Salvador, Brazil

Saturday-Wednesday, February 17-21, 2007

Brazil is beyond amazing, there are absolutely no words that can describe the experiences I have had while in this country! We arrived early Saturday morning, and I was off the ship at roughly 10am. First off the ship we went to the bank to get currency, then it was off to the Mercado Market, which is the main market place in the area of Salvador that we docked. At this market place there were stands outside selling touristy things, such as necklaces and dresses, I did not buy any though L. After walking around the Market for a while, I made my way back to the ship because I was taking a tour of Salvador.

The tour left directly from the boat and we began to walk through the streets of the city. This was where I got my initial culture shock, being from Westchester, we do not have run down buildings, nor do we have people literally living on the streets. It was so sad to see these amazing building just in shambles. No one was living in them and they were falling apart, and no one was even trying to restore them! It was terrible. What struck me even more so was the fact that there were so many people living in the street. It was so hard to see people, skinny people, sleeping in corners and searcher through garbages just to find something to eat. After walking through the lower city (Bahia), we took the elevator to the upper city (Pelourino). Pelourino was beautiful! At first I was walking with the tour, but I felt that I was moving to slow, as did some of my friends, so we left the tour and walked off on our own. We decided to follow this street that we thought would lead to a church, but instead it lead us into a town, that probably was not the safest, but being that I was with three boys I felt fine. We walked past this restaurant and noticed that when looking out the window you could see over the bay that our ship was in. So we walked into the restaurant and looked outside, instead of leaving however, a local heard us talking and asked if we were American, when we said we were she was told us that she was Brazilian but that she went to BU and lived in Chicago. We ended up spitting a bottle of wine and talking with her for about an hour. While talking to her she told us many of the ins and outs Salvador, she was especially sympathetic towards me, and made sure that I knew how to keep say and how not to get mugged. Getting back to the ship later that night, we found out that atleast three girls got mugged, many of people had there cameras stolen, and a lot of people were pick-pocketed during the ship. I kind of got the impression that a majority of the people who had problems like this were not very smart.

On Saturday night I did this program through SAS called “Bahia by Night”. This program was held at an old sugar plantation. At this program we had an amazing dinner and saw some dancing and Capoeira. Capoeira is a martial arts form that looks somewhat like a dance. It is amazing, and I have video of it for anyone who wants to see it because there is absolutely no way to describe what it is.

On Sunday, a bunch of friends and I walked around the upper city again, this time we took in the atmosphere of Carnival! Carnival is amazing! It is basically like a big parade, there are things called “Trio Electricos” which are basically trucks with huge speakers and bands travel on them. Then surround the truck is the bloco (posse) of people who march with them. And everyone just gets wasted and its crazy! So on Sunday, myself and a bunch of friends bought tickets to be able to march in a bloco for Fat Boy Slim. Along with the ticket you get a shirt, and that is how the security knows you are allowed to be inside the ropes with the posse. Then on Sunday night, myself and a group of about 12 people went out for carnival on streets. We walked around and danced to the music while drinking some beer. Oh! And the local beer is called Skol, and it is amazing! I ended up coming back to the ship at around 1am, because I had to be up early for my trip to the circus the next day.

The circus was sooooooo much fun! When we got there, none of us had any clue on what to expect. We all thought that we would be watching some circus and then get to participate, but instead we did circus stuff for 4 hours! The instructors started out with a warm-up stretching and push-ups then it was time to do circus things. My group started out at the Spanish rope. Basically, this is a rope that you climb up, you then attach yourself to a loop on the rope and just holding on with you hands they person at the bottom spins the rope and you spin with it. So that was a lot of fun. Then we learned how to juggle, we walked on the tight rope, did some trapeze, and finally we got to use the mini-trampoline! We did all different kinds of jumps and we finished off with front flips! At the very end of the day at the circus we worked on some pyramids! This was also really cool. After the circus, we were all very tired, and hungry. My friend Kyle and I walked back to the marketplace and grabbed some lunch. For lunch we had chicken, rice, and beans. The food in Brazil is amazing, but I have no idea what any of it is called! The only thing I do remember is this drink called “Caipirinha”. This is amazing and I am willing to make it for anyone back at home. It consists of fresh limes, sugar, and vodka. It is poured over ice. It is beyond amazing! Anyways, at lunch with Kyle, when we were done the waitress was cleaning up and a homeless women ran over and grabbed our left over food and began to scarf it down. This was so sad to see that the women was so hungry. On top of it, she had scars all over her body, it was evident that she had lived a hard life. It was so sad to see the misery that was in her eyes.

Monday night, a group of us went to a Churrascaria (steakhouse). This is an experience, and there is on in New York on Central Ave, so I suggest everyone go! But basically people walk around with different types of meat on skewers and all you do is eat everything you can fit into your stomach. While we were there, a group of about 20 SAS students and half the faculty came. At one point, Lynn who runs the field office stood up to make a toast and all the SAS people stood up and started yelling. The next thing we knew the whole restaurant full of Brazilians getting ready for carnival starting screaming! The atmosphere in the restaurant was amazing! Everyone was just so happy to be experiencing everything together.

As for the rest of the trip, there are absolutely no words to describe it. On Tuesday I went to a remote island and spent the day at the beach. But Tuesday night was the night in which I experienced Carnival in the bloco with Fat Boy Slim. There are only two things I can say about this experience, first—Americans do not know how to party, second—if I could come back to Brazil and do it again, I would do it! The bloco was a 5 hour long mosh pit. Everyone was just jumping up and down and having a blast. I love Brazil and I am so sad to leave! But South Africa here I come!