A little bit about the language—It is surprisingly very easy to get by with knowing spanish in understanding portuguese, but it is very difficult to speak. The roots of their words are very similar to spanish and sometimes look the exact same—but the pronunciation is totally different. For example, the phrase we ended up saying all of the time was Bon Dia (which, to you spanish speakers may look like it would be pronounced bone dee-ah, but is actually pronounced “bome gee-ah”... also its funny because brazilians all talk with their hands and sort of have an italian-like accent so if you can picture it they go BON DI-A! Also they say OI! (oy!) as hello so that was easy enough. It’s also funny because if someone hears you say Rio de Janeiro they will laugh and know that you are a tourist—since in portuguese it is pronounced “Hee-oo geeh- jah-nehiero”!  likewise their currency (the real) is pronounced the “hey-au”. It is such a difficult language but we learned a lot of easy phrases to say-- despite some words pronunciation being just impossible! 

We docked early in the morning on our first day in Salvador and were excited by the sunny warm weather that looked perfect. We got all through with customs and immigration pretty early and headed out with a couple of our friends into the streets of Salvador. We had been warned all about the danger of brazil, yada yada yada, but we had been warned about that everywhere. And, after traveling for four months, we have finally realized that the world is dangerous- and if that stops you from traveling or living then you have a way bigger problem than being mugged! We were completely safe our entire time in Brazil and not once did I feel unsafe (yes, even in Rio!) I think that some countries get such a bad rap (like South Africa) when in reality, if you are smart and cautious, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I am sure that foreigners freak out about New York City’s dangerous reputation as well, but, like anywhere you just have to stay in the right places and take the necessary precautions.   Anyways, the city of Salvador is beautiful! It is a big city, with a rich and vibrant history (it is where the slave trade from Africa would drop off their slaves to work in the cocoa plantations in Brazil) so it has a large African-Brazilian population and everything is vibrant and colorful. Every building is a different color, creating a gorgeous backdrop to this city.  There are two parts to where we were docked, the “lower” city and the “upper” city. It’s cool because you take an elevator from the lower city up to Pelirinho (the upper city) and up there you get a beautiful view of the harbor and the water and the streets are soooo cute up there—full of those bright colorful buildings side by side and cute cafés and beautiful ornate churches. We didn’t have much time up there that first day, since we had a flight to catch in the afternoon so we had some lunch with Cara at a cute café and got our first flavor of the amazing brazilian food. I also got an awesome Acai berry smoothie which was delicious—acai berries are indigenous to Brazil and are coveted in the country—everyone sips on fresh acai juice every day (there are soooo many juice bars on every corner) Trevor and Cara got guaranas- which is a delicious brazilian soda made from guarana (an exotic fruit) and the soda is sooo good and so unique- its impossible to explain but its really really good!

After lunch we were ready to head back to the ship to get ready for the airport, but when we stepped outside we realized it was POURING rain. Confused since when we walked into the cafe it had been super sunny, we figured the heck with it and ran out into the pouring warm rain, drenching ourselves in the process. It was really fun and our first real taste of tropical brazil (rio is further south so this weather is really more typical of Salvador and further west into the Amazon).. we were completely and totally drenched by the time we got back to the ship but it was so much fun we didnt care. We took showers, got dry and got ready to head to the airport for our flight to Rio!!!!

The Salvador airport was beautiful and our flight was an easy two hours until we arrived to our next destination—i cannot tell you my excitement when the stuardess (in portuguese) welcomed us to RIO DE JANEIRO. It was nighttime when we got in, so we made our way to our hotel and got rested and organized for our three days in Rio ahead!

Day two: Copacabana, Santa Theresa, and Porcao Rio’s!

We woke up to a gorgeous sunny day on Copacabana beach on the morning of our second day in Rio. I got up earlier than trev so i went up to the rooftop gym and worked out for a little with a beautiful view of copacabana in the background. It was such a sunny day and I couldn’t wait another second to get out onto the beach! So i woke trev up and we headed out to breakfast before walking the long ten steps to Copacabana beach. It was a thursday, yet there were TONS of people packed on the beach all day. This is what is so awesome about Rio—life is so much fun, they had a national holiday (one of twenty six national holidays the country recognizes as days off) and, usually following holidays, people just take the rest of the week off! So there were tons of families playing on the beach all day and trevor and I were in heaven laying in the sun working on our brazilian tans.  Also one of the best things about beaches in Brazil is the water—it is a beautiful emerald blueish green color and it is soooo warm like the carribbean but with California-style waves.. so needless to say we spent essentially all day in the waves playing around!  In the late afternoon we finally decided it was time to shower up and get ready for dinner. We had heard about the most famous and best Brazilian barbecue place in Rio so we made reservations for 7:30 and were so excited about it… but we were still early and my mom had texted me earlier about how she was reading in this magazine about how the Hotel Santa Theresa in Rio had the best bar to watch the sunset in the whole city—so we figured why not head there for the couple of hours until our reservation! The taxi driver didn’t know exactly where the hotel was, so he said he would take us to Santa Theresa and we could find the hotel from there… we figured whatever and went with the flow—we had no idea where the taxicab was taking us! But it was a beautiful drive and we were somewhere in the center of the city and he started driving up all of these beautiful cobblestone hilly windy roads that were like a district of San Francisco mixed with a gorgeous cobblestone windy street of Italy.  The cab driver let us off on a random street and we got out, excited to walk around  with no idea where we were going, but we had the intention of finding that hotel so we walked up the hill, doing some shopping in adorable boutiques along the way, and watching the famous santa theresa cable car go up the hill. It is such a lovely district, and we had so much fun strolling around. We eventually (surprisingly!) found the hotel santa theresa- which was tucked into the hills in a gorgeous location with a view of Rio’s coastline. It was beyond perfect timing- as the sun was beginning to set right as we got there (just like how the article said to go there at sunset!) So we sat at the chic outdoor bar and ordered capirinhas to enjoy while watching the sun beautifully go down over the hills of Rio. Capirinhas are the drink of choice in Rio and in all of Brazil—you can always see people sipping on them by the beach, in any cafe or restaraunt, or even just on the streets! They are a yummy concoction of pureed fresh fruits, crushed ice, vodka and sugar. Trevor got one with passion fruit, pineapple, and mango and i got a red berry one with blackberries, raspberries, and acai berries! They were delicious and the setting was beautiful as we watched the sun go down. We then went out to the street and hailed a cab to take us to Porcao Rio’s—the awesome steakhouse we had been awaiting all day! We walked in and were stunned. The restaraunt is huge  and they attempted to explain to us how it worked... we managed to understand their portuguese and were so excited. Basically they give you this funny little circular coaster that on one side is green and says “SIM, POR FAVOR” and the other side is red and says “NOM, POR FAVOR!” basically you go put the side you want up and they will keep bringing you more meat until you switch it to the red side! There is also this giant “salad bar” which is really more a huge buffet of salad, seafood, oysters, sushi, breads and cheeses and fruits and everything—the salad bar in itself was delicious, but about a second after we came back with our full salad plates they were already arriving at our table with huge things of meat for us to gaze at. It’s a set price, so you can truly have all of the amazing meat you want- Of course you can’t say no- as every single cut of brazilian meat is the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted.. so we kept tasting everything--- filet mignon, lamb chops, sirloin, etc etc and then our two favorites of the night—this delicious fresh salmon with a passion fruit sauce (it was sooo good) and the most amazing barbecue pork ribs that we had ever tasted. There was one waiter in particular who we really liked and he was so funny—it seems that each of the waiters has their particular meat or seafood and they walk around with it every ten minutes or so, so it was funny when we would say no to this guy because he was the chicken hearts guy (chicken hearts are some people’s favorites—one guy at the table next to us had like 40!) and I gave him this funny disgusted naaah face and he copied it and was like “yuck!” and told us not to have it, wait for the filet mignon right! He was funny and he was learning English (he is the one in the picture with Trevor) so it was fun to talk to him (and we got to tell him to bring back our favorite barbecue ribs!) we also got these amazing cheese empenadas to enjoy with the meal, as well as the most delicious fried bananas with  a brazilian salsa—we know it sounds weird but it was SO good!   All in all we were beyond stuffed by the end of the night, Trevor was in awe at the barbecue ribs that he said were the best he had ever tasted—and the dinner was definitely the very best of the entire trip ---we are so happy we had found Porcao Rio’s!

We did not know what to expect when arriving in the port of Accra, Ghana.  It was hot, of course, as we had rounded the bottom of Africa and had traveled up the atlantic coast slightly past the equator and into the Ivory Coast where Ghana is.  We were informed that in order to get to the nation’s capital, Accra, from the town where we were docked (Tema) it would be about a 45 minute drive. This drive was not long because it was far, as the towns really are quite close together, but rather the quality of the roads are so poor that it takes extremely long to get anywhere. We had decided with our friends Jose and Melinda that we would all stay the first night in a hotel in Accra so that we could relax and not have to worry about making our way to and from the port, plus we were planning on a long day trip out to the rainforest for the following day together so we figured this would be the best way to do it.  We joined with some other friends, Thomas from Kansas but he goes to UVA, Julianne from Ithaca, and Lindsay from Gonzaga and we all got a van to take us all the way to our hotel in Accra. The ride was really fun, as I asked the driver and his friend up front to put in a tape of their favorite Ghanaian music, to which we all started dancing to the whole ride over. The night before port we always have this cultural pre-port where they basically get us ready for port.. at pre-port the night before one of the inter-port students from Ghana taught us a couple Ghanaian dance moves which we definitely used many times throughout our four days in Ghana! One move that they all do is called the kangaroo- where you move your hands in kind of an Egyptian dance kind of way and hop from side to side.. the other one is the “old man boogie” which is also very funny.. 

We arrived at our hotel (the Golden Tulip) about a half hour later and didn’t see much else around. Call us naïve, but we did think that there would be some sort of city center or downtown area, or something. Needless to say, our hotel was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. At least not near anything you could walk to. They looked at us like we were crazy when we asked if there was anything within walking distance and they told us we could get a cab anywhere but there’s nothing to walk to. Our hotel, however, despite not being around anything seemingly, was really great. There was this beautiful huge giraffe in the lobby, it was pretty newly remodeled, with African décor, a delicious restaurant, and, the most important part in all of the boys’ minds—the casino.  We checked in and decided we would head for some shopping.. half of our group went to a flea market while jose Melinda trev and I decided we would head over to a shopping mall (once again, in the middle of nowhere, but surprisingly really nice). The mall was called Accra mall and we had a great time shopping around in their shops. Melinda and I got some adorable giraffe earings, while trev and jose found some soccer jerseys (of course). We’ve come to find that grocery shopping in all of these different countries is one of the most fun things to do—they have such different things and its so interesting.. It was also fun to go through their version of target! As we were walking we all kind of realized our plans to ‘go out on the town’ that night wouldn’t exactly work out—mainly because there wasn’t really anywhere to go! So we decided we would have all of our friends over to our hotel for an awesome night of casino-ing! We went into a wine shop and got some African bottles of wine for the night, and then went into the grocery store and stocked up on all sorts of Ghanaian snacks, fruits, crackers, chips, cookies, et cetera. While the boys watched ghana’s national soccer team on TV, Melinda and I had fun setting up for our cocktail party and soon enough like 10 of our friends show up at our hotel, we watched soccer and hung out and then got some dinner at the restaurant and then headed to the casino for the rest of the night. It was so funny to see the Ghanaian high roller locals eyeing these alien American boys, who, for the most part ended up all losing their money (except for graham who won 120$!!!) It was a great night.. granted, not the first night in Ghana we expected haha but a great night nonetheless.

The next morning we all got up and got some delicious breakfast and rented a van for the day to take us all the way to the rainforest, where we planned on (AHH) walking on these rope bridges high above the tops of the trees!!! The rainforest was about three hours away (like we said, everything is very far away from eachother in Ghana) but it was well worth it. We arrived in the Kukum National Rainforest in perfect time to make the 2pm tour of the canopies (those scary rope bridges) so we headed up! It was soooo hot there and we were sweating like crazy, especially because we were hiking up these huge hills to get to the top of the bridge.. then we climbed up the little entrance to the bridge and I seriously thought I would have to walk all the way back down—it was VERY HIGH UP THERE! Literally we were above ALL of the trees… it was crazy, but we climbed across the SEVEN bridges through the rainforest and it was very fun.   We were told there were many animals who live in that rainforest, such as elephants, lots of monkeys, and even black mambas (one of the most dangerous hugest snakes ever) but we didn’t see any—but then again how many elephants do you expect to see when youre way above the trees!

Day 2 as continued by Trevor-- After the canopy walk, we told our driver Kofi that since we were on the Cape Coast maybe we could go and visit the slave dungeons on the Cape Castle. Unfortunately, the castle was closed off so we couldn’t see the slave quarters but the castle was really cool, big and white. This is where the slaves were brought from all throughout Africa when they were captured. The traders would then load them onto the ship and send them off to Salvador, strategically our next port. The triangular trade of slaves was centered in Ghana and has a terrible history ridden with slavery and oppression. As soon as we got out of the van, a huge group of children and people crowded us like celebrities. There were children all around with huge bowls balanced on their head selling fruit and water bags. There was a large bar and restaurant next to the castle right on the beach. There was a huge drum circle and dancing circle of all the locals. We played with the kids and Christina danced with them, using the dances we learned in Global studies from the interport student. The dance is called the kangaroo, which is what the Ghanaians do after they score in soccer, so the kids loved it when we did it. We took turns balancing their bowls on our heads, which is so hard to do and they do it with ease. Christina almost dropped it a couple times and the kids would go scream when she would get off balance and then laugh. One of the kids had a little ball so we played around with him. One of the older guys was named Lucky and he wanted Christina to marry him, so that was interesting but once he realized that I was her boyfriend he got the clue and started talking to me about life and what not. We got some little trinkets and bracelets from them and then we had to head out because it was 5 and it was a three hour drive back to Accra. We headed back for a long while through the roads of Ghana, avoiding potholes and everything got so dark around us, seeing as most of Ghana does not have electricity. People are walking on the highways all night long, and at random times along the road there are huge centers of markets with hundreds of people and hills are randomly on fire all the time but I’m not sure why. We got back really late that night, and decided to take it easy and relax.

Day 3- The next day we had no plans so we head out on the gangway and got off ready to explore Accra. While waiting for the shuttle to the city center we hung out with the Port Authority security guard who called himself Rambo. He was a 6’4 huge guy who was so funny, we talked about Ghana, where to go, what it’s like, how the people are, and the education of Ghana. He told us that unlike popular thought, people from Africa do not have tails and that they do not live in trees. The shuttle came in and we took it to the city where we walked around and shopped for soccer jerseys from Ghana national team. Ghana is going to be pretty good in the world cup this year, their under 18 team just beat Brazil in the under 18 world cup, so if they don’t do well this year, they are definitely on the rise. We grabbed a taxi to one of the main markets of the city and it was huge! We have seen so many markets on our trip, but this one was by far the biggest, everyone in Ghana is a vendor of some sort. The market spanned a square of 4 by 4 blocks, both outside and inside with the cement buildings having 4 levels. They sold everything from food, to shoes and clothes, beads, and dishware. Christina got a bunch of shoes, and a traditional Ghanaian head dress made out of their famous kente cloth, which is a bright fabric made in Africa since the start of man. We encountered so many nice people, we talked to anyone and everyone, Ghanaians are some of the nicest people we have ever met. They loved to hear about where we were from and just excited that we were in their country. Coming up on one of the food stands was a platform of huge snails. These things were the size of volleyballs with huge shells and they were all alive just crawling around. Ghana has a delicacy of large snails, and they cook them in garlic, and everyone loves them except one of the tribes. We unfortunately didn’t get to try them, there are practically no restaurants in Ghana. The ladies would hoop and holler in excitement when we told them that we are boyfriend and girlfriend. And they also asked us if we were Christian. Sidenote: Africa is the most Christian continent on Earth right now, they are the most devout Christians. The Vatican recognizes Africa as the most prominent Christian leaders of the future, and indeed we might see a black pope in the future. They are mostly Pentacostal which is the one that Americans all think is funny with the charismatic leader and healing and letting the devil out of people then they faint kind of theatrics. But they range from all different types of Christians and churches are everywhere, but they are usually a plain dilapidated cement building, nothing fancy but sure enough everyone comes on Sunday. When we were done with the market we were walking along when we started to talk to a lady who had lived in Georgia for a year. She was happy to see Americans and told us stories from when she lived there, she was leaving the market and we followed just talking. Upon her departure she found two guys who would take us to something she wanted us to see. We were introduced to two Ghanaians named Will and Peter with a handshake and a snap. They were from the North and had the signature scars under their eyes as it is customary practice for men entering adulthood. They asked us if we wanted to play drums and of course we eagerly accepted. Leading us down to the beach there were a row of shops where drums were being made by the locals and all of the guys came up and were so happy to see us greeting us with the handshake. Will and Peter gave us a drum each, big drums with a hide membrane, and wood carvings on each side. He taught us to slap the side of the top with our hands relaxed and the middles of our fingers making contact. Also we did a big hit in the middle of the membrane with the palm as the bass beat. He taught us an easy beat with two hits alternating hands on the edge, then a big bass hit in the middle. After we got the hang of it, he gradually would mix it up, alternating hits and length of each sequence. Will was teaching me, while Peter was teaching Christina a different beat. Once we got good, we started off and the beats interlocked, and Will and Peter got out their own drums and started doing more complicated beats that sounded so good with our back beat. It was really cool to be part of this musical group of Ghanaian drums, and I enjoyed it, sweating profusely in their shed in the middle of the Ghana sun while flailing my hands and smacking the song of my experience. Before they could even start with their sale pitch, I said “how much to buy one?” They were so excited and started showing me different varieties, talking drums, the normal types that I was playing, and really deep sounding ones. Due to the fact I had to take this drum on the ship and all the way home, I had to stop their frantic showing me of huge drums and ask for a really small one. I got one of the small ones with a tough membrane with a higher sound, interwoven ropes on the side and a black nice wood finish. Christina got a small one with a really bright kente cloth covering the circumference on the membrane. When I was about to pay for the drums, Will was like “wait, would you like it engraved?” and of course I wanted that. He took it down to the guy who carves the drums and I wrote down my name and had it carved on to the side. He also carved on the side a large fern symbol which means “afraid of nothing” which I thought was pretty cool to have on my drum from Africa. Christina got one with “impossible is nothing” and her name as well. Satisfied with our awesome purchase and musical experience we said bye to our friends Will and Peter and walked further down the beach.

We heard some drums down the beach and found another little shed with a bunch of guys with drums calling us over. We at first started to tell them that we had already bought drums assuming that they were selling, but all they wanted to do was talk to us. The main guys name was Daniel and he was happy to see us because he went to the Berklee College of Music (in Boston) on a program and loves Americans. We went inside and he had banners of Berklee and pictures of his performances, it was so cool that we randomly found this guy in Ghana. He didn’t want to sell us anything or hassle but had us sit down in his shop. He went in the back and down the way and got about 5 of his friends, and told us that he had been teaching them how to play. They were going to perform next month, when a group of students from Berklee comes into Ghana for their study abroad drumming sequence. It was awesome, the main guy Daniel had a worn down drum, one guy sat on top of a cube drum and hit it with a stick, one guy had two with one bass and one normal, and there was one more guy who kept a simple beat. It was so cool to see this legitimate West African drumming ensemble before us, and locals walking down the way stopped by and started nodding their heads. There was one old guy, who came and started singing in their language some tribal sounding song while they continued drumming, and they kind of made a space for his voice with their beat and then he continued on his way. They were smiling big smiles just slapping away at the music, Daniel was extremely skilled and with his laidback Rastafarian-look made it seem like we were in a movie. I was so happy, these events and times are so rare, with random, great individuals performing and it was truly rewarding to the audience…Christina and I.

Day Four: Torgorme Village Experience

So it was our last day in Ghana and we were so excited because we were on our way to the Torgorme Village! We were on the S.A.S sponsored trip and four of my best friends from the ship were on it with us (see picture—from the left: Toree, Becca, me, Sally, Cara) and we all sat together on the long (and rough) bus ride out to the village.  We finally arrived at the Torgorme Village and there were about a hundred of smiling villagers just waiting to greet us. I immediately started playing with some of the kids, but we were being wrangled over to a big circle where they would perform some ceremonial welcome ceremonies for us.  One of the most exciting things was that we each got to shake hands with the chief of the tribe, who was holding a large staff that denoted his chief status, as well as the elders of the tribe who were likewise decadently dressed and esteemed.  The village did a bunch of amazing African dances (think awesome paints all over them and crazy dance moves that we westerners could never master!) and drumming was a staple to the whole ceremony of course! Then the naming ritual began. One by one, we each were called and given a hand-picked African name. The first part of an African name in this tribe is based on the day that you were born, for example, if you were born on a Saturday your name would be Kofi (for a boy) and then the second part of your name is given to you as a typical African name. So, Trevor was named Kwabla Agbe, meaning he was born on a Tuesday and “Agbe” means life!  I was named Akos Nunana meaning “gift” and Monday!  We referred to eachother as agbe and nunana for the rest of the day!  During our personal ceremony, where they brought each of us one by one up to the front of everyone, they also presented us with a handmade beautiful beaded bracelet and a personalized ceramic pot—which had our new African names painted on them!  After the naming ceremony, they played us some African music on their instruments and we all danced along, the girls and I had a group of kids crowding around us and we were dancing with them… but then I realized that they were more just following along with every movement that we did.. so of course I had to teach them an American dance… I started doing the Macarena and told everyone to join in—I was super impressed because all of these African children (who had no idea what the heck one moca- two moca- three mocarena meant!!) were following exactly.. and everytime I would clap, jump up and do the HI-I they would get so excited and that was their favorite part of the dance.. They were so awesome and we tried to do some of their african dances as well (they all are such good dancers) I ended up giving this one girl (see picture) a san Francisco 49ers shirt and tried to explain to her that that was where I was from.. she was soooo happy to have the shirt (which fit her like a dress but nonetheless was soo cute) and she went and showed off to her mother and all of their friends.. It was a great feeling, especially because she was a very quiet girl who really liked to dance and who sally and I kept looking at because she’d be dancing along with the drum beats during the ceremony while no one was watching her—sooo cute.  After that, a bunch of kids took us around their village and two young girls grabbed me by both arms and showed me around…  The houses were basically huts and there was a water well and a place where the mothers made beautiful clay pottery.  The huts were small and the ground was dirty of course (it was all outside) but the villagers were so proud of their little tribe, they are all so happy. I liked coming to this village a lot because it wasn’t like we were there on a service visit or we were visiting misfortunate people- we were just seeing their life, they aren’t misfortunate at all- they just live a completely different way than we do, and I loved being able to see it and experience their life- even if only for a day.  All of the village kids wanted us to take their pictures and they LOVED looking at the pictures that we would take.. so of course we took tons and a lot of videos… I had them all saying things in English in the videos like “wasssupp” and “Christina! Christina!” it was so much fun and they loved watching the videos on my camera.  Few of them spoke English, but its amazing how much fun you can have just by laughing and communicating without words.. kids are kids everywhere, after all.  We played around for a while before having to say our goodbyes and head back to the bus.

On our way back to the ship the driver took us offroading on what seemed like an impromptu safari—we watched as these beautiful elk-like animals pranced along the beautiful African plains and I couldn’t believe I was in the plains of Africa—it felt very lion king-esque .. then we saw some huge baboons and strayed far away from them (remember from cape town—those baboons are naughty!) then the driver took us to a little mountain where we followed him to these nondescript caves.. we climbed up all these rocks and there were tons of vines that Trevor swore he could swing from but I convinced him out of it (helloooo it could have easily been a snake disguised as a vine!)  we made our way up and up and finally got to where we were going—bat caves!  We had to squeeze through these huge rocks and make our way to the bat cave but we did (yes—even me!) and it was SO SCARY.. there were MILLIONS! Disgusting.. but cool at the same time—Trevor (batman) was in his element—he liked it a lot.

That was about the end of our day, getting back to the ship right on time and grabbing dinner with all our friends discussing the Ghanaian adventures we had all had!

Miss you all, keep checking the blog because we cannot WAIT to tell you all about brazil!!!!

Xoxo,

Akos Nunana and Kwabla Agbe