Brazil!!

Day 1:
I woke up for sunrise and to watch us pull into Salvador, Brazil. It was rainy and stormy in the distance, but it made for beautiful clouds and a unique sunrise!
My usual traveling crew all headed to the Amazon for the week, so for the last port I was with a new group of friends traveling to Rio! I was a little disappointed about not getting to go to the Amazon with them, but I wound up having a great trip and making more friends at the same time. I felt like this port, more than any other, was truly a vacation. We weren’t rushing to see sights or trying to be somewhere at a certain time, it was very relaxed and enjoyable. 
This was the first port I felt truly on my own. No one else had planned the itinerary or arranged any plans for me. It was just 4 other girls and I setting out to explore Brazil! We left for Rio the first afternoon.  We made it safely to our hotel in Copacabana and then had a wonderful dinner at a Churassco, or Brazilian BBQ. I had never been anywhere like this restaurant. There was a huge salad and soup bar and then waiters would come around to your table with enormous pieces of meat on skewers and slice it right onto your plate. They just kept bringing more and more meat! Needles to say, we were stuffed when we left there!

Day 2:
This was our sightseeing day! We began the day by going to Sugarloaf Mountain. We road a cable car up to the top and enjoyed the breath taking view of Rio. It is an absolutely beautiful city! We probably spent close to two hours up there just taking in the views and trying to soak it all up.
Our next stop was Corcovado, or the Christ the Redeemer statue.  Although it was covered in scaffolding and hard to see, it was still cool. It is one of the symbols of Rio and can be seen throughout much of the city. The views from the statue were also spectacular. We were lucky we even got to go up there though, because just days earlier it had been closed because the roads to it were covered in mud from the floods and it had also been struck by lightening!
We spent the rest of the afternoon on Copacabana beach people watching. Be prepared if you ever go to a Brazilian beach. If you think that girls wear skimpy bikinis on the beaches in the states, you haven’t seen anything. But it wasn’t only the girls; all of the guys were wearing Speedos!  If our skin tone and actions weren’t enough, the amount of fabric our swimsuits were made out of made us a dead give away as tourists!
Our final event for the day was a Brazilian Cup fútbol(soccer) game in the world famous Maranaca stadium. Although, the stadium wasn’t full, it was still quite impressive. The fans were as crazy as ever and were more than willing to let us join in on chants, cheers, and waving the flags. We had a blast and truly got to experience something at the heart of Brazilian culture.

Day 3:
Beach day! We went to Leblon, Ipanema, and ended the day back at Copacabana. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the whole day lying in the sun and stolling the beach!  Later that night we flew back to Salvador.

Day 4:
We began the day at the local market but before we made it anywhere else we had to go drop all of our purchases back at the ship!  After a quick refresher at the ship, we headed out to Pelourinho in the upper city. It was a beautiful little area with lots of old, colorful buildings lining the cobblestone streets. We spent a few hours there, shopping around and eating at a café on one of the side streets. I would love to go back there!
In the afternoon we went to Porta da Barra beach, an area in the more “hip” part of Salvador. We walked down the coastline and wound up at the famous lighthouse of Salvador. We spent a few hours sitting in the area surrounding the lighthouse, drinking our new favorite Brazilian soda, Guaranna, and observing the culture around us. This was one of my favorite parts of my whole time in Brazil. I felt like we got to see how real Brazilians live. There were teenagers Samba-ing in the parking lot, coconut milk stands by the beach, and tons of locals coming to watch the sunset. As we watched the sun set over the water, a local was playing his guitar behind us. It felt like a scene out of a movie!

Day 5:
We took a ferry to Itaparica Island, it was about a 45min. ferry ride. Once we got to the island, we went to the other side where the nicer beaches were. The water was calm and extremely clear. It was nice to finally be on a beach not filled with hundreds of people like the ones in Rio. We were able to actually leave our things on the beach while we got in the water. We got lunch at one of the many beachside restaurants and then headed back to the ship.

I really liked Brazil and would love to go back someday!