Brazil

Just got back on the ship from a PACKED 4 days.. I have slept in total 6 hours in the past 3 nights and you can totally tell. My voice is gone and I have huge bags under my eyes.. but that's beside the point because it was all sooo incredibly worth it! So starting from the beginning.. 

We arrive to Manaus, which is the port city in Brazil, around 7am. We looked out our windows at these 3 huge river boats that would be our home for the next 2 days. Now, just to clarify, everyone in SAS does there own thing when we get to these countries. Some people have registered trips through SAS, but most people actually do stuff independently with other kids on the ship. In brazil, I signed up (through SAS) for the Amazon and Rio trip. Thankfully, I had a lot of friends going on it too so I was really pumped. The first thing they had for us were boats- they were 2 stories. The top level had about 25 hammocks and bottom was just tables and some holes to go to the bathroom. It was pretty rustic- but they had fried plantains waiting for us so I was happy :) As we start to cruse down the amazon we actually could see the mixing of the water with the Negro river which was what we would travel on. We were on the boat taking a million pictures and playing cards in our hammocks for about 4 hours. At one point, I actually made everyone take a blanket and go onto the deck for some yogayoga! I led everyone through a meditation series and it was so peaceful and beautiful. Everyone really enjoyed themselves (duh)! We were being followed by two other ships because there were 3 groups of us,  they all watched us obviously having a better time than them! We finally arrive to the first stop which was a site with huge lilly pads (probably half the size of my body) and took photos with the locals. Then we shopped around the floating island for a while. In the amazon, there are some communities on the side of the rivers that are purely based around tourism. It's amazing how much these people really rely on us for their income. Anyways, I helped them out a little ;). After shooting some blow darts, and drinking a Fanta and were on our way again. The sun was starting to set. I really wish I could explain to you what this looked like. This sunset was unlike anything I had ever seen before... the clouds turned pink and the whole sky was different shades of purple. We got to where we were going drop anchor for the night (in the middle of the river because we didn't want mosquitos to get to us- yes I'm on malaria pills) with all of the other boats. (P.S.- camera died right here) We then transfered to small motor boats and our guide took us to go camen fishing! So just to paint a picture- it's dark out and were in the middle of parahna and camen infested waters with no protection except our short amazonian guide. Yeah, it was scary. There were yellow eyes that you could see watching you. At one point the guide actually pulled a baby camen out of the water so we could hold it! We had a delish amazonian homecooked meal on the boat and went to bed in our hammocks. I told the bed time stories tonight to our whole boat- ya 25 people- about my car accident when I hit a duck... and then when I hit a stationary motorcyle story... needless to say, everyone never wants to get in a car with me! W

The next morning, we woke up at 5 am to go parahna fishing. We didn't catch that many but still pretty cool- they are scary little creatures. We then went to a local plantation where we learned about different plants and foods in the amazon (one of my favorite parts!). They have this tapioca root which they make tapioca pancakes out of... they were delishhhh i loved this the most. The woman made us fresh ones and we saw how they were properly cooked. We then took a short hike through the amazon where kids ate larva, drank water out of roots and oh wait I RAN INTO A HANGING THORN PLANT!!! Yeah.. talk about needing my adhd meds that day... i had 9 thorns sticking out of my left cheek. Thank goodness I've been teaching a lot of yoga. Thats all i have to say. Im fine though...just incase you were wondering. We then got back on the boat towards Manaus. We had about half the day there to just walking around and see the city- saw a cool cathedral.. nothing much there except really provacatively dressed women and stray dogs. 

Then off to rio that night at 1130 for our red eye flight! This was fun because all groups were on the plane- party plane! We had a layover and got to rio just intime for a breakfast on the beach (felt a little awkward eating when I could see so many butts tanning) and then on to our jeep tour of the "Big Jesus"- that's just what I named the statue. We all got in these Jeep Rangler-style cars and rode up to the statue...it was awesome! I can't wait to show pics of the views from here- it was unreal! We also went to a waterfall, did a hike around it, then went to a botanical gardens. After we rode bikes around rio for about an hour. I felt very touristy.. but it was worth it! That night we went to the nicest brazilian steakhouse in all of rio- it was unlike anything i had ever seen. crazy meats and sushi platters galore! I went into the kitchen and took pictures with the chef ;) We also hit up some local bars and really experienced what rio had to offer. 

The next day we went ziplining and on a ropes corse through the trees in a nearby town. This was fun- zipline was pretty short but the ropes corse was really scary! After, Casey, Ben, Andrew and I went to go hang gliding! By far the coolest thing ive ever done! We ran off cliffs with a guide next to us and literally flew around Rio. We could see the Jesus statue, the beach, a nude tanner, 35 million dollar houses, little kids playing soccer.. the list goes on. I flew with a guy named Mosquito who told me if he were younger he would marry me...? Yeah, that was awkward...when your in the middle of the air! He was a professional and supposedly had flown all over the world and had married like 6 times?Hahaha he was a nut case. We then went back to our hotels to get ready for the soccer game! (see i told you we had packed days!) We all dressed up in Brazilian colors (I wore a flag as a shirt) and got on a bus to go to the soccer game. This is my favorite part of the whole Rio trip- it felt so cultural to be surrounded by these soccer fans. It was a seriously great time. At around 2am, when it was over, we went straight to one of the best clubs in rio called: 00. I sweet talked my way in with no ID and no cover charge... Hehehe. I think it was because I was wearing a flag? Anyways this club was unreal and we stayed out until 4:30 when we had to catch the flight back to Manaus at 5am. Talk about craazyness... anyways it feels good to be back here, even though we are going to be on this boat now for 9 days to Ghana! Can't wait to sleepppp- ta ta for now!

-QOS