To Rio

With our adventure in Salvador drawing to a close,

we donned our Brazil t-shirts for a wonderfully nerdy flight to Rio.

Bye Erin! Have fun adventuring in Bahia!

Our first views of some of the favelas in Rio.

View of the Christo Redentor Statue so famous in Rio.

It's massive!

 

After we arrived at our hotel we walked around for a while and found some early carnaval celebrators. This attractive young *ahem* lady is one of the many examples of the amazing costumes people wear! It is incredibly popular for men to cross dress in gay and straight crowds alike!

 

We see this street pattern everywhere.

 

Cool sand castle on Copacabana beach.

 

Here's the awesome pool on the 18th floor of our hotel, it has a beach view too!

 

 We're getting excited for carnaval. 

Here's a sneak peek of the kind of costumes on display at the Sambódromo!

Sooo excited to have found a very nice vendor for costumes.

We're bringing the spirit of samba home with us!

Here's a great example of the typical beach dress.

The girl is wearing one of the larger bikini bottoms by the way.

It's practically a diaper, as they lovingly refer to American style bikinis.

Oh ya, and the guy on the right is just awesome.

Getting ready to costume up and go out on the town for some Rio Blocos.

PS. the blocos really ARE better in Salvador, just like people said!

(and beer's cheaper... which is saying enough.)

A picture of the metró station close to our hotel.

This metró station turns jam-packed during rush hour and carnaval.

We had the fortune... or misfortune... of taking it on the way to the sambodromo later.

That was a memorable experience.

I doubt I had an inch of air space around me for the 30 minutes it took to arrive..

 

Cool street art.

 

Oh Brazillian TV how I adore you!

Rediculous.

 We were recommended a very fancy restaurant named Marius Crustáceus in Copacabana.

It's an all you can eat buffet of incredibleness surrounded by an eclectic nautical interior.

Matt and Sherry I thought of you guys in here!

 The interior of Marius.

 I ate so much here that I was literally sick the next day. They keep bringing you all of these different cuts of meat and seafood... I couldn't stop. Well I sure did stop the next day, I spent most of it nauseated and in bed. Too much red meat... TOO MUCH FUN! The other girls were fine... sigh.

Next post... CARNAVAL!!!

Final days in Salvador

Fabi took us to a beautiful sunset over the waters of the lower city

All to the accompaniment of a live jazz band at the museum of modern art. 

I've enjoyed my time here with Fabi and the people of Salvador so much.

There is a very earthy vibe here in Bahia. It is full of culture and African roots,

and closest to my heart, it is the birthplace of Samba and Capoeira!

The jazz band :) playing for us during the sunset.

This is a beautiful building I saw, but I have no idea what it is...

The next day Fabi took us to her favorite beach spot!

When we were on the bus and she casually asked who wanted a beer,

I had to take one because when do you ever get to drink in the bus... 

This is just one of the many things different between Brazil and the US!

Drinking in public?... no problem!

My ladies and I enjoying Fabi's favorite spot... Vilas Do Atlântico

When the tide lowers here there are beautiful tidepools

and everyone lounges around in the shallow surf-protected water like a bathtub

My favorite thing at the beach... Queijo

Ladies and Gentlemen,

introducing: fried cheese on a stick.

Enjoying queijo and agua de coco.

(cheese and coconut water... fresh!)

I miss you Fabi! You brought so much fun and light to our trip.

Thank you, wild woman.

Fabi's friends travel in style.

Standard beach items include a full stereo system with amp, and mixed drinks for all.

Good times!

Our last night in Salvador was the first night of Carnaval! We got to reuse our band shirts and head out for a bloco in Barra. Fabi brought her adorable friend Rita. This girl can SAMBA!!! We danced in the streets all night to the pulsing rhythms of a large bateria and a very enthusiastic crowd.

Fabi and Rita

Ya... so apparently 3 white girls being able to dance samba attracts a lot of attention here.

This picture sums up a lot of my experience here...

run awaaay!!!

This segways into another topic of discussion: American women vs. Brazillian women and the interactions with men I have witnessed so far (in my experience). By the way, this by no means is speaking of all women in either culture, just a general comparision.

Section 1: Unwanted male advances.

So we 3 ladies in the US have been taught to be polite. To smile, be nice girls, etc. What I'm realizing is that if you don't want the attention, you really can't do that here. Quite often you have to be firm, frank, and disinterested to the point of being rude. And still, they might not give up. This made me quite uncomfortable at first. I'm a nice person right, I don't want to ignore this guy hes just trying to talk to me and he is a human being after all. Of course sometimes this is the case. But I've learned to tell the difference quickly and be firm in my wants and unwants. I've dropped all pretenses of girlish shyness or discomfort that could be misinterpreted as a weak resolve or an invitation for continued attempts at interaction. Here's what I learned from Fabi... ignore..walk strongly past, elbow off if needed, say no and keep walking. Sound rude? Maybe, but extreme circumstances call for extreme measures. The women here are strong, self-assured, and that's sexy. And I like it!

Section 2: Wanted male advances.

So this is something interesting I have seen here. Kissing is a very common first interaction between men and women who are attracted to one another. A local's advice was: "Kissing is a great way to start any conversation". I think this is especially true during carnaval, where rules are gray areas at best. Even though kissing is very common, expectations beyond that are not, which I find to be a refreshing difference between Brasil and the US. So if you like a guy who is coming on to you... kissing him and then saying "Ok, have a good night, bye" is perfectly acceptable and normal. Even in groups of friends often women can kiss many different men in the same group and it is normal... interesting, no?

Tchao Fabi, come visit me in Cali :)

Salvador!

 Flying into Salvador

I arrived in Salvador with a whole day to kill before meeting my new host, Fabi! With her advice, I took  a bus to her  favorite  beach in town, Villas do Atlântico. Hiking down  the beautiful  beach with all of my backpacking bags in tow  brough me to a little beachside hut named Barraca Odoyá (the  goddess   of  the  sea's tent).  The people there were very  nice and let  me stowe  my bags  behind  the counter all  day until   5pm while I  lounged on the beach. I made some good  headway on my tan that day :)

The  next day  was  a huge day. The  girls arrived from the airport  in the morning  after traveling for about 24 hours. I'm sorry to  say  they didn't get much  rest. That  night  we went  to  a pre-carnaval bloco, which  is a huge group  party featuring a bataria (group of drummers) parading  down the street  with a large  crowd of partyers, spectators, drinkers, etc  in  their wake. We paid  to be part of  the party  with the  bateria, which means  we wore  the  shirts  of the  band. It was worth the money as the partygoers in  the ropes with the shirts got a  safe  comfortable place  to  be with and around  the band, instead of  on  the other  side of the ropes with annoying drunks  and  very pushy cat-calling brazillian men!

We altered our shirts  to make our  own personalized spin on  things. And  because they were made of 100%  polyester, which is  murder in this climate. Thanks Fabi for  the great  recommendation!

 All the girls!

 Fabi, you're the best!

 Cue bad-ass music... here come the gringas!

With the bloco.

 We just found out that we may be albe to reuse  our  shirts for the  first day of  Carnaval here before leaving. The name  of the band is "Habeas Copos" which  is a brazillian play on words coming from "Habeas  Corpus", the right to a trial, and "copos", or  cups... of alcahol by implication :)

By  the way, this  Habeas  Copos Banda  started at midnight.  We were out dancing on  the streets till 5am.  Immediately after  this ended  with the  people  becoming  more drunk  and rowdy throughout  the night,  we took a bus (they  start  running at  5am) to  Rio Vermelho (red river) for  a  completely  different change  of scene  to watch  the sunrise  and  the beginnings of  the Festa de Iemanja.

Sunrise over the waters of Rio Vermelho

This beautiful  religious  festival honors  the  goddess of the sea.  Worshipers  make their  way down to the sea wearing all  white and bringing  gifts of flowers,  champagne, and  other things to honor and thank the sea goddess. The people  take  boats out  to  the sea to make  their  offerings. The  mood  here  was  sacred, respectful, open, beautiful,  and  welcoming. It was such a stark contrast from the night  before that  it instantly grounded me and  made me want to stay. I watched the sunrise, sang some songs I had learned thanks  to Vanessa Lindberg :),  recieved a blessing which  included rice for my head, popcorn rubbed  on my arms, a white  chalk like  powderfor my chest  and back, and substantial  yanking on my arms  :). I understood  parts of the blessing, calling for  health, safety, wealth, and general happiness. The old  woman who gave to me was wisened and ancient. It felt  very personal, curious, and good  all at once.

 After the blessing you wash in the sea of Iemanja.

Often this is accompanied by a realization.

 Flowers as offerings

 The boats used to take worshipers out with offerings.

Erin was the only one who brought the traditional white top,

but people were welcoming of us none the less.

I got the feeling that no one here judged our way of

being when we are present and respectful.

These  girls are troopers, I can't believe  they stayed  up all night on  a flight  after a day of travel, then be  out and about all day... then  stay up all  night to  samba  through  the  streets  and then catch  a religious  festival at dawn, all without a proper  sleep! Don´t worry, we caught  up later!