Brazil Pics

Just a few pics from our Brazil trip!!

Final Brazil Blogs

These are our last few blogs from the Brazil trip. 

Wednesday Day 6

Today began with an hour long transfer from Paraty to a port where the team boarded a boat that brought us to our private island, Illa Grande. On the way there, we learned that this island used to be a prison similar to Alcatraz. Soon after arriving we enjoyed a freshly prepared buffet of traditional Brazilian food; it was delicious! After refueling, we hopped back on the boat which took us to a different part of the island to enjoy a quick swim and a 50 minute rigorous hike through the jungle back to our resort. Unfortunately, after a beautiful morning of sun,  our hike ended with an afternoon storm. However, this weather didn't stop us from kayaking and swimming in the ocean to cool off.  Soon, after some down time to freshen up, we enjoyed another meal including rice, vegetables, breaded beef, and fish.  Kito, a friendly staff member and hike tour guide, taught the team many different styles of classic and modern dances which we really enjoyed !! After a few hours of lessons, the night wound down with a last dip in the ocean and the perfect company of teammates and our new Brazilian hotel hosts.

Thursday Day 7

We started the day at 8am with a  delicious breakfast that included scrambled eggs, meat, and bread. The weather was a little cloudy but there was no rain which put us all in great moods because with no rain we got to go on the boat and visit beaches and snorkel in the ocean. During the boat ride to the first beach we soaked up the bright sun peeking through the clouds. When we got to the beach we were happy to see the sun was out to stay! We really enjoyed laying out, taking pictures, and snorkling in the shallow water. The view of the surrounding islands and ocean was indescribable.  The water was pretty clear but still a little cloudy because of the rain from the previous couple days. The few of us that went snorkeling saw some fish and got cool seashells. We took a ton of pictures of everyone as we knew it was our last full day in Brazil together. After we were satisfied with our tans (or burns) we decided to skip lunch in favor of  a snorkeling excursion and visiting another beach. We traveled on the boat close to two small islands and anchored near them. With Kito as our leader, in two parties we snorkeled around the island coasts and in between the small islands. Kito went first to check if everything was safe. Once he gave us the clear we went and snorkeled around and in between the islands. The water was pretty shallow near the islands so it was easy to see the colorful fish and reefs despite the water not being as clear as it could be. The snorkeling excursion was agreed to be one of the best things we did while on the island. While one party went snorkeling the other enjoyed being in the water and relaxing on the boat. When we were finished we boated to the next beach. We anchored close to the beach and were able to walk to the beach in only waist deep water. The beach was smaller than the other but the view was still amazing. The locals' friendly dogs kept us company as we walked along the beach looking at the hundreds of shells washed up on shore. Dani and Cassi found huge whole sand dollars. Dani also managed to find a starfish among the seashells. After some relaxing and pictures we walked back to the boat and headed to the resort. It started raining as we got close to the resort but it didn't put any of us down since we had the whole afternoon in the sun. When we got back we showered and got ready for our goodbye BBQ dinner. We started with some potatoes with a delicious butter/cheese topping that we all enjoyed. That was followed by grilled fish, sausage, ribs, squid, and bread. It was easily our favorite meal of the trip! After multiple helpings of everything we all still managed to find room for the chocolate pudding cake for desert. After dinner Patrick and Fernando joined the team for a game called Catch Phrase that Robin brought. The game is very similar to Taboo. We all had a lot of fun as we played 3 rounds of the game. After we were done Fernando sang a song he wrote when he was younger as he played the guitar. It was a beautiful song and by the end we were singing along. Kito took the guitar next and played Hey Soul Sister by Train and let us sing it. He sang a few more songs in Portuguese as we hummed along. Afterwards we cleared the floor to dance to our favorite songs we learned over the trip one last time. We danced and had fun well into the night ending with a small bonfire on the resort's beach. It was surely a great way to end our time on the island and our last full day of this unforgettable trip."

Final Day

As we finished up our AMAZING trip to Brazil, our last stop was in Rio de Janeiro. We left the beautiful island of Ilha Grande and made our way to Rio. Once in Rio, we drove past Sugar Loaf Mountain, where cable cars took groups of people up to the top of the mountain to over look the city. We were unfortunately unable to visit Sugar Loaf due to time constraints. As we drove through the city, Fernando pointed out a couple hotels where famous actors and actresses such as Beyonce, Vin Diesel, and Justin Bieber stayed. After awhile, we decided to take a walk through the city to get to two of the most famous beaches in Rio, Copacabana and Ipanema Beach. As we were walking through the city, the sidewalks had amazing black and white swirling designs to it. When we arrived to Copacabana Beach, there were many sights that we, as Americans, were not used to seeing at a beach. All the men were walking around in Speedos while the women were wearing the infamous Brazilian bikinis. Once again, that was a culture shock to many of us but as with everything else, we just accepted it and continued on with our sightseeing. There were vendors everywhere we turned trying to sell us one thing or another. A few of us bought some bracelets, necklaces, and sunglasses from them. There were also very intricate but huge sand castles that were put on display for people to look at and take pictures. After we had a nice walk by the beach, we were all starving and ready for lunch. Little did we know what type of lunch was awaiting us! We went to a Brazilian steakhouse, which had a buffet. We thought that the buffet had a vast amount of different food, but little did we know that there were going to be many servers walking around cutting unlimited slices of steak, beef, chicken, and fish. Needless to say, it was a great meal! After lunch we continued to drive through the city on our way to the Christ statue. Once we got there, we shopped around a little bit buying souvenirs for our families and friends. We did not have enough time to walk up the mountain to the statue, so we took a trolley car to the top. The Christ statue was an absolutely amazing and breathtaking experience and sight to see. The view of the city from up there was also unbelievable. We could see the soccer stadium where the world cup is going to be held in 2014. We only had about 45 minutes at the Christ statue, and after that it was back to the bus to head to the airport. We said our tearful good-byes to Fernando, and boarded our flight back to the United States. Overall, we all had the time of our lives, and could not have asked for a better trip. It truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity, with new memories and friendships made, that none of us will ever forget. And the graduating seniors could not have asked for a better way to end there four years at Penn State Behrend!

More Brazil updates

Sorry for the delay, we had a hard time with the wi-fi in Brazil.
This blog is about our first day in Paraty:

Monday May 14

After an adventurous three nights in the mountains, we traveled to the city of Paraty with an early morning wakeup call at 4 am due to the 5 hour drive ahead of us. The drive was through the windy and bumpy mountains. There was legitimately a speed bump every 200 meters. It was a bit rough, but we made it to the city rather tired around 11 am on Monday morning. After arriving to our hotel, Pousada da Corsario we unpacked our things and walked to get lunch at a local buffet in the center of the city,  with an assortment of Brazilian foods such as; chicken hearts, fish, chicken, pasta, and an assortment of delicious fruits.  We were in for a culture shock when we were told we cannot flush toilette paper down the toilet.

 The food this time was familiar after being in the country for three days. We finished lunch and came back to the hotel to relax for a bit before touring the historic square of Paraty that can only be accessed by foot or horse carriage (which we did not have). Walking around was an adventure in itself because the city was built in the 1800s and the streets are still in their original state that consisted of large waterfall boulders that are filled in with sand.  This, mixed with downpour rains made for an interesting time when it came time to go on our historic town tour.  Between having pop quizzes on historical happenings (clearly we didn’t pay attention in our history classes) and focusing on not twisting our ankles between rocks, to dodging piles of dog and horse mess and suffering from hypothermia, we did manage to learn a few things about Paraty.  We learned that Brazil was not a significant piece of land until its natural resources were minded such as gold, sugar cane, rare stones, and diamonds.  Portugal was  the first to claim this land, hence why they speak Portuguese (which we are slowly learning along the way).  Specifically, Paraty is a harbor city used for trading and exporting resources.  The town was lined with one-story  buildings that had beautifully  colored doors and windows.  The interesting thing about this town is that is it flooded for half the year.  The town was specially designed to accommodate the high tides.  Once the tour was over, we stopped at a few stores to see what Paraty had to offer the American tourists.  After we were completely soaked we came back to change into some dry clothes.  We then proceeded to go to our first dinner in the city.  We were surprised when we had to pick a “date” for dinner because the entrees were made to specifically feed two people.  We were entertained when a local street vendor came into the restaurant and made all of us flowers from palms.  Once dinner ended, we enjoyed the live band that brought out the Brazilian dancers in us all in the restaurant Paraty 33.  Since we had our Samba lessons, we thought we knew all there was to know about dancing.  Fernando even showed us a few new moves that had us falling out of our seats laughing.   He is a really good dancer and enjoyed showing us the dances he knew.  After a night full of laughter and memories, we walked back to our hotel for our first night’s sleep in a Brazilian city.

Tuesday, May 15th

Waking up in our new location at Paraty, we arose to eggs, fresh fruit, sausage, and many more recognizable to us as group.  Our next adventure was a boat excursion that consisted of seeing many islands and diving off our boat, St. Francis.  Although the weather was a bit muggy, cold, and raining it did not stop us from having a memorable time.  Lots of pictures were snapped as we explored Paraty by water.  The excursion took a couple hours and when we returned to land many of us did souvenir shopping and bought memorable items to take home with us.  Later that evening, we brought out one of our nicer outfits and had our best meal yet.  After our dinner we managed to find room in our stomachs for ice cream.  There were an array of flavors and toppings for us to choose from.  Many of us made mixtures of multiple flavors and toppings that topped off our meal for the night.  After ice cream we explored the city night life for a short time and then ended up coming back to our resort to bond around the pool area.  Closing our night by going to our separate rooms and hoping for a good night sleep.  We are also praying for warmer and drier weather for our next adventure on our private island.

First things first…Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms! We didn’t forget you, the wifi is just a little unreliable here. 

Day 4.

We woke up this morning all a little sore and tired from our game. We went down to the hotel breakfast early so that we would have time to go horseback riding before the rest of the day’s activities. After breakfast, while we were waiting for the horses, we all participated in a bit of Brazilian style sledding on the front lawn of the resort. A few of the children showed us how it was done…Find a piece of cardboard, sit on it, have someone give you a push! It was fun!...and a lot faster than you might think. Even Patrick gave it a go. Soon the horses were ready for us and we walked to a nearby farm to meet them. The Brazilian cowboy and his family opened their home to us as groups of us took turns riding horses on the mountain trails. The views were truly amazing…even better on horseback. While we were waiting our turns to ride we played with the family’s seven dogs and got to taste some of their delicious homegrown fruits. After we all finished riding we got on our bus and traveled to another farm farther away in the mountains. Fernando helped explain the history of sugar cane and coffee in Brazil. We then used the farm’s sugar cane “juicer”. One of us fed a sugar cane into the machine while several others pushed on the two outside arms, turning the machine and extracting the sugary juice for us all to try…very sweet. We also got to taste fresh coffee beans and see the old –fashioned process of drying, peeling, roasting, and grinding the beans. Finally, we bought several things from the farm’s small store and returned back to the resort for some brief downtime. Next on our day’s busy schedule was a samba demonstration/lesson. Two local bands came to the resort and led us in Brazil’s famous dance. The bands even sang some of our new favorite songs including… chuuuu chaaaa chu cha cha, teaching us some new dance moves. We wanted to spend more time with the bands but it was time to go to our game in town… at the same field where we held the clinic on Day 2. We could tell immediately that this team was going to be a bigger challenge than the previous day, but we were ready for it. Kaitlyn scored the first goal in the first half of the game but the other team was able to tie it us by halftime. In the second half, we became more and more frustrated with the difference in the styles of play between Brazilian and American futbol. The referees called fouls for minimal contact. However, we kept fighting and Julia scored off a free kick to put us in the lead. We held them for the rest of the game, even defending a PK to mark an undefeated season in Brazil! After the game, we exchanged T-shirts for colorful ribbons, which Fernando explained were to tie around your wrist three times making three wishes. Once the ribbon breaks, your wishes come true! We got several pictures with the team and many of us gave our cleats, shin guards, and even sweaty socks to eager played and kids. We then made our way back to the resort for pizza and a relaxing night.

Day 1 Thursday may 10

We showed up at Pittsburgh airport taking pictures from the get because we were so excited. We waited 3 hours and boarded our 45 minute flight to Detroit. Our layover was four hours so we had some time to pass. We danced for cancer for relay for life and it was a wonderful time and a good cause! (Rachel got it on video) Our flight left at 745 p.m and we were in for a long ride. We all got a rough nights sleep so we were a little tired whenever we arrived in Sao Paulo.

Day 2 Friday may 11

Our morning began around 8 am whenever we landed in Sao Paulo. At the airport was our tour guide Fernando who has brought forth an amazing time thus far. This was the first time we realized it was going to be very hard to adapt to their culture whenever we couldn't figure out what the bano was. Luckily Fernando is fluent in English and in Portuguese. We then took a three hour bus ride to our resort in the mountains of Sao Bento. We ran into the basketball team there which was nice to see familiar faces in a foreign land. Our resort is gorgeous and is literally the rolling hills of Brazil. Then we were on to culture shock. Fernando took us to lunch at taipa restaurante where there was a buffet of chicken hearts. Multiple of us had a hard time keeping the food down, it was kinda like an episode of fear factor. Then we explored the town of which we are staying and fortunately took a tour of an elementary school with children in first and second grade. It was hard to translate with the students as they were only beginning to learn English (we went into an English class). It was a beautiful day so we laid out by our pool at the resort and spent some good time together. On our way to the clinic we put on at 6 we stopped at the grocery store. It was so hard to find food because everything was in Portuguese and we couldn't understand. We bought Doritos and ruffles because it was the only recognizable food label. After that we went to a field where we met about 75 local boys who were very good at soccer! We held a clinic for them where there were three different stations and we interacted one on one with them. We played head/catch (Cabasa/pega) .. The cross bar game and small sided games. We gave away tshirts to the winners and then played a huge game, us verses 50. It was so fun but they crushed us! Afterwards Fernando took us to sabor de serra restaurante which was a fancy pizza place. We had soup and local favorite pizza like margarita and Portuguese pizza. The portuguese pizza had ham, eggs, onion and tomato. Most of us really enjoyed the food compared to our lunch. We were so tired but Fernando said there was a party going on up the street similar to a St. Patrick's day party so obviously we went. It was a festival for the saint of impossible causes, Santo Expedito - Fernando suggested we pray to him to help him find a wife! The party began when a local wedding ended. The wedding took place at the center of the festival. The doors were open for everyone to see the beautiful bride. The music was provided by a Brazilian country artists. We sang choooo chaaaa choo cha cha cha choo cha cha cha. Everyone is so dang nice they were all teaching is how to dance! An enthusiastic local led all of us in a little rock n roll. Many people asked to take pictures with us because the country music singer announced in Portuguese (so we had no idea) that they had the U.S. national women's soccer team with them tonight. This was only the beginning of us feeling incredibly famous in Brazil. We decided to call it a night soon after because we were all exhausted. The stars in the mountains were indescribable.

Day 3 Saturday may 12

After a great nights sleep, we woke up and went to breakfast at 10am. There was a large array of fresh fruit, pastries, juices, and eggs with bacon made specially for us. Our favorite foods were papaya, coffee, and banana bread. As you can see we are very Americanized, but that is not stopping us from trying new things. After breakfast we went for a hike through the beautiful mountain trail. This also included a scavenger hunt that the basketball team left for us. We had an excellent view of the entire town including all the places we were the day before from this trail. We ran back to our rooms to change for our game against a team who was made up of the best players from the region of Santa Rita Do Sapucai. It was about an hour and a half bus ride to this city, where along the way we saw beautiful rolling hills and other great scenery. Once arriving at the stadium, we took a tour of Electronic Valley. This is similar to a 2 year tech school over in the US. At this school they specialized in different types of electronics, such as GPS's and Iphones. After the tour of the tech school we entered the stadium where everybody was staring at us. Fernando explained to us that we were kind of a big deal here because it is not often that they see American athletes. The locker room was even different from the ones we are used to. When we walked out onto the field we passed a car in the middle blasting music, which was meant to be their stereo system. All of the players and fans wanted pictures before, during, and after the game. We walked out to start the game behind our American flag while they walked out behind their Brazilian flag. They played both countries national anthem. We were really nervous at this point due to the fact that we had no idea what we were up against. We ended up having the skill level and athleticism way higher than theirs, and we won the game 4-0. After the game we were treated like we just won the World Cup. We exchanged shirts with the opposing team, gave autographs and took hundreds of pictures for them. People were even asking for our sweaty shin guards and hair bands. It was to the point were Fernando had to escort us off of the field. The team was very welcoming and nice, they even asked us to go to dinner with them. At dinner they served the typical Brazilian meal of rice, beans, and breaded meat. It actually was really good. There was a reporter there to interview some of us, which was funny to try to figure out what he was saying. We took more pictures and signed more autographs before leaving the restaurant. After the ride back to our resort, we are planning on relaxing in the hot tub and enjoying each others company.