Category archives for Brazil
Posted by We pulled into the Recife bus station missing our amazing surfer buddies and then we meet Carlos, another amazing friend. He was an exchange student with my cousins a few years ago. My Cousin Kayla’s family owns a farm in Indiana so he learned to speak English and all about agriculture. Carlos met us at the bus station and drove us back to his family home. His mom and step dad then moved out of their master suite so we could be comfortable.
In the afternoon his step father took time off work to take us on a tour of the city. We started with the oldest jail in Brazil; all the cells are now little shops. Next we went down to the waterfront to see the new cruise ship dock. They are preparing for the World Cup and the Olympics here too. Later we went to the old city that is more than 500 years old.
We drove into Praia do Forte not knowing what to expect, but within a few minutes we knew we were going to love it. Gallego, a smiling, surfing, and snorkeling caretaker greeted us and welcomed us into our friend’s beach house. Before we even got our suitcases from the car we went to the beach and felt the warm water on our toes. The house was beautiful and had a pool in the backyard, but best of all we were ten steps from the ocean. We were all super excited to explore the cute beach village and the coral reef full of little critters.
Our first night in town we explored and met Alexandre the owner of the Billabong surf and skate board shop and decided we would take our surf lessons with him the next day. Alexandre, Marcio and Lideo, three amazing guys with electric personalities picked us up in the morning. We spent some time on the shore learning the basic moves and then we hit the waves.
Oh no, the bus is sold out! There isn’t another bus until tomorrow. What are we going to do?
About 15 minutes later we found a bus that would take us to another station, where we would take a bus to a ferry terminal, where we would take a ferry to Salvador, so we hopped on. About 17 hours later a protest took place on the highway and we waited for hours until we realized they weren’t going anywhere, so we then drove to a nearby bus station where we sat and waited some more. A bunch of people got sick including Everest so we named the bus “the vomit comet.” Then they told us we would have to sleep on the bus one more night.
When we finally arrived at the bus stop the next morning we were all VERY happy. We had more moving and grooving to do but we were finally in Salvador de Bahia on our way to Basso in Santa Teresa.
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We arrived in the city of color and samba, Rio de Janeiro, with our eyes wide open. Our home the first three nights was Bossa, in the historic part of town called Santa Teresa. We spent our days exploring the city and taking in all the sites. We started with two huge landmarks Sugar Loaf (the big rock in the pictures of Rio) and Christ the Redeemer, both were incredible. I have seen pictures of this giant statue my whole life so standing there next to him was truly amazing.
Leaving our hotel in Paraguay at 2:00 am wasn’t super fun but we arrived at the immigration office just five hours later. While we waited for our boat over to Iguazu Falls, Argentina we stared at the beautiful river from shore. The sunrise and the morning mist were truly magical. This is where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil all join together.
When our ferry arrived we all hopped on very excited to see some of the largest waterfalls in the world. Tomorrow we would go to the park, but first we had to get our Brazilian visas. We left the consulate office with our passports stamped, explored the town and found a tourist office. After hearing about all the activities we decided that The Great Adventure boat ride was by far the best even though we were told “YOU WILL GET SOAKED”. The next morning we suited up, put on our life jackets and boarded the 9:00 o’clock boat. We traveled down the river for a while, as we got close to the falls our jaws all dropped in awe.
