Anonymous asked: Wow, amazing pictures of your Amazon trip! What was your most memorable/unusual experience during this month long trip?
My most memorable was probably when all of the exchangers were almost conned into buying a man expensive dinner. I will explain in the coming blog. Another memory was within the first three hours of arriving in Salvador, I was skillfully pick-pocketed and my cell phone disappeared without me feeling anything. Despite the fact that it was stolen, I found it interesting to not feel anything and yet be robbed at the same time. As a first experience, it was very interesting to think about.
The start of the month-long trip with the International Exchange students of Rotary. The Amazon until Rio de Janeiro
Anonymous asked: What is shopping in a grocery store in your town like? Do you bag your own groceries? Do they offer to help you out to your car?
Shopping is actually similar to America, but does have some differences. For example, when you are buying the fruit, the store will first weigh them and stick a sticker on the bag saying how much you need to pay. Then you take the bag to the cashier and pay. You also can bag your own groceries, or they might bag them for you. Finally, if you ask or look like you are in need, they will bring the bought goods to your car for you.
Anonymous asked: Are there fruits in Brazil that we do not have here in the U.S. ? What are they called? What do they taste like?? Pictures ???
They have many fruits here that the US does not have. For example, jabuticaba which is a small, grape-like, fruit that grows on the trunk of the tree. There is also Caju, which technically the US does have. The only difference is that Americans eat the nut inside (Cashew nut) while Brazilians drink and eat the fruit. There are many other types of fruits here that I have never seen in the United States. I will take some photos of the fruits later and post them up.
Jericoacoara!
March 3rd
After leaving the small paradise town, Jericoacoara (I cannot get enough of saying that), we traveled to Salvador, where I was not the happiest person alive. In the first three hours, where we were visiting a famous church “A Igreja do Bonfim”, I was distracted and my phone was pickpocketed…..that definitely did not leave a good first impression… But on the upside, we arrived on the day before……CARNAVAL!! So we were all very excited to see what kind of craziness and insanity would occur. But on the night before Carnaval, we had an unfortunate encounter with a con artist…He was a Brazilian wearing a MIT cap and spoke English with almost no accent. Very convincingly, he told us to eat at “his” pizza restaurant where he would give us food for free. Luckily, a few of us were suspicious and asked the waiters if they knew him. They told us that they have never seen him before, and thus we cancelled the pizzas and told him that we had to go. He nervously tried to get us to stay, but that only raised our suspicions and made us leave faster. He followed us until our hotel, then continued on his way…probably to go sulk at his failure.
Happier Note————-CARNAVAL!
Carnaval was….LOUCO, FOI MUITO LOUCO E EU FIQUEI BEM CONFUSADO HUASHUASHUAS…..it was amazing and crazy..to put it in small words. Many men were dressed as women and shot soap and other things out of their guns as well as tried to dance with the us guys…as uncomfortable as it seemed, no one minded and we let the insanity of Carnaval take us over.
After Carnaval, we left for the next city since the price of the hotel rose to over three times the original amount…..
Next city….Lençóis (Len-soys)
March 5th
In Lençóis, we were not very happy as there were not too many things to do compared to the craziness of Salvador. But considering the price and the danger that Salvador could potentially cause us, coming here was the best choice. Here we went to waterfalls….but here is the catch…we had to learn Parkour in the process. With a small backpack on us and many rocks in the river, we had to jump from rock to rock as the most fun way of getting to the waterfall. When I say jump, I mean jumping off 5-10 feet down onto rocks or jumping up onto rocks that are at our head. Now to someone who can jump high or does Parkour, this is very easy….for people like me who have about…0% experience, this was body-breaking. In Lençóis, we rested in a pousada, or a house, and bonded more with each other….pranks were pulled, problems occurred, fights started, and a new understanding of each other was formed. Although there were fights, they did not last long, nor did either party hold a grudge. After a few days, we left for Rio de Janeiro…the icon of Brazil.
March 8th,
Rio de Janeiro…home of the favelas, beautiful beaches, Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf), andO Cristo (The Christ). I have been to Rio a few times before, but this time was probably one of the more fun times since I had my friends with me. We stayed very close to where I stayed before, so I knew the area already. While we were in Rio, we split into two groups: the people who already have visited the touristy areas, and the people who want to. I already visited much of Rio, so instead I stayed back…and discovered devastating news…. the 9.0 earthquake in Japan. I was shocked by the news, and quite honestly did not feel like I wanted to continue the trip. I just sat down, watched the news, and hoped that anyone in that area would be fine…
But as we stayed longer in Rio, my feeling for the earthquake was slowly dulled by the hopes of the future. I had to break out of the shell of shock, and to do that, I went out to have more fun. Rio was the last part of the Grande Viagem, and so we had to make the last night the most memorable.
March 15th,
Bauru…
Here we saw all of our friends go back to their own cities. After a month of traveling, we bonded together and the old misunderstandings of each other disappeared. We all promised each other that we would come and visit one another again. And that was the end of the amazing Grande Viagem…
Anonymous asked: What news are you getting about the cataclysmic earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan?
I have seen the news and I am very worried about my friends and family that live in Japan. I am also very worried about the people that are currently in Japan. I love Japan, and I love the people in Japan, so I hope that they will be able to recover quickly and I hope that many people will contribute to the recovery of Japan. I believe that if people can throw away their differences and grudges between themselves and Japan. I have been watching the news on CNN and BBC News and I have been constantly shocked at the damage of the Earthquakes and Tsunamis.
Anonymous asked: Hi Takeshi-kun! The Brazilian Carnival is coming up...will you and your fellow Rotarians have a chance to see or take part in the festival? What is it like during this time in terms of parties, etc?
We actually were in Salvador for Carnaval and we partied for the entire first day of Carnaval. We danced, danced, walked, danced, danced, supermanned by men dressed as Superwoman….that was an awkward time….sang, danced, and well….danced some more. Unfortunately, we had to leave that same day to to go to Lencois, which is a 5-6 hour bus ride. So far, I believe that Carnaval was one of the highlights of the trip so far and I can’t wait to go to Rio de Janeiro even though Carnaval will have ended by then.
Unfortunately, I was not able to write any more while I was traveling around Brasil. But here is the rest of the trip.
February 23, 2011
During our time in Forteleza, we enjoyed a whole day at one of the largest water parks in Latin America called Beach Park. There we rode the tallest water slide in Latin America (41 meters)…and we found out that the ride pulled the hairs from under our legs and gave us major wedgies…..
Next stop! Jericoacoara!
February 25-March 2
We stopped in my favorite town in Brazil. Jericoacoara (yes i know it is hard to pronounce, so here is how you say it “jeri-koa-koa-ra”). Jericoacoara is a small town without any roads or streetlamps. There are very few people living there, and amazing sand dunes. In order to get to this small paradise, we had to ride in station-wagons in the town next to…which was about 3 hours away. We spent 3 hours off-road…on bumpy grounds…accompanied by traditional Mexican songs courtesy of the Mexican exchange students. We arrived at night time with the the strange smell of salt water in the air. We had just gone through a desert, so we were confused at how the air became ocean-like.
When we got into our rooms, we were surprised to see them to be two-story rooms with a hammock outside. Here we chilled and rested from the long bus and truck ride.
During the day, we went out to sand-board, dune-buggy, and horse ride across the beaches. We hardly encountered any foreigners and were lucky enough to be able to spend five days doing whatever we wanted.
My favorite thing to do there was to jump off the dunes, doing flips and twists, down twenty feet and landing in the soft, feathery sand during the sunset. The mood, weather, temperature, and people were perfect. A couple of my friends began to date in Jericoacoara. I advise anyone who is going to the Northeast to visit Jericoacoara. It is a ways to travel, but completely worth the time.
