Weird Food I Have Eaten

So, while Im down here in Brazil, Ive decided to have an open mind about the food I eat. My first encounter with strange food, however, occurred by accident. In Brazil they have restaurants where the charge you per kilo of food you get and it is like a buffet, so one time we went to this per kilo restaurant and I loaded up on some rice and beans and meat, and I didnt look at the sign that said what type of meat I was getting, it wasn't until I finished eating it that my sister decided to tell me it was tongue, so that was a nice surprise, never would have eaten that if I had known what it was, but alas I ate it, and it wasnt so bad. All the other things I have tried have been willingly and knowingly. While in Floripa we went to many churrascas (BBQ's) and one of their favorite things to cook up is chicken hearts, they put about 8 per skewer and grill em up and chow down and tons of chicken hearts, so Ive been trying them each time, and they are tasty, but the idea still kinda freaks me out. Also we had chicken cooked in its own blood, with a lovely blood sauce on it, which again was actually pretty tasty. And while we didn't end up eating this, on Thanksgiving we tried to buy a whole chicken and cook it up, only to realize after we bought it that is still had all its insides AND its head and feet still attached, which was a pleasant surprise, so we just ended up throwing it out and getting some chicken breast instead. Anyways, those are the weirdest things I have eaten so far!

Brazilian Girls

Just wanted to write a little side note about Brazilian girls. They are INCREDIBLY nice, its insane! So right now we are couchsurfing with this guy and he took us to this club where his friend was having his birthday party and there were all these girls there (his friends) and when we arrived they all surrounded us and started talking to us and asking questions and were super nice and then when we tried to get in with our passport copies, the ppl at the club wouldnt let us in, and all the girls were like what the fuck, no this is bullshit, if they cant get in we arent going, so the 13 of us went to a different club. I was just surprised that they would change all their plans for us. And besides this, just our general experience with them has been great! I just think it is interesting because I know girls arent always so nice to other girls they dont know, so its been really refreshing!! Haha anyways random!

So much to say!

After three and a half wonderful weeks in Floripa, we decided it was time to head out! We ended up in Sao Paulo, the 4th largest city in the world. We stayed with our friend we met in Italy one fateful night 5 years ago, and it was spetacular! He had just finished school so he was able to show us around. The first day we went to two different museums, one of them was alright, just the usual artsy stuff but there was a graffiti exhibition that was really cool to see, and the other place we went to was full of crazy cool art from these guys called gemeos, you should check it out on google, type in street art as well, but it was a really awesome display. Then the next day we went to this tower which overlooked the entire city, which was slightly frightening to really see just how big the city was!! We also went to this giant indoor market, which besides the smell of the salted cod, was a fun experience. Then an all you could eat sushi restaurant for dinner, what more could you ask for. Oh and did I forget to mention the pimp apartment we stayed in?? We stayed with his family but his mom and dad were on vacation so it was just us and our friend Ricardo and his bro. We had two maids that cooked us all our meals (Delish) and who washed all our clothes and ironed and folded it all (she even folded my underwear) Which was such a luxury considering we have been washing our stuff in sinks (with cold water) and hang drying it, which wasnt really cleaning it at all!
So after two days in Sao Paulo we headed out to Ilha Bela where Ricardos family has house and it was also incredible. We spent our days relaxing in hammocks or on the beach (When weather permited) or cruising around the island on a boat blasting Black Eyed Peas (Mind you, seeing a 24 year old Brailian man singing all of Fergies words to My Humps is quite the site) We also hung out with a world class sailor, hes won a bunch of competitions and olympic stuff, anyways he took us to his friends houses. OMG these houses belonged in the poshest of neighborhoods in CA. There were two borthers and one had the house on the left the other the right, and their houses had huge balconies and all the walls were all windows and the view was amazing!! And in between their houses was their pool that cascaded over the deck and their own personal sauna, my dream house for sure!! Ricardos friends came out to the house and we all just partied and had amazing BBQs where they grilled shrimp and TONS of squid and FAT pieces of meat, which was absolutely delicious! All in all our time with Ricardo was unforgettable and incredible!
Now we are in Parati which technically should be really pretty but the rain has been unbearable! Our room in our hostel flooded and got all of our shit wet, ruined one of my dreses, destroyed a book we had just bought and it was just terrible, but the hostel didnt make us pay for our drinks and moved us to our own private room, which helped, but oh man I was pissed. And thanks to this wonderful weather, the beautiful beaches havent been so beautiful. We made it out to this place called Trindade and trekked through the jungle to get to these natural swimming pools, and it was so worth it because they were beautiful! Then it started pouring again, rain worse than I hae even seen in Seattle. All the rivers in Sao Paulo have overflowed and the city is flooding because there is so much rain, so we are trying to get as north as we can without missing too many beautiful places we wanted to go, but they are all beaches so with all this rain, we cant really do anything, which sucks. In Salvador where we started our trip, it has been sunny pretty much everyday since we left, and for the last month its been mostly cloudy or rainy, with only a few sunny days, so for those of you that thought it was always sunny here, its not!!
Anyways we are off to Rio de Janeiro, should be crazy!!! Sorry for the long post :)

Floripa

So we have officially spent a week in Florianopolis, and I cannot get enough of it, its so great!! Its an island (A pretty big one) and it has 42 beaches, I don't know quite what they define as "1" beach, but we have only seen a few and they are absolutely gorgeous!! Unfortunately we had to spend one night in a hostel, as our couchsurfing plans fell through, but we ended up going to a bar and we met some canadians and went to a Forro (Type of Brazilian dance) club and Steph thought she lost me and had a panic attack (I went outside to get some fresh air for no more than ten minutes) and I was in a really obvious place, anyways, she found me, punched me and was in hysterics for a solid hour after that because she thought I had been stolen, oh geez, drama, but it was fun and some boy with a nose piercing was showing me how to dance, which I think I sort of succeeded at! Anyways, more exciting things, We went to a Brazilian rock and roll concert that was at this bar and it was super fun, The band was called "Velhas Virgems" Which means olds virgins, and beforehand the boys we were with kept telling us how we were going to learn all the bad words in their language with this music. For example, one of the songs roughly said "You've got what we want, PUSSY" And everyone puts there hands in the air and signal the vagina sign, really funny. Another song was called "No one kisses like a lesbian" I dunno, it was crazy and a lot of fun! Then on Thursday we went to this super chic, cool club and it was hip hop night and I had my special birthday dress we bought just for the occasion, silver sequins, coolest dress of my life!! And we danced the night away and had an awesome time. Here are some pics!

Back to the Beach

We are finally back to the beach, and it feels gooood! After spending 10 days inland, sweating soooo much, it feels good to have the breeze of the ocean, and Florianopolis (where we are now) is BEAUTIFUL!! There are beaches everywhere and its sunny and wonderful! Last night we went to a college party!! haha sooo funny. It is on the campus and they sell beer ($1 per beer, super cheap, just like everything here)and have drinking competitions with this weird contraption and there are speakers and a dj, it was a weird but interesting experience. Also, the people here actually dance, its not just bump and grind, the dj plays music and they all dance a real dance to it, but the music was very polka and country sounding, not my favorite. A guy came up to me and told me to go ask the dj to change the music because he said it was shit, which I kinda agree, but they wouldnt change it. I got sunburned yesterday because we fell asleep on the beach for an unknown amount of time, whoops, no beach for me today!! We have been couchsurfing for over a week now and it has been awesome, there is no other way to travel!! We get to stay with brazilians who show us around, are eager to show us a good time and tell us all about their city and are super helpful. In a hostel you just meet foreigners and you never really get to know the city or its people, so this has been super awesome!! Even if it cost money I would couchsurf, I highly recomend it. Funny note on the food, the other day I had avocado ice cream, really good!! We also had cheese and guava (together) ice cream (Which cheese and guava is REALLY popular, and as a pastry its delicious but as ice cream it was a bit weird) We also had roasted ice cream, they put this marshmallow deliciousness on top of the ice cream and roast the top, its soooo good. Another cool thing is the moto taxis, they are everywhere. When we were in Bonito we took them to some of the places. We hired them for the whole day, they wait for you for hours at the place where you are (really strange here, they have drivers for everything) and then take you back and its super cheap, like a personal chauffer (sp?) It also very exciting because you are cruising down a gravel road with giant bumps and potholes holding on for dear life, so that was fun and exciting!! This is kinda a random post, but these were things I remembered. Enjoy!

Bonito!! Que Bonito!!

Bonito has been INCREDIBLE!! Best place of my life, every day we have done something amazing, it’s hard to believe this is my life. Our first real day here we snorkeled down this freshwater river with all these fish and it was a river through the jungle so we got to see monkeys right over us. Then the next day (Halloween) we went to this cave place that has the most amazing blue water I have ever seen, and it was so beautiful (Pics on FB) and then we went intertubing (SP?) down this river which was like the ride at wildwaves but way cooler!! Then we did this over the forest tour at night which was sooo exciting. They have an obstacle course type thing that is above the trees and you are harnessed onto the cables and they have this one where there is a net and you are supposed to jump for it, which I did, but Steph chickened out and just climbed across it. But it was super loud in the forest with all the creatures making noise, a very exciting way to spend Halloween. Then at the end, we got to zip-line super far and it was so scary and exciting, and then after that the next zip-line went into the river!! So that was the end of that tour, but Steph didn’t do the last zip-line because she is a baby. Then on Monday we went repelling 235 feet down into this cave! WOW, I have never done anything like this before and it was so incredible. Repelling down took a few minutes, it wasn’t too scary. Then we got to snorkel around and see all the underwater formations, the water was FREEZING, we had to wear full body wet suits! It was so beautiful and amazing, the guidebooks say it is like a trip to middle earth!! Getting out of the cave had its difficulties though, Steph was shitting her pants she was so scared and we were connected so I kept having to wait for her, and I was getting soooo exhausted, pulling yourself up 235 feet is HARD work, by the end I was shaking and could barely walk, hehe I know Im weak. I have bruises on my legs and ankles from the equipment, but it was soooo worth it!!!

The Pantanal

The Pantanal was a really fun four days. Steph and I considered camping at first because the people said you see more animals, well thank god we didn’t, being in our room was wilderness enough for us!! The bugs and birds never shut up, sleeping was always a challenge, we could never sleep past 5 or 6 in the morning because of it. The first thing that happened was me getting stung by a wasp, within 5 minutes of being there, SO PAINFUL, it didn’t stop itching or bothering me for 9 days, yuck! We got to see caiman (alligators), lots of capybara (largest rodent), tons of birds, piranhas and catfish and more. We didn’t see a jaguar, but since they are super rare, we weren’t surprised. It was funny because one night I had a dream that there was a frog in our room when we came back at night and so the next night we were coming back from dinner and I was telling my sister this dream as we were opening the door and the second I finish my sentence I look and there is a freaking FROG in our room! My dream totally came true, it was so spooky. We had a really nice guide that took us on our tours and our first day there we went on a boat tour down the river and we got to see the sunset over the river which was really beautiful. Then the next day we got to fish for piranhas and we both caught two! Then we did another boat tour to a different river and swam around, luckily we didn’t get eaten by piranhas or anacondas! Then the next day we got to go to this farm and we went horseback riding around and saw the Blue Hyacinth Macaw (which our guide said there are only 5,000 left, really sad) And we also went on a walk around the area by the farm, which was fun. Then on our last day we were supposed to do a sunset walk, but it had rained really hard the night before and it was cloudy in the morning, but our guide was super nice and instead he gave us henna tattoos (We found the tree with the fruit that they use to do this and he just cut it in half and mashed it up and gave us tattoos) All in all it was great!!

Some cultural differences...

Another thing I noticed here is how age is of little importance. Everyone is friends with everyone, I see 12 year olds hanging out with 18 year olds (mind you, in Brazil, for me, it is really hard to judge ppls age and I have been tricked many atimes) But also when it comes to romantic situations, I’ve been hit on by a 12 year old and a 70 year old, and while I’m sure they know they have no chance, it doesn’t stop them from trying, nor is it creepy (for them, for me it is!). I had this thirty year old who really liked me and I kept saying no dude you are way too old, and he didn’t understand. So that is definitely different from America. Also, they think tan lines are super sexy, their version of playboy Photoshops tan lines onto the girls cuz thats what the boys prefer!

The beaches!

So on the beach the sell pretty much everything you can imagine: bathing suits, sarongs, jewelry, beer, coconuts, grilled cheese, shrimp and even massages!! So my sister and I tried out the massage (Hey it was only 5 bucks for a 45 minute massage on the beach, how could we refuse) Well he starts going to town on my sister, and a crowd starts to gather on the sidewalk above the beach, about 6 kids who I am sure were all thinking this is their dream job when they grow up because he is massaging near and around her butt and she is in her teeny bikini. Anyways, morale of this story, he should pay us for the massage considering how much up in our business he gets. He even went so far us to unwedge my bathing suit for me with both hands under my bikini, yikes! He was really nice and 23 and relatively attractive, and he claimed he studied massage in Thailand or something, but still, by the end I felt a little violated. And when I told him I only wanted a back massage he kept explaining how if he only did my back then my legs would hurt later, which is total BS because I saw him massaging only the legs of one girl, sooo really he just wanted to get all up in our grill.

From the Beginning!

Hey guys, so this is gonna be a bit long, so if you don’t mind, you can bear with me. So far everything here has been absolutely amazing. Even days and nights where not much happens are fun! Most nights in Salvador my sister and I would just go to a bar down the street, grab a cold beer (which is SO amazing on a hot night), and practice our Portuguese. Everything here is just so relaxing. But now on to some interesting/funny stories (I hope). So one night our host sister invited us to go to a Forro show (Style of dance and music) with her and her bf and her cousin. The cousin taught my sister and I how to dance, and we took turns. It was pretty difficult moving my feet, considering how little dancing Ive done in my life like this. Anyways, some random guy comes up to ask me to dance, and I tell him (In Portuguese) no thanks, im waiting for my hamburger and he keeps trying to convince me but I held my ground (he was old and had bad breath). Later he comes up to me to get me to dance again and I turn around and pretend Im dancing with the cousin who was right next to me, which is totally something I would do in America in this situation, but here it DOESN’T fly! He came up to me later and started yelling at me about how I needed to show some respect and he was lecturing me and I said sorry like three times and he kept being like NO, NO RESPEITO, like respect this respect that and I just got super flustered and turned around and started crying, so then the boyfriend and the cousin and my sister stepped in and told him he was an asshole and needed to leave me alone. Everyone was really nice about this situation, even though it was very embarrassing to cry in front of everyone. Lesson Learned: In Brazil, you do not tell people you don’t wanna dance with them, you don’t want to go out with them etc, you HAVE to have an excuse, no exceptions, otherwise they get extremely offended. You cannot say no I don’t want to or no I’m not interested, it is extremely frowned upon, here you say “Tenho um comprimisso” you have other plans, and even if you see the person out, or you dance with someone else, the lie is better than the truth, it does not bother them to see you dance with someone after you just told them you were tired or busy!!