One of the best experiences of my life!

After the study abroad ended I went to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. I must say Rio is not what I expected, but was in Rio where I started thinking more about my whole experience in Brazil. At the beginning of the study abroad we were students learning and visiting places in a foreign country, but then we became a group of friends. Sometimes we were so tired, but we had to go and see beautiful places about the history of Brazil. Most of the experiences required us to work as a team, and learn how to work with others even when we had totally different points of view. When we went to the sertão we had to go on hike to see ancient drawings made by Indians 2,000 years ago, if you know me you know I don't like hiking, but now I like it. When me made it to the place where the drawings were I felt I accomplished something and the view was beautiful. Being out there made me thought about so many things I never realized before and I thought I wish I had done this before. In Manaus the same, I finally understand why people like so much to be in touch in nature. Why I like it? when all the noise from the city and the world is gone you can finally hear your thoughts clearly and combine them with the feelings of your heart plus a perfect scenery. Scenery that there is no words to explain how beautiful and fulfilling it is. Consequently is inevitable to be a different person after it everything seems more clear... If you are thinking about going on a study abroad or to travel do it! don't go to another country just to the beach for example, you must get in touch with the culture and the people. It is in the people where you can find the real riches of a country. I loved everything about Brazil even what I did not like because all that mixed together is Brazil. Brazil is a country that has nothing to envy to other countries. With time it has been growing and it would keep growing. If you are looking for an opportunity to find yourself, what are you capable to do, what you need to improve and what you have been missing all this time go abroad and live!. Life is wonderful and everyday is an opportunity to be happy. Be happy, positive and bring those feelings plus a smile to those around you. The adventure begins now :).

Fourth Day in Manaus!

The encontro das aguas is where the two rivers The Black River and the River Solimões meet, but because of their difference in temperature, density and velocity. It is believe to be the beginning of the Amazon river :). You can put your hand in the two rivers and feel how the temperature is so different how awesome is that!. After we visited the encontro we had a little ride through the Amazon river. In our ride Washington our tour guide( second picture below) explains that some people leaving in the Amazons river don't have a boat so the barely leave their houses and because they are so poor they only think and work for the food of the day. They eat tapioca flour all the time and sometimes meat. We saw cows that had a month without eating crazy!!! and sometimes anacondas would eat their food like chickens etc.

I need to tell you i little bit about Washington he is from Guiana Inglesa and he is 55 years olds. Interesting facts about him well he had Malaria 22 times and he got married the first time when he was 15 and when he moved to Brazil he was living in an Indian village. He has had a sad life, but he has lived so much in just 55 years, he is the cutest guy ever and he is so nice! After the ride we went to a floating restaurants where we fed wild monkeys! Then we went to a house where they had an anaconda and a sloth :D. Finally, we went on a walk in the jungle where I learned how to make an Indian crown with leafs.

Third Day part 3!!

One thing is to talk about Indians and how they dress and lived and another one is to actually see it. After swimming with the dolphins we went to see a little presentation from an Indian tribe. Shirtless women dancing with a painted chest not common for me nope. The first picture is the tribe chief, who presented and explained us the different dances and cultural traits. In an Indian tribe the chief can have up to seven wives all living in different houses. Most tribe in the Amazons still live their beliefs and ancient costumes, but they are more civilized they have internet and travel hahaha. The chief told me he has been in San Francisco, California :). However, they live in areas they you can only go by boat. I thought it was interesting that they had a dance where they used to dance for 24 hours! Imagine 24 hours jumping! Mostly everything they wear or do has a meaning. The Indians also make a lot of necklaces, bracelets, one side long feather earrings an other things. I wished I could have bought it all!! Is so interesting to see ancient Indian costumes are still alive today and the Amazons still have tribes that haven't been in contact with the world.

 

 

Thrid Day in Manaus part 1!

 

In our third day we went to swim with the dolphins in the Black River!! yes there is dolphins in a black riven in the Amazons.  Some of the dolphins were pink and others were grey and one was pregnant :). One of the things in my bucket list swimming with dolphins check!. The dolphin are not trained, but they are use to people visiting them so they are really friendly. However, the only reason we got to see them is because they know visitors mean easy food!If you go to Manaus, swimming with the dolphins should be in your list of things to do. I am all about everything that is not camping, hiking etc. If it wasn't because of the study abroad I don't think I wouldn't have gone to Manaus ever!, but the Amazons is a great place is not that dangerous and it is a different type of beauty. If I can go back to Brazil I would definitely go back to Manaus.

Second Day Manaus!

On our second day Sara and I went back to the Indian market to buy these earrings!! So in Manaus because of the strong Indian influence most people wear these huge feather earrings in one ear. People in the market thought I was half Indian or Indian and when I said no they said oh you are from Bahia then. Close I am from Dominican Republic :D. It seems I look Brazilian and because everyone in the group except for Michele and the professor were Americans, Brazilians would come to me a talk really fast.

At 11:30 am we where read for our adventure! we went to a hotel in an island called Tiwa where we stayed for four days. Our first activity was to fish piranhas. Piranhas are not as a ugly as I thought there are four types of piranhas. The Black Rives is full of piranhas and you can still swim in the rives cause they are only dangerous if you are bleeding. There is no doubt piranhas are ugly fishes!. It seems they are easy to caught though, but I didn't caught not even one. We divided our group in three groups and one of the groups caught like 30! and I took a picture :P. Our group caught like four, but it was because our location was not the best. The night ended by catching a Cayman :) 

First day in Manaus!

So what we do when we have been awake since 2:30 am and traveling where we go on a walk around downtown in Manaus of course :D. We found this beautiful theater built during the colonial era. It took 15 years to be built and is still works as a theater today.

 

In our visit the tour guide told us, the theater had a free opera presentation by Koreans free that night! So we went! However, an opera show by Koreans from New York in a beautiful theater in the jungle? priceless!That day we also walk around a visit little stores and bought a few things... We must shop! :)

 

Fortaleza!!

After being in Salvador we traveled to Fortaleza. Fortaleza is similar to Recife and is the capital of the state of Ceara, Brazil. Fortaleza is known as the city of the sun, and is true it never rained while we were there. We stayed at the city in a nice hotel near the beach. The first picture is the view we had from our balcony. 

 

On our second day in Fortaleza we went to visit different historical sites. On our way to the center of the city we passed so many clothing stores!! I never saw that many, like four blocks of just clothing stores. In all the other cities we were you can always buy coconut water everywhere with the whole coconut, in Fortaleza you mostly can buy just  a glass of coconut water.

 
We also visited a cathedral Gothic style! This one was different from all the other churches we visited before.  I liked it a lot it remembered me a lot to the churches back home.

So is part of our trips to buy souvenirs! and in all the cities we visited we found little fairs selling things or a huge place like Mercado central ( picture above) with a lot of little stores. It was like a labyrinth and they sell mostly clothes and table cloths.

The last day in Recife was a perfect sunny day. We went to church and walk at the beach. If you ever go to Fortaleza go to Don pastel and eat a pastel there ( a pastel is like an empanada) they are huge and delicious! The biggest pastel I have ever had in Brazil! So goo that I ate one everyday! Sadly I don't have a picture, but trust me about it :).

Projeto Tamar!

 

Turtles!!  Projeto Tamar is an internationally known project that protects 5 species of turtles that are in extinction in Brazil. The project was created in 1980 with the name Tamar that comes from TAR (tartaruga) and MAR (marinha).  Projeto Tamar is one of the places we visit in Salvador and seriously didn't know turtles could be as big as the one I saw (first two pictures). However, I found out a turtle can be this big:

I can imagine a turtle this size..., but they exist :). After seeing a lot of turtles and learning a little about them, we went to the beach an relax for a few hour until.....

I found a man that makes beautiful paintings in like less than five minutes just with cotton and his finger, nothing else! It blew my mind I still look at the one I bought and I can't believe it. It is amazing! Brazil has so many talented people.

The cans Man!

Hahahahahahaha! Waiting for the bus Mitch, Matt and I found this man putting cans on the street for the cars to crush them. So funny! There was two police guys and instead of doing something they just said Hi and gave him two soda cans! hahaha. Then he saw the bus coming and got all excited and put the cans in front of the bus wheel. Finally, he took his bag of cans and left :P. People in Salvador are so chill and relax, they just make the best of their day. People say Salvador is dangerous, but I never felt scared or threatened at all. However, I never seen more people in my life trying to sell anything you could sell!.

That is a huge elevator you need to take to go downtown where you wanna go if you go to Salvador. Why you have to take it? downtown is where the port is and where they use to bring the slaves. The Portuguese wanted to have a better view of what was going on so they were mainly in the top watching those that were down :).

These are a few pictures from downtown isn't beautiful? I loved it it was by far my favorite day! All streets were little and you kind of felt in Europe, but with a strong African influence. There was a lot of churches to see and music everywhere :). Where you shop when you are in Salvador you go to the Mercado Modelo. The Mercado Modelo was the place they would put the slave until they were sold. When we went from the first floor to the last floor is a lot of little stores, but the basement is still like it was many years ago when slaves where there. However, it was closed, but in the basement the use to put the rebellious slaves to punish them.