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!