don't get their picture.  

Another huge touristy point for me was these mosaic-ed stairs, called the Escadaria Selarón.  I don't know the history behind them; my only reference is a popular teenage song where the singer is found dancing on these stairs in the music video.  Feel free to check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzS61Jennkw if you are interested in getting to know the Funk Carioca music culture.  Just keep in mind that this isn't the good Brazilian music.  But anyway, I loved this staircase.  The colors, the artistic work, and the random placement all came together in a very pleasing way for me.  The were made by an chilean artist called Jorge Selarón, who made them as his tribute to the Brazilian people and culture.

And if we're in Rio, we can't miss out on the avenue where the world famous Samba parade takes place every year.  There are dozens of Samba schools practicing for a majority of the year for this event when they each have (I believe) 90 minutes to dance down this avenue and show off their skills.  In Catanduva a few weeks later for our Carnaval, we had a samba school mimicking the wonders that happen in Rio.  I was impressed by them so i can hardly imagine what goes down in Rio.

Oh and did I mention that we got to rent some samba costumes and try out our moves too?

And then last but certainly not least… our last beach.  This was probably the most famous beach of our tour, Ipanema.  I am sure that some of you have heard of the song, "A Garota de Ipanema" or "The Girl from Ipanema."  This is that beach.  If you haven't heard it, I'll introduce you to some better Brazilian music.  

This https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D_Lom2pjZQ is the original and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGWkyCzoiiU is by Stevie Wonder (who, on a side note, I did happen to see in concert here).  The water on the beach was the first cold water beach we encountered all trip.  And by cold I mean, March in western NY cold.  I was sincerely impressed.  I jumped in and jumped out to say that i did and then spent the rest of our time there laying in the hot, ever so hot sun.

And unfortunately, thats all folks.  This trip was an incredible adventure, a huge leaning experience, and the highlight of my exchange so far.  Traveling is the best thing that I know and this was 31 days of it.  I saw some incredible cities, walked beautiful streets, and swam in gorgeous beaches.  I met people from different countries, different languages and different culture with whom I formed strong friendships that I will never loose.  It was an adventure that I will never forget, worth every penny and every reused pair of dirty socks.

Porto Seguro

Porto Seguro.  

This city was also a popular one when I told everyone that I was going to end up visiting it.  The best reaction that I got was from my Portuguese teacher.  Now, for you to understand the exchange well I have to back up and tell you a little bit about him.  I had his class once a week and he usually spent a good half of the class arguing with me about various things.  The most common topic was drinking.  He would always ask me if was getting drunk enough on the weekends and I would always remind him that I can't drink because Rotary has a rule.  He would get so frustrated because he thought that this was absurd!  Always saying,  "But you have to drink!  You're in Brazil and you're 18!"  And I would always calmly explain that I couldn't, and he didn't need to get worked up about it.  But anyway, the subject about my trip came up in class one day and as usual I recited off the cities that I would visit.  When I got to Porto Seguro he got this great big smile on his face and stopped me.  Then he said, "You will drink in Porto Seguro.  There is no other way."  He and the other students as well went on to explain to me that Porto Seguro was a popular senior trip option and generally all of the high school students and the chaperones got smashed during the trip.  So this was the idea of Porto Seguro before I visited it.  And let me just say that I didn't drink, so, dear professor if you are reading this, I won.  

This was my version of Porto Seguro.  I hope you like it.

First of all, there was, of course, a lot of beach time.  Here we have the white gringo proudly bearing her mirror-white skin.  I do promise that I was a lot whiter before.  Right next to the beach there was a stage with dancers dancing a typical style of Brazilian dance called Axé.  It was kinda like hip hop.  There was a space in front of the stage where a bunch of people gathered to dance along with them, learning the different songs and dance moves as they went.  I was definitely one of those people.

I thought that Porto Seguro was more of a historical town than a party town, from what I saw.  I loved the little colorful, old houses.  Super tropical.

There were also some people selling natural and local healing remedies.  I found a lot of remedies that I was familiar with, such as arnica.  

Another cultural experience was capoeira! More capoeira!  We got to participate and then watch a demonstration.  I am wearing the pink and green shirt in the photo below.

Here we have the first church constructed in Brazil.

Back to the beach with giant watermelon!  These were one of the things sold by the various people walking down the beach.  Fresh, cold watermelon? Yes please.

Itacaré

Following my favorite city, Salvador, we went to what I found to be my favorite beaches in a city called Itacaré.  Our agenda was short and simple: two days of just beach time.  That was absolutely okay with me.  We visited the beaches Itacarezinho, Havaizinho (which literally means "little Hawaii" and Engenhoca.  These were the beaches that made this trip.  The other beaches were of course beautiful, but I found the most tropical, most exotic and most postcard-worthy beaches that I have been to yet, on this stop.  

To get to the beaches, we had to hike through a forest/jungle/group-of-trees.  It took about 20 minutes and was glorious because the trees gave shade from the sun that was very hot that day.  I was fascinated by the sun rays streaking through the palm trees.  It was so iconic and fantastical that it felt like I was in a movie or a book.  A lot of my year in Brazil has felt like that, seeing things and going on adventures that I've only ever read about.  Finding out that they exist in real life is very exciting and often hard to believe.

And here we have more palm trees.  It has been almost 8 months that I have lived in Brazil, seeing palm trees every day, but I still haven't gotten used to them and truly believe that I will never take them for granted.

Arriving at the beaches everyone was so excited to put down their backpacks and be at the beach.  Everyone had a different beach routine, some people soaked up the sun through layers of tanning oil, others played volleyball or frisbee, while others swam in the waves.  My personal routine was first going for a run alone the beach and chasing the waves in and out, then swimming in the water and jumping the waves, and then drying off in the sweet, sweet sun.  I could get used to this.

One of the beaches was another hike up a huge hill (almost mountain, but not quite, I don't wanna sound too dramatic) that opened up into a palm tree forest and the beach.  Talk about tropical.

One beach had a beautiful contrast of black, ash sand against white, clear sand closer to the water.  I had never seen sand like that before.  It was even hotter than normal and I ran super fast to get to the water and not burn my toes.

And here you have it folks, the Brazilian bikini.  It's not just a stereotype, its a reality.  The Brazilian bikini come in various sizes.  The biggest covers about half of your bottom.  The medium (the one featured in my photo) is adjustable and covers about a third.  And then you have the smallest, which folks, is literally a thong.  In the front you've got minimum coverage and in the back there is a minuscule triangle and a string.  At first I was a little resistant to this part of their culture, clutching to my full-coverage American bikini for dear life.  But, this is exchange and where else will I have the opportunity to wear a bikini this size?  YOLO.  So, I succumbed.  I like to call this cultural adaptation.  

Here we have some Mexican/American love.

And with this photo I will end my report on Itacaré.  This is the postcard photo.  This is Brazil.  

I love exchange.