Brazil.. I love Brazil!!

My 6 days in Brazil were really great, but incredibly long. On the first day, we pretty much didn’t stop. We went to the Modelo Mercado as soon as we were able to get off the ship. There were these really aggressive women who took your hand and said a prayer or something and then tried to make you pay them. I gave them one dollar, but it wasn’t enough and they started yelling at me, so I got scared and gave them 10 more. Besides that though, the Mercado was fun. I got some beautiful paintings. After that, we met up with some other SaSers and walked around Salvador for a little bit. Then we had to catch a taxi back to the ship for our Panoramic City Orientation. We drove around Salvador and then walked some more through the city. We got to go to this gorgeous church which contains the room of miracles. It is said that if you leave a model of the body part you need healed or the picture of a person in the room, a miracle might happen. There were wax feet and arms everywhere! We also saw the flavellas which are the poor neighborhoods in Salvador. There are houses packed in every possible inch of unoccupied land. When we got back to the ship from that we had to hurry and get ready for our big night out at the local restaurant. The show that they put on was really animated and was great for showing off the people’s African heritage. The next morning was an early one since I had to be ready for my trip to Lencois at 8am. This trip was quite possibly one of the best experiences of my life. Lencois is a cute little town with great hikes all around. We hiked hard core for three days! We went straight up some rivers and across others. At one point we had to cross a river that was over our waists. The guides strung a rope across the river the idea being that you were supposed to walk through while holding onto the rope. I did more swimming than walking, but I made it! We got to swim and play in a waterfall, and we climbed to one of the highest points in Bahia. The picture above is when I finally made it to the top. This was my major accomplishment of the week. Our hotel was so beautiful; I can’t believe I actually stayed there! The pool looked over some rapids of the Lencois river, and there were gorgeous flowers everywhere. The name “Canto das Aguas” means “Song of the waters”. We had a hammock to put up on our patio, and the food was so yummy! It was really nice to get to meet new people too. I feel like I’m kind of good friends with some of the people that I didn’t even know before a few days ago. I guess traveling together can let you get to know people really well. Brazil has been the first port where I have had a really great time, and I am so excited to get to South Africa. We are watching a travel video on South Africa right now, and it’s getting really hard to decide what we’ll do on our independent days. Also, I’m creating this really awesome video that I can show everybody when I get home. Hopefully it won’t bore you all to death, it’s nearly 8 minutes now and we’ve only had 3 ports. Maybe I’ll have to trim it down a bit. Kendall and I also got to go on a tour of the bridge yesterday. That was so much fun! We got to sit in the captain's chair and wear his hat. It was interesting to learn about all the stuff that goes one. They said that we use like 2000 gallons of fresh water a day on the ship! The other picture below is us being goofy on the bridge. We were so far in the middle of the ocean that no other ships were even showing up on the radar, so there was absolutely nothing that we were actually looking at.

PS-All of the post offices in Brazil were closed for Carnaval, so all of the letters and postcards I was going to send will have to wait until South Africa. Also, if anybody sent me any mail in Brazil I won't get it until South Africa. Crazy national holidays!

PPS- For anyone that watches lost, there is a crew member on the ship that looks like the guy from the training videos. It's pretty creepy, I'm gunna try to take a picture of him to show everyone.