First of all, the day I left on my trip was quite a stressful start to my adventure! On Monday, the 16th of Febuary, I was booked to be on a plane at 2pm to go from Santiago to Salvador de Bahía (with a short lay over in São Paulo), after only finalizing my travel plans very early Sunday morning (thanks to my mom and a very good travel agent in Berkeley). On Sunday I was super busy getting everything ready and doing last minute shopping before my big day, and I barely got any sleep. On Monday before I was able to leave, I woke up SUPER early because I had to pick up my Chilean ID card from their DMV type office (to make it easy to get back into the country), and I still had to pick up my Brazilian tourist visa from the Brazilian Consulate in Santiago (so I could actually go on the trip!). Both offices are located downtown, which is about a 20 minute metro ride from my homestay, so I had to leave at about 7:30 in the morning to get everything done on time. I ordered a shuttle service to pick me up from the Consulate down town take me to the airport, and let me tell you I walked out of the Cosulate with my visa in hand just 5 minutes before I was supposed to get picked up.
Luckily, with having a very planned out and smooth morning, I made it to my flight with a little time to relax and write a couple of postcards to send. I landed in Salvador at about 10:30pm and took a taxi to a previoulsy arranged Pousada (a guest house) in the area called Porto da Barra, which was right on the beach!
After an amazing night's sleep in a comfortable bed in an air-conditioned (!!) room I woke up to a rainy morning! I met up with my friend Yejide (a friend from Berkeley who is studying in Salvador) around lunch time, and she took me to meet some of her friends at a restaurant near the light house, about a 15 minute walk away from my Pousada. We ended up staying there for about 3 hours to wait for the rain to let up a little bit so we could walk around and Yej could show me around to her favorite places. Despite the wet weather, it was still really hot and humid outside, making it hard to stay out too long with out air conditioning. When the skies finally dried we were able to walk down to the water and put our feet in the ocean, which was still warm even though the sun was blocked all day by the clouds!
My days in Salvador were very relaxing, I was able to be super lazy and I also got to see a lot of the city. One afternoon, Yej took me on the bus up to Pelourinho, which is the colonial part of Salvador, and it was magnificent. There were churches on every corner, and the old buildings were painted with such beautiful colors. There were dancers in costumes in the streets, preparing for Carnaval, a bunch of groups doing Capoeira, and musicians sprinkled throughout the city playing their berimbaus.. It was incredible to see. Yej was able to tell me a little bit of the ugly history of Salvador, and how it was one of the last places in the world to abolish slavery. There is still some evidence of the slave population such as public whipping posts still standing, but we didn't go to see them.
The preparations for Carnaval were very interesting to see: huge stages being built all over the city, roads beginning to get blocked off... It made me a little sad to think that I wasn't going to experience Carnaval in Salvador. Well, on the last night of my stay, I was able to go to a pre-Carnaval celebration in the streets with Yej and her friends, which was super fun! There was live music and a ton of people in the streets, but what I experienced in Salvador did not prepare me in the least for what I saw in Rio!
On Thursday morning, I left for the airport again to fly down to Rio de Janeiro. I know a couple of other people studying there, and I was really lucky to have another contact, my friend Shawna's godmother, Cláudia, who hooked me up with her ex-husband (Lauro) and her son (César), so I was able to stay for free with them for the couple of days I was in Rio! I finally arrived around 3pm after a 3 hour plane ride and a 40 minute taxi ride to Lauro's house. César was home at the time, and after I put my put my backpack down and changed my clothes, he took me to the beach, which was about 4 blocks away from the house. After living in Santiago for the past month, where the sun doesn't set before 9pm, I was very surprised to find it getting dark around 6! On the way home, I called my friend, Madi, who had been trying to get me a ticket to go to a Manu Chao concert with her and her friends. Luckily, one of her friends was able to get a hold of one, so that night I went to go meet her for dinner and then the concert! It was a very fun evening.
The next few days in Rio were very relaxing, I got to explore a little with Madi, and go to the beach a lot. On both Friday and Saturday nights, I went out with both Madi, and César to experience the wonders of the "blocos" of Carnaval. A "bloco" is what they call the individual parties where people can go and enjoy. If I had to compare Carnaval to anything, I would say that Carnaval in Rio is just a dirtier version of Halloween in Isla Vista: everyone is drunk, in costumes, carrying on in the streets (which are lit with huge flood lights); although much dirtier. We all got to enjoy the lovely aromas of pee mixed with beer that were flowing in all the gutters everywhere we went. I can now see why most of the residents of Rio leave the city during Carnaval! It got so dirty! I really enjoyed the live music that played both nights, but for me, the best Carnaval day, BY FAR, was Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday, Madi and I attempted to go see the Christ that looks over all of Rio, but the lines were so long when we got there, they told us we would be waiting for 3 hours just to take the train up to the top. We decided to give up on that idea, since it was really hot outside, and we didn't want to get sunburned in the lack of shade, so we went out to lunch at a near by restaurant instead. That afternoon, we made it back to her friend, Antonio's, house to drop our stuff off and then go to a bloco on the beach. It was so amazing! We were able to parade, and attempt to dance (which was difficult due to the immense amounts of people) right next to the band of drummers that were playing for the dancers! There was only a small rope separating us from the drummers and it was so fun to walk/dance down the beach with them. The musicians were amazing, and I was impressed to see a bunch of kid drummers as part of the band! They were so good. This was the one day that I had the most fun, and I forgot my camera (which was actually for the better probably, as we all got super sweaty in the crowds!).
The next day, Monday, Cláudia came to pick up César and I to take us to her husband, Ronald's, family's house in Saquarema, a beach town about 2 hours north from Rio. I spent 5 days there with them, and after being completely content with my Carnaval experience on Sunday, it was a really nice place to relax and recover from the Carnaval events. I spent my days by the pool, going to the beach, and eating amazing food (Ronaldo's aunt sells food and pasteries for a living), and I was actually a little bit sad to leave my nice vacation and go back to real life in Santiago. One afternoon, Cláudia took me to Buzious, another beach town about an hour away, which was beautiful as well. I was so lucky to have been in contact with her, because if not, I would have been so lost in what to do, and I proably would have had to pay a fortune to stay in Rio for Carnaval.
On Saturday, we drove back to Rio, and Cláudia took Madi and I up to the Christ, where the lines were not as long. I was happy that I got to do at least one touristy thing while being there, and we had a lot of fun. Around 4pm, we took another drive back to São Paulo, where Cláudia and Ronaldo live (aobut 5 hours from Rio). I didn't see much of São Paulo, because it was late when we arrived, but to me it seemed like a huge industrial city, with endless sky scrapers. Personally, Cláudia hates living there, and is trying to move back to Rio by the end of the year. On Sunday, they took me to the airport, and I was back at Alejandra's house by 9:30pm.
Over all, my trip to Brazil was incredible and I would love to go back when there aren't as many festivities going on so I can really go around and see how the city functions on a normal basis. I was able to use some of the Portuguese that I learned in my class last quarter, but the language barrier was definitely an obstacle. I was able to get by by speaking very slow Spanish, and hanging around my friends that are learning Portuguese. It's such a beautiful language, I would love to learn more.
The past week in Santiago has been a little bit hectic. I've been apartment hunting, and on Thursday I finally moved into a huge apartment in a really cool part of the city, Providencia, with a young chilean couple. It is a new apartment for everyone, so we're still trying to find more roommates. We have room for about 4 or 5 more people, and for the past couple of days a bunch of international students have been coming by to look at it, so hopefully we'll get some responses back within the next couple of days!
Classes will start on Monday, and that will be an adventure all in itself. I will be attending La Universidad de Chile, and altough classes are due to start next week, a finalized schedule of classes still has not been sent out!! It really makes me appreciate the UC system, where we get our schedule of classes finalized about a month before the next quarter is supposed to start, but it's all part of the adventure, I guess! Hopefully I will be able to get into a Contemporary Literature class, and an Art History class by the end of the week, and I will let you all know how the "shopping" period we have for classes goes!
I will also be participating in an internship called English Opens Doors, where I will be helping English teachers in a Chilean public school with their classes. It will be very interesting to experience the education system in another country, and I'm looking forward to getting some teaching experience!
I've attached the album I made for Brazil from the pictures from my digital camera, but I'm still waiting on the pictures from my disposable cameras that I took around. When those come in, I'll be sure to attach them and I'll send out an email so you all can check them out!
Beijos,
Amara
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