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Part 2,
Salvador-Brasilia
We finally arrived in Salvador around 7pm. The first night we headed out
to a shopping mall which was completely outside. People to the time
looking through the outrageously over priced clothes and finally decided
not to get anything. By 9pm we headed to dinner. Nothing to special about
dinner. We were all back in the hotel by 1030, and all in bed by 2am…..,
normal night at another hotel. On the first full day we headed to the
historic district of Salvador. There we entered a famous market, Mercado
modelo. There people bought souvenirs and junk, what I mean by junk is,
one kid bought a 2 foot tall wooden Indian, and another kid bought a giant
3 foot long spoon… yes a giant spoon… Well after the market we headed up
the first elevator in Brasil. It connects the upper and lower district of
Salvador, how ironic. Well there we made our way through many historic
streets. We also took a tour of a church, that was basically all gold. By
5pm, we were all tired from all the walking, so we jumped onto our buses
and headed to a famous lighthouse/fort in Salvador. The day ended with us
going to the same restaurant and us spending hours in the hotel messing
around. Well the third and best day of Salvador saw us wake up bright and
early, 730am. By 9am, we were out on a big sail boat headed for a small
deserted island. After about an hour on the boat we reached the island.
There on the island, all the guys spent about 4 hours simply playing
soccer. By 4pm it was time to go back(the weather wasn’t being nice). On
the way back to Salvador our boat got caught in a storm, so we decided to
turn the music way up and start dancing out in the rain… that night
instead of going to the same restaurant we headed to a restaurant that was
famous for its traditional foods. There we eat about 20 different types of
foods equaling about 1.5 kilos per person (per guy). After dinner we
headed to a small place where we watched people perform traditional
brasilian dances, and I also went up on stage and played capoeira with the
performers. The night ended with us dancing farol and sertaneja.
The next morning we headed north to Recife. Once we arrived around 7pm to
our ocean front hotel. With nothing to do that first night we resorted to
having giant water fights out on the balconies and in the process we
locked one of my roommates out o the balcony for an hour. One the first
day we took an hour long bus ride to Porto de Galinhas, a really famous
beach in northern Brasil. There we took a small little raft out about 100
yards to a small reef system. There we could snorkel in about 10 feet of
water viewing all the amazing fish and coral. After a sun drenched day
swimming, we took to the streets of the small little town and did some
shopping. We arrived back at the hotel around 5pm and once again at 7 we
headed out to dinner. The restaurant was a nice classy restaurant located
in a large mall. After dinner we took to more shopping. One the second day
we headed out to the historic parts of Recife for yet another city town
(most of us by now did not like city tours to fondly). The day was filled
with us walking down streets view old buildings and going to a museum that
crazy mothers in America would not permit their young children to go, but
hey this is Brazil, they do crazy things. At 4pm after a late lunch, we
headed dot a near by historic city called Olinda. There we had a tour of a
beautiful church and watch a tradional dance which the performers used
umbrellas. After an exhausting day everyone hit the hay before midnight(a
first).
By now it was the 24 of January, 20 days of traveling!!! We left Recife at
8 headed for Natal, but the duration of the day we stayed at our pit stop,
Praia de Pipa. A beautiful beach, were my friend form Switzerland and one
form Canada and I took advantage of the waves and rented some long boards.
After a day long day of surfing (well attempting to surf) we finally head
to natal. Once in Natal we arrived to the best hotel of the trip (not the
most beautiful but the one with the most fun). The hotel was huge! My room
was one the bottom floor so we could jump out form our balcony and be on
the beach in less then 10 seconds. Also the hotel had 3 pools, sauna/spa
and much more. One the first day and only full day we headed to an old
fort were we basically just walked around and took pictures of random
stuff. By 10am we headed out for yet another beach. At the beach we could
head out on a dune buggy trip, but I chose not to because it was not
included. So I spent the day once again surfing and playing soccer on the
beach. We returned to the hotel at 5pm and spent the whole night swimming
and meeting some exchange students who live in Natal. I also taught a
bunch of kids how to play water polo. Only being able to stay at the
beautiful hotel for two nights the next day we headed out to the best city
of the whole trip, Jericoacoara.
Once about 45 minutes away form the tiny little city we had to leave our
gigantic air conditioned bus for a large truck because the road to
Jericoacoara was not paved or even dirt, it was nothing but sand. We
finally arrived in the city at 9pm which only left dinner and time at the
hotel for us. The next day we woke up to our first free day of the trip.
My friends and I decided to go get lunch by the beach and just relax.
Little did we know the beach was nothing but gigantic sand dunes
stretching for miles! After we eat we headed up the nearest sand dune and
spent most the day up there. By 6pm the dune was crowed with all the
people staying in Jericoacoara. Everybody had come up to se the sunset,
which was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life. After a
night of wondering the small streets and swimming in our hotels pool we
hit the sack at around 2am. The next day we woke up at 8 were picked up by
some 20 dune buggies by 8:30. We took a 4 hour long tour of the desert and
the nearby beach. We stopped at one at the largest dune in the area in
which you could sit on a board and ride down to the bottom. Though the
ride down was real fun and exhilarating the climb up was hell!! After the
first stop we drove around for another 20 minutes and stopped at a fresh
water lake, where we swam and laid out in hammocks hanging out over the
water. The buggy ride was over by 1 and we still had the rest of the day
free. I and my best friend decided to rent some sand boards. We rented
them for 2 hours thinking we would last that long….ha-ha. After or 4 rides
down we were dead form the climb back up and it had only been about an
hour. We managed to go down a couple more times but by an hour and a half
of having them we were to dead, so we returned them. The final night was
spent at a small little club in the city. Nothing there was too
spectacular. The final day we were free till 1pm then we left for
Fortaleza. Me being me I slept in till 12 that day, it felt good.
Once back on the busses we headed out to the large metropolitan city for
Fortaleza. Arriving so late in the city we decided to go first to dinner
then to the hotel. Dinner was at a nice Japanese restaurant, where we
indulged ourselves in lots and lots of sushi. The hotel was just another
high rise building right on the beach, nothing we were not use to. During
the first day we headed to the beach of the future. Well that was the name
of it, though it was a large long beach of nice white sand, the water was
disgusting and nobody dared to enter. After a couple games of beach soccer
we headed back to the hotel. In the afternoon we took bit of a city tour
and enter another museum. Once we walked all the way through the museum we
ended out by the ocean, where we walked out onto a famous pier,
called…something ingless. After a long day we headed back to the same
restaurant for more sushi and fried rice. The next day we took a 30 minute
drive out to praia de Cumbuco our last trip to the beach on the trip!!!.
There we raced horses down the beach, then Japanese, Canadian, a Swiss,
and I took a dune buggy ride through the sand dunes that were in the area.
After about an hour of riding around and taking a foto on a jackass, it
ended all too quickly. By the time we were finally done it was already
time to head back to the hotel. Once back in the hotel we had a couple
hours to prepare for our talent show. By 7pm it was time for the show,
during the show we had a girl sing (she was really good and she was from
Lithuania), we had 3 guys make a parody of the trip (never laughed so hard
in my life). We had all 23 three Mexicans do some crazy dance (was planed
10 seconds before the show), then we had the Japanese guy and I do
capoeira. The show ended around 11pm but nobody went to bed the last night
because we had to leave the hotel for the airport at 3am. Once at the
airport everyone was praying they didn’t have to pay for their overweight
bag. Luckily for me I did not have to pay even though I was 3 kilos over.
The flight form Fortaleza to Brasilia was the fats flight of my life,
though it was actually three and a half hours, as soon as I sat down I
passed out and just so happened to wake up right before we landed. In
Brasilia nobody was in a very happy mood because we all new it was about
time to say good-bye. Our short stay started of with a visit to a
McDonalds, where we had our brunch. After our sty in McD´s we took to our
new busses and had a city tour. As we drove through the city we stopped at
about 10 different places to take pictures and view the crazy architecture
of the city. Our last stop was of the tour was at the building of
congress. After the 15 minute stay there we headed to the bus station,
where I and a bunch of other kids who preferred to take the less expensive
but much long way back home, got off the bus. It took us all a good 30
minutes to say our good-byes to the large group of kids headed to the
airport. By the time we said our good-byes and waved to the leaving busses
it was 4pm…..THREE HOURS TILL MY BUS LEAVES!!!!!!!!! Yup, so me and all my
exchange student friends from my city took a 20 hour bus ride (nothing we
weren’t use to) back to Londrina.
And finally at 3pm February 3rd,7 hours sorta of a complete month, I was
back in Londrina, the trip of my life flew in and took-off before I knew
it
Well, ill give it a little time after this huge report before I give my
report about my Brasilian carnival.
Bjorn Syse
Abraços para tudos!!!
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