Favala Party and then I rocked out with JC on a Rock

We went to se JESUS! He's doing great by the way. He lives on a really tall rock at the top of a hill in Rio de Janerio.

But before we went to see Jesus, we went to a favala party. Whats a favala party you might ask? Well first you need to know what a favala is. A favala is a poor community in brazil. They usually live in one story houses and can't afford proper housing. They just patch together any materials they can find, and hope the weather doesnt get them. There are tons of Favalas all over Brazil, since most of the population is poor. Usually the favalas are on the hills, and they just keep climbing up and up as far as they can afford to go. The government owns the land, and doesnt stop the people from building because they have no where else to go. Its really sad to see them driving through the city.

They also get a really bad reputation. They are where poor people live, yes. But also, they are often run by drug gangs. If there is fighting of the gangs, sometimes stray bullets fly and people die because their houses are made of little pieces of wood and bullets just fly everywhere.

However, usually they arent that bad. Tourists are told never to go into a favala, and I can see why. People are poor and desperate, so of course there is a chance they might get robbed. But, you might also get robbed at the beach, so its really no big deal. There are some tours that go into the favala, and they are safe, and show you what life is like in a favala. I didnt go on a tour, but mariannik did and I'll wait to see how she makes out. (I decided to go to the beach that day)

Buttt, we did do something in a favala. We went to a party! Well not so much a party as it was a giant dance warehouse filled with techno music. It was nuts! We went with a tour group and stayed till 4 in the morning. I was sooo tired by that point, and I wasnt feeling so well (this whole carsick thing) so I didn't drink either. It was a great experience tho! We had a huge group of foreigners with us, and we had VIP access to the top floor overlooking the crowds.

We had great people with us, and I made some great Brit friends, and Isralie friends. I really like Isralies, they guys really looked out for the girls at the 'party' and made sure no brazillian dudes got unwantedly too close. Brazillian guys are very touchy, and wisper stuff in your ear as you walk by...(I had no idea what they were staying, but usually it gave me the creeps) One guy even went so far as to pull my hair to get my attention. All I know is if that happened in canada I think I would turn around and slap the guy. But I was well protected with my group of big strong foreign men.

So we had an awsum time! But at 4am I was more than happy to leave. The next morning I woke up at 8.30 and realised it was sunny... sooooo....

We went to visit JC! (Jesus Christ) He's often hidden behind clouds cause in brazil, theres not just one layer of clouds, but like 30. They're everywhere! We got out of bed, got ready and took a bus to the train that goes up the hill to Jesus. The train was nice, and didnt take that long to get up there. Once on top there was a ton of clouds, and I was so sad!!! I wanted some good pics with jesus! But for about 15 mins the clouds cleared and we got some shots. Of course they are on my camera where the battery is dead, so I'll post them later. But I still love Jesus!!

The End

Paraty and Rio De Janerio

Paraty is a small little town, mostly touristy, and old as the hills. In the 1700s the Portuguese came to get gold from the hills near by. They came over in ships, and started building churches and houses to show off their riches, and then they would bring the gold back to Portugal. They had slaves that they used to build their streets and houses. The best part is, when they came over they had rocks in the bottom of their ship for ballast. They would trade these rocks for gold, and the rocks were then used to create the streets.

Trading rocks for gold... sweet!

Anyhow, the streets are made of these huge rocks, and they are so hard to walk over that you cant enjoy the really nice architecture while you walk, because you are always looking down trying not to fall.

But the architecture is really nice! As was the boat tour that we took around to some beaches. They fed us some fish, and let us jump off the boat. We got a snorkel and went to see some Brazilian fishies... They mostly just looked like normal fishies that I've seen in Thailand, but still, great stuff!

The next day we met some Brits and went to a beach named Trinadade. It was great, warm, and I loved it. We had another sunny day, while back in Paraty it rained, so we def made the right choice.

The last day we had breakfast and went on a bus to Rio. We got to the bus station and took a cab to our hotel where we met one of the guys who worked there (insert name there) and he said I was grumpy. Yeah... I was sorta grumpy, as I usually am. (ask my family). But I have also been getting really carsick on the bus lately, which is horrible! So I felt sick for a while. In fact any day that I have to ride in a bus. Music helps, so does gravol. (thankgod mariannik is prepared)

Our hostel is weird. Everyone smokes, the breakfast consists of bread. There is no common areas, but there is two free computers to use! And its right next to the Copacabana. Woo woo!

Today we went to a soccer game. It was great. I will post pics. Our team (the flamingos) won. Apparently there are more Flamingo fans than Canadians. But for now I should go. The guy who works at the hostel (insert name here) is cooking us dinner, and I fully plan on eating it!

Paulista, Paulista, Paulista Jundiai

After our sad goodbyes from Gaurujã we decided to head up to a little place called Jundiai. It was north of Saõ Paulo by less than an hour. Thats where our friend Peter lives. He's also teaching english with another fellow by the name of Peter from England. We all met up that night to go see a soccer game... and got our first taste of Brazillian hail. Strange eh! Who knew they would have hail. Anyhow, the boys went nuts. England Peter lead the charge, and we met up with a crew of Paulista lovers. They were rooting for the Sao Paulo team, decked out with clothes and spirit to match. Before the game we bought some drinks at their sorta clubhouse, and then walked up to the stadium with them. They played drums, did chants, and moshed in the stands the entire game and didnt give up! Not even to watch the game.

Heres a video of the game, and all its glory!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmuy8EWh6bA&NR=1

After our little visit with the Peters, we headed out to an island named Ilhabella. It was a beautiful island, and had some nice beaches.

The first day we went to some waterfalls in the jungle. The price included bug repellent, and boy did we need it. There were TONS of bugs, but thankfully I didn't get bitten too badly. Poor Mariannik. She forgot to put bug spray on her butt, and after the 20 minutes in the jungle, she looked like she had developed a nasty STD.

The waterfalls were a blast, and you could slide down some of the rocks into the pools below. Were were some of the only people there, and I lost my bathing suit bottoms only once, and no one was the wiser. Overall, I would recommend a day at the waterfalls.

One of our first sunny days at the beach in brazil, and I wasnt about to waste it. I decided that since I've been in brazil for a month, and still I had no sigh of a tan, that I would get a litte burned to help the process out.....

Bad Idea.

Everyone always seems to forget how unbearably painful burns are, and how miserable you feel after. Well I certainly got burned, but its ok. I survived. The day at the beach was really nice tho. We ended up meeting a couple from Road Island who were there on vacation. They were really friendly and had a 6 year old daughter who was hilarious. We laied on the beach all day, and swam in the blue green water.

So that was my past few days. We are going to a place called Paraty next, and then a place called Rio De Janerio. Hmm... this adventure is shaping up nicely I'd say!!

Miss you guys!

Backpacking Adventure Begins

So there's been some big news. Lots. Mariannik and I both left Guaruja and our Jobs as well. We discussed it with our Boss and realised that financially we wouldnt be able to stay for the entire semester. That was worse than staying for a few months and leaving, since we would have developed relationships with our students, and then abandon them half way through.

So! For now I think we are going to backpack around before heading home to canada. I am really excited to see some more of Brazil.

I really don't have all that much to write on here, because I've been talking about it nonstop for the past few days, and its getting to be quite tiresome. The decision has been made, and I will forever be grateful and love and miss everyone that I have met in Guaruja. They are amazing people, and I can't thank them enough!! If you want to meet the kindest, most supportive people in the world, go to Guaruja!

Going to the Country, Gunna eat a lot of Mangoes

The Farm, chicken, coffee, beans, rice, mangos, caju

Me roasting coffee on a fire.

So I was going to write a big post about the farm, maybe I still will, but there is some bigger stuff to write about now, so I'm just going to post these pics for you to all look at, and get on to better things!

Carnival 2008

Carnival - I've seen it, I think I can come home now!

So it was carnival weekend in Brazil, and guess what we did? Mostly sit around watching tv... haha. I mean, we went to carnival!! Mariannik, Peter and myself planned on going to Sao Paulo for Carnival. It was great! I was so happy to get out of boring old Guaruja. Nothing happens here, and theres nobody our age to hang out with!

We left friday morning on the bus to Sao Pàulo and met up with Peter at the hotel. It was so great to see him again, and I was really happy to have him on the adventures with us. We decided that we should go try to find tickets for the nights events. Carnival is usually this parade thing, but in Sao Paulo its held in a place called the Sombadrome. We didn~t have tickets to go, so we decided to see if the ticket booths had any left, or maybe we could get some from some scalpers. We went to the statium, and the scene was scary. There were tons of scalpers, and the lonely planet book was right... you don't need to find them, cause they'll find you!

After being harassed by a few of them, with sketchy tickets, we decided to leave. It was probably a good thing, seeing as there was two men agruing across the street, and one seemed to have a gun. We got out of there.

We decided to grab dinner at a little resturant with an outside padio. One of the other customers sitting at a table next to us brought over a note to Mariannik. It was a love note, with his phone number on it. Eventually we got to talking to one of the guys. He spoke english well enough, and we asked if there was anything going on that night or if he knew where we could get tickets. He kindly advised us to go on to a website named http://www.google.com/ and type in "Sao Paulo Carnival".... Boy was he smart! After not taking his advice and trying to get out of there to find our own tickets, we decided to head back to the Sambadrome to try our luck. We found a scalper, and he was a pretty decent guy. He got us tickets in A section, and even walked us (the mile long distance) to the gate to be sure that we made it in ok. We ended up paying 100 reals for a 50 real ticket, but in canadian funds that was like paying 60 dollars for a 30 dollar ticket. Not too bad, and it was last minute.

We got in ok, and the place was bumpin. There is a long street with stands lining the sides, and each Samba School has a dance and a song they play over and over again until everyone in their group (say 1000 or so) is finished walking down the road. The have different groups of costumes and usually are lead by a huge float with people dancing on top. Its really sketchy to watch everyone dancing on them, because the entire float shakes with the footsteps of the people, so there always seems to be a chance that someone might fall to their death. This in my opinion, makes the show even that much better!

Its really neat, they wear different costumes, and the songs are catchy. The crowd dances and sings, and drinks beer. This lasts till about 4 in the morning, but we didn't stay that long.

We did however make some friends. The first was a group of three people who were in the parade, but now hanging out in the stands to watch the rest of the show. They were from Rio and had come uThey had their full costumes and let us try them on! How cool do we look!

The second friend was the Global TV reporter, so did an interview with us on TV!! Our coworkers saw it and everything. We are going to try to find the link to see it. Here's a pic of me and the reporter.. I am WAY too happy, as you can tell!

After a few hours, we were exhausted. We had been walking all day long, and our legs were killing us. We went back to the hotel and slept.. a lot. The next day we walked around the city, found a book store, and went to the area that the lonely planet book said was a bad place to go.

** Ok, since I keep getting terrified msgs from friends and family members, I would like to clarify that the lonely planet book said that the bad place to go was a neighbour hood next to where we were, and said that it was dangerous at night time... we were in the middle of the day with lots of people shopping and walking around, it wasn't bad... however***

I was scared, (without good reason to be) but the second we walked out of the subway, some boy with no shoes hasseled Peter for money, I was set that I wanted out of that place. It was actually really beautiful. There were parks, and nice archetecture, and I think I might have really enjoyed it if it weren't for the stupid lonely planet book killing my courage.

Horses - they always know when you have carrots..

I would like to start off this entry with all the horse sayings I know. Let's begin.

Hungry as a horse.
You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
Hung like a horse.
Straight from the horse’s mouth.

All of these sayings have occurred to me in the last three days, out of pure reality! At my bosses ranch, he had 4 horses. Two males and two females. The females each had their own babies as well. I was more than excited to see the horses, especially since I've always wanted to ride horses since the age of... oh I don't know... 5? The most scary and best part was when my bosses brother-in-law saddled them up and we went for a spin! I got the small male horse, who in my opinion, was the best! The female horses were slow, and always had their babies following them. The mothers also likes to kick their babies, and not listen when you told them to turn right, left or go, go faster... if at all!! My horse loved to run... he'd run up the hill without me telling him to! It was great, since I seemed to have a need for speed. I was extremely bored walking along the road, when I could have been galloping! So for the past 4 days I've been horseback riding... and loved it. My ass hurts like you wouldn't believe, and I probably did damage to it, but I don't mind. I was pretty comfortable going riding other then the aftermath of my ass, but I even ended up going alone a few times. My boss had quite a bit of land, and it was nice to go climb some hills on top of a horse. I imagined myself as a cowboy in a western movie, or better yet, Ichabod Craine running through the forest at night with the headless horseman chasing me.

I was sad to leave. I wanted to stay and take care of the horses. I enjoyed brushing them, and just being near them. One of the males hurt his foot, and they had to spray some stuff on it so it could heal. He was so calm and gentle, even with a hurt foot. I know if I had a hurt foot and some guy came up to me trying to spray it with something, I would be far from gentle.. or even nice. I'd kick that sucker with the bottle of spray.