The Girl from Ipanema

[Note: I tried to have pictures in this post but the ended up not working, so that's what the line beaks and awkward formatting is about. sorry dudes.]

Today I got back from our first port in Salvador, Brazil. The first day in port, I got off the ship around 11ish and took to the city. Salvador is a city separated in half by a cliff. The lower city, at the base of the cliff, has the less affluent populations, and contains a lot of flavelas ("slums"). There is a massive elevator near the port that the population uses to get from the lower city to the upper city. It's actually a pretty incredible sight:

We were told not to hang around the lower city much because it wasn't safe for us, so my posse went directly to the upper city off the boat. At the top of the elevator is this big central square. The day we went was Brazil's independence day so there was some military marching festivities going on in the street:

We strolled around the city streets of the city for the whole day pretty much. We stopped in a ton of little shops to bargain for trinkets such as shirts, flags, sandals, etc. I was surprised how well we could communicate with the locals even though I was speaking Spanish and they were speaking Portuguese. A lot of the shops we went to were around this central square which used to be the part of the city where slaves were auctioned off. It was a little eerie being there:

Then we got hungry and went for a sweet Brazilian lunch. We ordered Muqueca, which was a shrimp dish in this savory yellow sauce with onions and peppers and rice. We also got this beef and potatoes dish that was way good too, I forgot what it was called. We also cooled our jets with some refreshing Brazilian beers, which, by the way, are all way better than any of the lame American brands. Nascar and the NFL have gotten it all wrong:

Day 2, Brian and I woke up at 4AM and headed out to the airport to catch our flight to Rio. Brazilian airline companies hire very attractive flight attendants. I felt like I was back in the 70s on that plane when all the flight attendants everywhere were good looking.

Landed in the morning, we were tired out our minds so we immediately went to our apartment and napped for some good hours. The apartment we had originally planned for wasn't available so we got a free upgrade to this sweet 3 bedroom apartment with two bathrooms. We had more rooms and beds then we knew what to do with, making me wish I had more people to stay with to fill the space. Carlos, the guy who showed us our apartment and gave us our keys joked that we should fill the extra space with some of Copacabanas finest prostitutes. He spoke only in Spanish/Portuguese, so it was very fun trying to communicate with him. No, we didn't get any prostitutes. The first two days in Rio were cloudy and rainy, making the whole city feel a little miserable. When it rains in Rio, it seems that all people do is shop. The beaches were empty, the mountains are covered, and the shops were bustling. Anyways, that night Brian and I met up with other Semester at Sea independent travelers and went out that night. There honestly wasn't that much going on a Monday in Rio, which was a little disappointing. It seemed like the only people at the bar we went to were other American/Euro tourists who also had no idea what they were doing. I had an alright time, but I wished I had went on a weekend rather than during the week.

The next day in Rio was rainy and cloudy just like the previous day. We walked around the city some more, I blew 30 Rais on a zip up hoody because I hadn't brought a sweatshirt to Rio thinking that I didn't need one. I also got some havaianas sandals because they were way cheap and they had them in sweet colors. We took an overpriced taxi downtown and wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours. Downtown Rio also seemed a little lifeless when we went. I dunno if it was because it was the beginning of a work week or because of the bad weather, but I had thought that it was going to be much more popping. We met a woman in Rio who looked as if she was in her late twenties. She spoke English and told us of the wonders of the subway system, where we could get from downtown back to Ipanema for only $2.60 Rais, rather than the $25 I had spent earlier on a taxi. Good find.

That night we went to this amazing Brazilian BBQ place called Porcoa. This place was really unbelievable. There was a top notch all you can eat buffet, and then there were people walking around with these huge cuts of sizzling meats on huge stakes. You were given a little card that had "yes" on one side and "no" on the other. If you left your card on the "yes" side, each of the meat carriers would walk come up to your table and slice off a sliver of any of the various meats. They had several cuts of moo moo (cow), oink oink (pig), and cluck cluck (chicken). Unknowingly, I ate grilled chicken heart. It was a little pasty, but not actually that bad.

The last day in Rio it was actually sunny, so we went to Sugar Loaf, which is a lookout over Rio. Try to spot Jesus:

Then we went to Jesus up close:

We went also went to the beach a little bit, and then headed to the airport and back to Salvador. I spent my last day in Salvador on a field trip for one of my classes. It involved heading up the Bahian coast and looking at coastal environments and towns.

Overall: Good times.

Until next time.

Spenser