Salvador y Morro de Sao Paolo (Feb 5 - Feb 10)
Irina and I took off on the 5th of February. After 3 connections, we reached Salvador... A city with much culture, history and scars... our first stop was maybe the only place that we didn't feel as safe to be in. There was sort of a hunger in locals' eyes towards something better, softer, nicer mixed with an anger towards those who possessed it by birth. We spent the day and a half with one of our friends from Chicago and his local friend G(don't remember the full name), master of Capoeira.
~guarana (a Brazilian soda, one of my fave non-alcoholic Brazilian drinks)
~Pao de queijo (cheese ball... but it is soooo delicious.. Irina got me hooked on them)
~I bought my first brazilian bikini (blue) in the ferry station at Salvador...
we took a 2hour long catamaran to Morro de Sao Paolo... One of the most famous islands by Salvador... Extremely cute island, very very touristy... Great place to just hang out at the beach... not much water activities... We stayed in a kinda crappy hostel for very cheap...
~lots and lots of Caipirinhas and Moqueca (seafood mix with an amazing sauce)
~I took my first capoeira class... i love it... It is so extremely hard and requires strength though... i might check out some classes here in BA...
~we also met with a girl I talked on CouchSurfer.. her and her bf were so nice to take us out for coffee and give us tips about our travel...
~Last night we went to a party on the other side of the island... "The Full Moon" Party... was very cool, great music, dancing and booze under the full moon.
Itacare
Left Morro at 10am on the 10th for Itacare... It was a 5hour boat+drive (kinda crazy roads) with 7 other people in a mini-van. Was very easy to find our hostel in Itacare...
By the way, this town is very nice. We fell in love with it as soon as we got in... Our hostel was also very cool.
We made a friend at Jungle bar (the hottest bar of town =) ) He really liked me and Irina.
~Amazing fruit and amazing coctails with fruits...
~we did a waterfalls and beach tour... i saw the most beautiful beach I have seen in my life...
then Irina left me on valentines day...=) so I went on a tour (Marau island) with 3 couples who didnt speak English or Spanish... Was not as bad as it sounds though... we had sign language...
Rio(Feb 15- Feb 18)
I flew to Rio on the 15th. The first night I was at a hostel in Santa Teresa... up in the mountains... By this time I was homesick and felt kinda lonely... Next day I met up with Graeme and Candice(Sarah's friend) in Ipanema beach, at the hostel we ended up staying for the next 3 days... Graeme showed us around before he had to leave for Canada... It was a great day... as far as I remember ...=)
Candice and I had alot of fun in Rio at our amazing hostel with the slowest staff ever. We have couple inside jokes now. Rio was mostly beaches as well... and caipirinhas... and sushi... =)
Oh and we got manicure and pedicures for 15R (7DOLLARS)
we took a 18hour bus to Floripa... to save money... plus we had sleeping pills...and music and snacks
Floripa ( Feb 19- Feb 26)
This was the part of the trip where all of us got together... Graeme was not able to make it due to his grandpa's illness.. He flew back to Canada...
Candice and I stayed in a really cool hostel the first night... We hung out at the pool, met some people... Tim the pilot, Maha the weird accent guy, Shanon the canadian and The french guy. TJ and Adam met with us the next day and we moved to the house that they rented for the whole group. Sarah, Johnny and Karl arrived in the afternoon... It was nice to be altogether...
we drank, smoked hookah (since they brought it with them =) ) and chatted. The next day I was really sick... So I was mostly at home in the next 4days of the vacation.... I watched some TV shows and mostly just laid down... All in all, it was fun though...
and finally I am back in BA.... still staying at Johnny's but moving out on the 1st to my new, cool apartment back in Palermo...=) I am "stoked" about it.
