Carnaval is a weeklong festival hosted in all the major cities of Brazil. It’s essentially a huge party where major streets are blocked off and bands play atop trucks that blast music and hundreds of thousands of people dance in the street. We came in to Salvador on the last day, which is known as the craziest and most eventful.
(Brazil Sunrise)
Right after breakfast a big group of us left the ship after a mandatory diplomatic meeting that was really useful in terms of orienting ourselves and where to be at Carnaval. Salvador has a bunch of major sections of the city that were blocked off for different types of parties. There was the Old Section that hosted kid-friendly music and was more traditional. There were a few other sections and then there was the Lighthouse area where I spent most of the night. More later.
For the daytime a bunch of us all got together and went up to the Old area. We had to take an elevator up this huge hill which was just slightly claustrophobic. Then we walked around the area and ate lunch at this great side alleyway at a little restaurant. The twelve of us took it over! It was a lot of fun and the food was awesome, but expensive unfortunately. Then we walked around the area some more and met up with other SAS kids in this major courtyard area. We basically shopped and hung out all day in that square. Then we all snacked for dinner and headed off to the Lighthouse area for Carnaval.
The lighthouse area was a long strip with loud music and millions of people. I have never been on a more crowded street with more people dancing and singing all at once in my life! It was complete insanity. Crowds of people had overtaken every possible balcony in every home and hotel on the street, hired military were in packs on every block, the sidewalks and street were completely packed wall to wall and every double-decker bus that had a band playing on top of it was packed to the brim with people. There was a group of five of us that ended up dancing down the street together. The music was mostly Brazilian and was surprisingly really good. There was also Fatboy Slim a band from the States that are alright. A lot of SAS kids paid $200 for t-shirts called known as an “abada.” They were let into roped off sections behind certain trucks, including the FatBoy Slim one. Others, including my roommate paid for a “camarote” which was the blocked off area on balconies overlooking the street. The last option was what I did, didn’t pay for anything and just walked in the streets around the roped off people and past them. All three options were worth it in some way or other. It was an insane amount of fun and I can only hope that I get a chance to go back for Carnaval again sometime in my life.
The next morning was rough since I had to meet in the Union at 6 am for my scheduled “Best of Rio” trip. We left the ship around 6:30 am and headed to the airport in Salvador. Forty of us flew to Rio and drove to hotel where we checked in and then were let free for the rest of the day. Marsh Allen (my RD) is one of the coolest people on this ship and he just happened to be the Trip Leader for my group in Rio. He was awesome and the first cool thing he did was let us room with whoever we wanted. So Kate from WASB and I picked a room which was great because the girl I was meant to room with was not on the same routine as I was. After checking in Kate and I and a few other kids on the trip decided to walk around our area. We grabbed some lunch at an all you can eat Brazilian restaurant and explored the city. We ended up finding an Irish Pub called Shenanigans, by reference of an American who’d been living in Rio de Janeiro for almost two years.
We ended up hanging out at Shenanigans for a couple hours meeting other travelers, mostly Irish and British. We also got to watch some Brazilian soccer games on TV, which was cool. We left to take naps at the hotel but never made it back to the but never made it to our room because we saw a big group in the lobby and decided to get dinner all together. We got dinner at a place near our hotel and tried some great Brazilian food. Then we got into a cab and headed to a bar we’d heard about from people on the ship. This was one of the most ridiculous cab rides of my life. We must have been in the cab for at least an hour as we got completely lost looking for the bar. We had hilarious conversations with each other and Kate attempted to speak Spanish to our driver who only knew Portuguese. So funny.
We eventually got to the bar and it was closed! Probably because it was Ash Wednesday, which somehow didn’t cross our minds till we got there. So by default we went back to Shenanigans and had a good night. We met more international people and it was a lot of fun. I bought a shirt that I thought was just a normal small t-shirt, but no, it’s a tank top barely big enough for Chelsea! It’s hilarious. Oh well.
The next morning we got up early and loaded on a big bus for a driving tour of different places in Rio. Everyone was exhausted from the past few days so we spent a lot of time laughing at how tired we were and sleeping. We saw a school community and a samba school dance area. Then we went to Sugar Loaf Mountain, which is a huge mountain on the beach in Rio shaped like a big cylinder, kind of. It was a beautiful scenic spot of Rio and was fun because we rode a couple gondolas from mountain to mountain. It was also really beautiful. After Sugar Loaf we went to this massive restaurant for another all you can eat style Brazilian meal. It was crazy because in the middle of the meal a band and woman dressed in some bizarre outfit came out and danced all around us. Very fun.
(Whitney and I at SugarLoaf)
After that we went back to hotel and had an hour before heading to a soccer game between Flamengo and Redondo. Our tour guide was a huge Flamengo fan so he pumped us up for the game. We all bought jerseys beforehand and looked pretty cool as a huge group. The game was awesome. The soccer was really good, the fans were crazy, and we all got really into it. I met a lot more cool kids on our trip at the game which was an added bonus. After the game we ended up trying to go to this Brazilian bar that was pretty low key and not really right for our big group, so we resorted once again to Shenanigans! This time decked out in our jerseys we took over a section of the bar and had a blast.
(Soccer Game)
The next morning Kate, Liza, Jen, Whitney and I woke up super early to go hanggliding! Our tour guide set up a hanggliding trip for us where we got picked up in these cool four by four Jeeps that had open backs so we could see all around us. We drove to through this really cool rainforest national park up to a hanggliding spot and all strapped in and ran off the mountain. It was amazing. Since I went paragliding with Matt once in Switzerland I didn’t get too nervous and I made sure that I got to do some tricks while in the air, so we did a bunch of spirals and went pretty fast. It was a definite rush. We all landed on the beach and hung out for a little while before heading back to check out at the hotel and jump on different four by fours to head to the huge statue of Christ.
(Hangglidding)
We took these open backed jeeps through another section of Rio that was really cool, a colorful district on the way to Christ’s statue that had a ton of open air restaurants and parks. Then we drove through the rainforest, which was beautiful and refreshing and swirly. We made it to the statue and took some great photos. Then we drove back to the hotel had an hour to hang out and left for Salvador.
(Greg, Me, Chris, Kate, Mara)
We came back to Salvador pretty late and stayed in. I got a phone call at 4 am from Matt and Ryan and ended up hanging out with them and Natalie for a little while that next day, which was a great welcome home.
Matt, Ryan, Natalie, Kate, Krystle, and Zach and I spent the next day walking around Salvador shopping and exploring. We also went to the Afro-Brazilian museum which was a surprisingly good experience. Turns out I can use the trip for one of my classes as long as I write up a summary, so that’s good. Natalie, Krystle and I left for an internet café and then headed back to the ship in time for BBQ night. BBQ night was awesome because everyone who made back to the ship in time got to enjoy a great BBQ meal on the 7th deck, which is something we never get to do.
Now I’m back on the ship which just pulled out of port and is off to South Africa. I’ll be busy the next few days with some important class work. I have my first exam in three days and a huge hour long presentation for my International Law class on the same day. Woo hoo. So I likely won’t be on the internet again for a while. But I’ve loved getting e-mails and I’m sorry if I haven’t found time to respond to them yet. Hang in there, I’ll get to them! Again, it’s great to hear from you all. Big Ups to WISCONSIN basketball ranked 8 in the country! Keep it up badgers. For the rest of you in Madison, stay warm and safe throughout the blizzard! I miss you all!
Peace, E
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